Waiting for Super Principals

David Brooks & Gail Collins

Gail Collins: David, the White House has named this an education week. It's actually been a kind of education year, what with all the controversy over the new documentary "Waiting for Superman," and Obama's big Race to the Top initiative.

The bad thing about the current education hysteria is that too much attention is focusing on more charter schools and getting rid of teachers unions, or at least teacher tenure.
The great thing about the current education hysteria is that it has everybody geared up to do something. The bad thing, as I see it, is that almost all the attention is focusing on A.) more charter schools and B.) getting rid of teachers unions, or at least teacher tenure.

David Brooks: I confess I don't think either charters or teacher unions are the primary issue here. If I had to summarize the progress we've made in education over the last decade, it's that we've move beyond the illusion that we could restructure our way to a good education system and we've finally begun to focus on the core issue: the nature of the relationship between the teacher and the student.

People learn from people they love. Anything that enriches the space between a student and a teacher is good. Anything that makes it more frigid is bad. This doesn't mean we have to get all huggy and mushy. It means rigorous instruction has to flow on threads of trust and affection.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at October 7, 2010 4:03 AM
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