In The Book, I Write About Children

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.

Children Sometimes Understand Things That Most Grown-ups Do Not See.

Unlike These Powerful Grown-ups, Children Have No Ideologies To Reinforce, No Superstructure Of Political Opinion To Promote, No Civic Equanimity Or Image To Defend, No Personal Reputation To Secure.

More Money Is Put Into Prisons Than Into Schools. That, In Itself, Is The Description Of A Nation Bent On Suicide. I Mean, What Is More Precious To Us Than Our Own Children? We Are Going To Build A Lot More Prisons If We Do Not Deal With The Schools And Their Inequalities.

Many Of Us Regard Ourselves As Mildly Liberal Or Centrist Politically, Voice Fairly Pleasant Sentiments About Our Poor Children, Contribute Money To Send Poor Kids To Summer Camp, Feel Benevolent. We're Not Nazis; We're Nice People. We Read Sophisticated Books. We Go To Church. We Go To Synagogue. Meanwhile, We Put Other People's Children Into An Economic And Environmental Death Zone. We Make It Hard For Them To Get Out. We Strip The Place Bare Of Amenities. And We Sit Back And Say To Ourselves, "well, I Hope That They Don't Kill Each Other Off. But If They Do, It's Not My Fault.