I found this passage from a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote to a friend in 1820:

"I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves, and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion."

I believe that, and I work so hard not only to try to keep myself informed, but to inform those around me (whether they want to be informed or not). However, sometimes I get really mad because I think people just don’t have enough backbone to do what’s right. There was a situation at the beginning of the year at school that was just flat out wrong. It involved a child in my class–a placement error–and I informed the principal of it the day before school started. I’m not going to go into details here, but it smacked of the whole "Texas Miracle" thing that of course turned out to be the "Texas Myth". Well, anyway, nobody wanted me to say anything about it, so I of course told everybody about it. I am first and foremost a child advocate. Anything less would be educational malpractice. So, for the first few days of school, I kept pointing it out and pointing it out.  All to no avail, I’m afraid.