Madison Paine's "The Poisoned Apple" is a spot-on allegory for the problems in our education system today. Paine's "cultivator" heroine, Lefty, takes on orchard administrators, superintendents and managers with their trends and new methods in an effort to rear healthy fruit for the public -- much as teachers are intended to do with students.I think that the public at large would benefit if "The Poisoned Apple" were made mandatory reading for all education majors and parents entering their children into school. Paine's thoughtful expression of concern with the national focus on "teaching to the test" is a rallying cry for a return to actual education that will help our kids out in the real world.
