Our success as law teachers depends heavily on the level of preparation our students have achieved before arriving in our classrooms. So it’s worth our while to learn from acknowledged national leaders in public education about what’s happening in schools across the country. Randi Weingarten, longtime head of the  American Federation of Teachers, offers us Why Fascists Fear Teachers, in which she calls out the motivating force for recent attacks on public education: politicians fear teachers because they teach young people how to think for themselves.  And as we know, it’s the ability to think critically  that is the ultimate defense against propaganda and concomitant efforts to undermine democracy in favor of a society run by and for the privileged few.