As A Matter Of Record, New York

By Far The Most Important Factor In The Success Or Failure Of Any School, Far More Important Than Tests Or Standards Or Business-model Methods Of Accountability, Is Simply Attracting The Best-educated, Most Exciting Young People Into Urban Schools And Keeping Them There.

But For The Children Of The Poorest People We're Stripping The Curriculum, Removing The Arts And Music, And Drilling The Children Into Useful Labor. We're Not Valuing A Child For The Time In Which She Actually Is A Child.

Apartheid Does Not Happen Spontaneously, Like Bad Weather Conditions.

Good Teachers Don't Approach A Child Of This Age With Overzealousness Or With Destructive Conscientiousness. They're Not Drill-masters In The Military Or Floor Managers In A Production System. They Are Specialists In Opening Small Packages. They Give The String A Tug But Do It Carefully. They Don't Yet Know What's In The Box. They Don't Know If It's Breakable.

In Public Schooling, Social Policy Has Been Turned Back Almost One Hundred Years.