Take the pledge

Unfortunately, the worst aspects of the madness at the state and city levels is picked up and magnified, far too often, at the local — school and department — levels. The lack of integrity is so blatant, the hypocrisy so obvious, that one is left speechless. The difficulties that teachers and students face and yet somehow manage to overcome, in many cases (sadly, far from all) are so onerous that one wonders that teaching and learning can even go on. It is a miracle — but even miracles of this sort have their limits, as the miracle workers are not divine — only extremely hard-working and/or ingenious mortals.