Most teachers are too busy to be culture warriors

A few days ago, I attended my last back-to-school night at our local public middle school. That real-world experience offered a dramatic contrast to the perpetual online brawling today between irate parents, irate teachers and irate politicians over education.

For several years now, I've marveled about how our middle school manages to find teachers who are relatively young, energetic (at least for one night of meeting parents) and seem absolutely thrilled to spend their days attempting to get teenagers grappling with the roller coaster of puberty to absorb some knowledge.

Elementary school kids are adorable and high-schoolers are taking those exciting first steps into adulthood, but a lot of us would prefer to forget that awkward transition of the middle school years. Some of my son’s classmates don’t look all that different from when they left elementary school, while others have hit monstrous growth spurts and look more like college freshmen. And yet somehow, my child’s teachers seem to love teaching kids in this self-conscious, stumbling stage of life.

Please help put parents in charge of their child’s education by forwarding this article to other parents, family, friends and voters.