Jag menar att det är intressant att jämföra läraryrket med andra professioner. Hur påverkas vi av prestationskrav och utvärderingar? När stöder organisationen verksamheten?

Now look at a professional organization. Unlike the school, there is typically a career structure. In a law firm, for example, associates have the opportunity to work up to partner and then maybe to managing partner. You work like a dog as an associate, hoping to eventually make partner. While the associates are typically paid pretty much the same thing, what you get paid as you move up the ladder is a function of your ability to bring in clients, or your ability to win cases, if you are a trial attorney, or to provide the kind of advice that clients value highly. Those judgments are mainly made by your professional colleagues. When you slack off, you are not just letting the boss down; you are letting your professional colleagues down. Do enough of that and you will get fired. Do a super job, day in and day out, and your colleagues will be happy to see that you are paid more, because they see the results of your work in their paychecks and in the reputation of the firm and its ability to attract high roller clients. You see very few schools like that. The way schools are organized, there are few if any opportunities for teachers to remain in teaching and move up any sort of career ladder. Their professional colleagues don’t depend on them to do their jobs at a high level of competence. Nor do their professional colleagues formally judge their performance. There is almost nothing in the typical school organization that reminds this observer of a true professional work environment.

Författaren betonar stöd och tillit som avgörande framgångsfaktorer. Det är inte svårt att hålla ned.