An outtake from my life after a presentation by one Dr. Schulte - a member of the Missouri Board of Education - in which he speculated quite frankly on the desire of business interests to discredit public education to open the door for private enterprise – it is quite possible that No Child Left Behind intentionally sets impossible standards in order to create public support for charter schools.

I have been thinking about Dr. Schulte's presentation all week and it has been the subject of several conversations, both within and outside of this program. I was stuck, as I am sure we all were, by his intelligence and his humor. While we strive through our classes to become expert teachers were are aware of, but try not to focus on, the degree to which schools are political entities. We know that we will need to be political within our departments and within the larger institutions. We are aware of the frequent strikes in local districts and of the encroachment of big business on the federal funds that finance public institutions. Our focus on fundamentals seems to assume that these monsters outside the gates will need to be faced with whatever skills we developed elsewhere. Where can one gain an accurate view of the political landscape into which we are graduating? It seems that we must weather these storms once at sea and that if we are to survive the high burnout statistics it is advisable that we cultivate a sense of humor and an appreciation of the ironic. It also seems that as well trained English scholars we should always be reading for subtext.