Things educators could say but don’t

[Igel]

2. He's wrong about one thing. (At least.)

"I suspect that a person who is not deluded into believing that every child can be educated could not tolerate being a teacher for very long."

I know lots of teachers with no such delusions. They know that many of their students will learn little.

But they also know they can't tell which of those students will learn well. Granted, by the time you're a junior or senior in high school the odds of changing categories are long; nonetheless, it still happens, that kid who goofed off for 11 years and then discovers that while he hated the arithmetic disguised as Algebra I he got into college algebra by accident and hit that teacher that made him love math.

They also know that they're teaching at least some kids that want to be taught and others that can be taught.

The problem is the administrators who know this but have to act as though they believe that they don't. Then when things go bad because demographics change they have only one viable option to keep their butts covered: Blame the teacher.