Education is social justice.

Social justice is code for nazi-socialism-communism.

Therefore, all three are commie socialist nazis.

(NAILED IT! Don’t bother sending the book. Books only confuse things and collect dust.)

Study the lives of high-achieving children, including your own. You will find that they have quality experiences in and out of school. They usually have good health and attendance at school. All children have these needs.

Try to provide ALL children with the advantages of their privileged peers. Yes, poor children sometimes need glasses too.

Remember that the “no excuses” mantra can be translated to mean “Yes, I know the child can’t hear well but he can still learn.” Well, he probably can, but he’ll learn a lot more with a hearing aid.

Protect tax dollars meant for schoolchildren. There is a national movement right now designed to discredit our public schools in an attempt to siphon off tax dollars. Do what you can to keep tax dollars out of greedy pockets.

Encourage all citizens, even retired people like me, to speak out in favor of a quality education for all children. Remind people of the tremendous power of the pen. That is one thing I have discovered since my retirement.

Congratulations on your award.

Our kids have a very different set of expectations and we need all voices in the mix if we are going to make headway. Some are going to be from the classroom, others are going to come from a completely different perspective. We need all of them. We don’t need to agree with all of them, but we need to have as many smart people as we can engage on this massive national challenge.

And for the record, I served 8 eight years in low income schools on both coasts and then spent another 17 years in government and nonprofits so have not made my million yet, but maybe some day.

Paul Herdman

History, get me a rewrite:

Seems odd for people supposedly in favor of education to be so contemptuous of quitting teaching and pursuing advanced degrees.