For most of the country, today is the first day of school. Relieved parents throughout the land sigh with relief as they send their little demonic seedlings forth to expand their educational horizons, make new friends, catch up with old ones, shoot spitballs at one another when the teacher's not looking, exchange tips on making pipe bombs, and sneak a joint behind the cafeteria.
For their part, school administrators are trying to express interest in the nurturing of young minds, rather than acknowledging the miserable reality that they are nothing more than than faceless cogs in a vast educational bureaucracy and as such, totally powerless to make a difference in a single child's life.
DC schools Superintendent Paul Vance, for example, is starting his day by personally escorting a young child to school. Presumably this is something that was prearranged with the parents. Otherwise, how would YOU feel about a total stranger showing up at your front door eight o'clock in the morning and announcing he's there to take your little six year old Billy to school? And given today's rainy forecast, he's likely to be wearing a trenchcoat....
Hello, 911?

----------Mike Thompson, Detroit Free Press