we didn't start the fire

I occasionally find myself paging through education blogs (when I should be grading or lesson planning, of course) and one in particular stood out to me today.  Coach Brown writes about the high standards teachers are held to when it comes to education -- often the media seems to point all blame at bad teaching, when there are so many other factors at work. Considering how little support, compensation, and oversight are given to the types of schools we work in, its laughable that teachers should be held accountable when it comes down to the "state" of our national system of education.

My favorite lines: 

....firemen are never blamed for starting the fire, policemen are never blamed for committing the crime, and doctors aren't blamed for people getting fat. Teachers are most certainly a target of blame for the lack of education of children, even though they have no control over a multitude of variables. Teachers still teach, firefighters fight fires, police control crime, and doctors treat patients, but only one of those is actually held accountable at the end of the day to entities that they have no control over; the other factors of a student's life.