I was at a talk yesterday given by the former Majesty's Chief Inspector. In England, the Chief Inspector evaluates all the schools. His talk was about education reforms in England, their tenuous step forward followed by three steps back. It was very interesting to listen to him because he came from a very conservative viewpoint. It's all politics though. I could tell that he wanted what was best for the children, he wanted to help them learn as much as possible. I couldn't help feeling, though, that in his subtone was the idea that teachers prevented this from happening. Which is completely anti-intuitive. Of course he didn't come out and say that. But he suggested that the teacher opposition to vouchers and national testing was entirely self-interested. As far as I'm concerned, education of our children is the number one priority for teachers. Not only is it their job, but how devoted are our teachers to be so often underappreciated, and grossly underpaid? Teaching and children must be a life's passion because what else could keep them? And what do the politicians have personally invested in education, save for an intellectual and abstract interest, or promises to their constituents? I just think it is easy for them to theorize and be self-righteous in their assertions when they aren't personally in the classroom day after day, involved with the students and seeing how they learn. When the politicians aren't the ones who are spending their own money (who knows where it's coming from in such a pitiful salary) to buy school supplies. How then are teachers opposing the education of their students?