And therein lies the power of words.
Political charges against the failure of schools and teachers mask the failure of the accusers. Political calls for accountability of those schools and teachers distract us from holding the politicians themselves accountable.
Politics of the worst kind is an act of distraction and slight of hand known to pickpockets and thieves. As Gardner reveals to us, politicians are effective by being simplistic, by speaking to the assumptions that mindlessly drive us.
The most damning irony of all is that we remain in a cycle of politics that uses education as a scapegoat to distract us from the rules of the game that keep the winners winning and the losers preoccupied. When fueled by the "slovenliness of our language [that] makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts," neither politics nor education can achieve their highest goals of social change for the empowerment of free people.
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