Teaching is one of the most humanitarian, transformative careers. One good teacher can positively influence thousands of lives over the course of his/her career, but on the same token, one bad teacher can do a lot of damage. In the statewide lawsuit, Vergara v. California, students have banned together to strike down the state laws …

Ben Orlin, at Slate, has published an article about teachers and their words for some students who may have differing abilities (and for good reason, as he notes in his discussion) than school metrics may indicate. I know a teacher—a great one, actually—who, in private, refers to his students as “bricks.” As in, “dumb as …