As a fifth year teacher and cynic/caring fool, I have to agree that my peers really can’t be bothered by paying attention to policy and I can understand. I mean, I am so pressed for time that I don’t always know what I’m going to teach in the afternoon at lunchtime, much less what horse manure is coming out of our Capitol. But for some reason I still try to pay attention meanwhile I feel guilty that I’m not planning, prepping, calling a parent or emailing a support staff member.

Luckily, I was made to read “A Nation at Risk” in an Ed Policy class as a second year Ed student. The impact it has had can’t be overstated. Having not read Richard Rothstein’s comments yet (heck, I’ve gotta prepare my lessons sometime) I have to say he may have missed one other major point of Reagan’s policy: the raison d’etre of our education system is to create skilled employees to best drive the economy.

This assumption has so permeated our thinking that we don’t even recognize the exclusion of citizenship from the equation. How can a democracy function if all we are to be trained for is dutiful employment? Hard to be a thoughtful, critical member of society when all you can do is get to work on time.

Which brings me back to my peers. Although they’ll nod along with me when I bemoan the far reaching impact of No Child Left Behind, ultimately 99% of them aren’t interested in the policy and their duties as citizens to pay attention and engage our government. Instead they keep their focus on the daily classroom needs and keep working hard.

Worker trumps Citizen.

If this is true, I wonder if Reagan and his cronies would feel that by now, our nation is still at risk after all?