After years of debate, Congress managed to pass an overhaul of the 2001 No Child Left Behind education act and President Barack Obama signed it into law today. Pundits, advocates, and analysts are furiously debating what the new law means. But to fundamentally understand it you don't have to be an education policy expert. Instead – and trust me this is a lot more fun – just watch the HBO show "Game of Thrones."
In the Thrones story an enormous and for the most part impenetrable wall was put up in the north country and the fortunes of the people on one side of it have been much more favorable than those on the other. As time goes on some of the leaders in the story realize this has less to do with the characteristics of the people themselves – the people on the wrong side of the wall are derisively called "wildlings" – than it does with the different situations on the two sides of the wall. Your path in life is largely determined by what side of the wall you were born on.