Over a forty-year period, my career in education expanded the private and public sectors, but mostly public. Hopefully over that period, I grew in my understanding of myself and human nature. While the work I did was intended to improve the lives and opportunities for children, it did not always turn out to be the case.
Energy was often diverted to those interests belonging to adults. I am not referring to parents. The adult interest that I speak of here is the interest of those within the system: administrators, school board members, and government officials. While I might have included teachers, I did not, for these are the hardest and most dedicated individuals of this group.
Someone once said, It is about powerwho has the power, who wants the power, and who gets the power.
This is the distraction and children are not the benefactors.
