Education is a series of learning experiences informed by policy
and actuated by teachers. Policy, by its very nature, is
sweeping and ambitious. It is designed to work on various
scales, is well-intentioned, and often difficult to fault on
paper. The teachers aren’t really much different. They are
ambitious, designed to work on various scales, and are
commissioned (quite literally) to enact the policies that govern
the institutions (schools) they work in. The wrinkles arise
however as teachers strive to realize a vision for education
that is, as things are, entirely impossible: For every student
to master every academic standard. No matter the starting
literacy level, emotional intelligence, goals in life, family
history, socioeconomic background, learning and thinking habits,
or academic ambition, the same result is expected of all
students–and increasingly troublesome word stuffed full of
connotation and implication. And perhaps worst of all, this
inclusive scale of proficiency is regarded not as a necessa