Recently, I examined the importance of tone in the education reform debate. Here, I turn more directly to the substance of that debate, although I increasingly find it difficult to separate fully substance from tone.
Two binaries have been expressed that serve as clear windows into both that substance and tone: Paul Bruno's claim that the education reform debate is failing because "reformers" and "anti-reformers" are underestimating out-of-school factors ("reformers") and in-school influence ("anti-reformers") and Wendy Kopp's argument that Teacher for America (TFA) represents the "builders" and TFA's detractors are "haters."
Kopp's binary goes further, however, as she asserts the "naysayers have the power."
If tone matters, and I believe it does, let's start by noting that Bruno and Kopp position the so-called "reformers" and "builders" with positive (and misleading) labels while marginalizing "anti-reformers" and "haters/naysayers" with negative and pejorative (and inaccurate) terms.
Next, I have offered that the education reform debate is best characterized as a struggle