A few things:

• The Atlantic’s John Tierney joins in the chorus of the annoyed in this essay about the Atlanta / Washington DC cheating scandals and its ramifications for education reform. [The Atlantic]
• Michael Doyle makes a clear argument for the village raising the child. [BHS Doyle]
• Florida’s investigating K-12 Inc. Hate to use the word evil about any person or group, but … [EdWeek]
• For those in NYC, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor will be speaking at the ELL Parent Conference. [NYC Schools]

Quote of the Week:

A current of love rushed from his heart, and the boy began to pray. It was a prayer that he had never said before, because it was a prayer without words or pleas. His prayer didn’t give thanks for his sheep having found new pastures; it didn’t ask that the boy be able to sell more crystal; and it didn’t beseech that the woman he had met continue to await his return. In the silence, the boy understood that the desert, the wind, and the sun were also trying to understand the signs written by the hand, and were seeking to follow their paths, and to understand what had been written on a single emerald. He saw that omens were scattered throughout the earth and in space, and that there was no reason or significance attached to their appearance; he could see that not the deserts, nor the winds, nor the sun, nor people knew why they had been created. But that the hand had a reason for all of this, and that only the hand could perform miracles, or transform the sea into a desert … or a man into the wind. Because only the hand understood that it was a larger design that had moved the universe to the point at which six days of creation had evolved into a Master Work.

The boy reached through to the Soul of the World, and saw that it was a part of the Soul of God. And he saw that the Soul of God was his own soul. And that he, a boy, could perform miracles.

– Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

*** title credit to Sabrina Stevens ***