In an op-ed in the Washington Post (9/28), Patrick Welsh, who recently retired after 43 years teaching English at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia, writes about the frustrations teachers feel about “the politics of education reform,” which results in a constant stream of new reform policies that are often jettisoned soon after being adopted. During his career, Welsh writes, he “saw countless reforms come and go; some even returned years later disguised in new education lingo.” He laments that none of the policies he witnessed “make students care about what they’re studying and understand how it’s relevant to their lives.”