You Should Meet The Poor, They're Awfully Nice

It recently came to my attention, via this New York Time article, that most people involved in the "reform" of public schools didn't attend them. This is not the least bit surprising, illustrating as it does the relative lack of social mobility in the United States, but also the implicit suggestion that the people who make the rules (or rather their children) are necessarily those who have to live by them.

A more interesting question might be which of them actually send their progeny to the schools they're busy, "reforming" since even this unexceptionable gentleman appears unwilling to trust his children to a New York City public school that he's not managing personally. I suspect the number is that high, since even in the most elite of New York City public schools, class size are still close (or at times apparently in excess of) the contractual maximum of 34. As an educator, this is perhaps the most essential issue; no matter how smart and motivated students are, if you're teaching 5 classes with 34 students versus 4 classes of 15 students (the typical sizes for private and public schools in New York City), the amount of time you can devote to assisting them respectively will vary enormously. And as any parent, teacher, or child (or lover) would tell you, it's getting attention that matters most.