Here’s a frightening reality: the life chances of your child depend almost entirely on the quality of the teacher in the classroom. Children, as I constantly tell my student teachers, are the dependent variable in the equation of life — what they do and what they become depends largely on the influence of the independent or predictor variable in their school lives. This is true for every child, but especially those from poor and working-class homes where a parent might have a lot of love, but not much formal education to compensate for where the teacher might fail. Dare I say, the impact of the pandemic lockdown on long-term learning outcomes and the concomitant loss of instructional time will demonstrate, more than ever, the difference between smart, agile and effective educators — and the rest of them...