Thompson: Obama Shows The Way

The goal of President Obama's State of the Union address was to produce headlines like the one on Yahoo's search engine which declared "Tone of Speeches Spotlights Divide."  The President's words did not need to hit a home run. As President Obama maintains a steady and dignified course, the Right is likely to melt down. The President did not backtrack on his flawed "reform" agenda, but neither did he further inflame the educational civil war within his own party.  Traditional reformers should take a page from the President, and let the obvious differences between teachers and the Rhee/Bush/Christie/Klein/Tea Party school of "reform" make our case for us. If we keep our eyes on the prize of incremental improvement in schools, the tantrums thrown by the accountability hawks will discredit them.- JT (@drjohnthompson)