It's all hot air.

Someone recently noted that there is something that really makes a difference in education: teachers.

I have an analogy for you:

In education there are 6 factors that have an effect on student achievement. 

These are:

The teacher
The approaches to teaching
The curriculum
The student
The school
The home

If you look at the list and ask yourself "Which factors are the teachers in control of?"

It makes sense to ask teachers to concentrate on the parts they can influence i.e. The teacher and the approaches to teaching. There's no point in a teacher trying to influence the Curriculum, the student, the school or the home.

Here's the analogy:

There are several factors that might be causing climate change:

The Milankovitch cycle

The Sunspot cycle (Solar irradiance changes)

Shutting down of the Gulf Stream (Thermohaline circulation)

Volcanism

Plate tectonics

Carbon Dioxide

So which one can human beings do anything about? Certainly not the first 5. But we can adjust the amount of Carbon Dioxide that we produce. This could be a direct comparison with the amount of talking that we do!

It stands to reason:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.

The courage to change the things I can.

And have wisdom to know the difference.

Let's stop creating hot air.