Newspapers expound on the downward spiral of public schools, and parents move heaven and Earth, as well as all their worldly possessions, to give children the opportunity to go to the best schools available. Parents fear that a child who is turned down by a selective high school or college will be consigned to mediocrity.

But in the midst of alarmist newspaper articles and fearful parents, I developed some needed perspective today. I came across a fan marked “JACOBS, ROOM 232,” and remembered Edison High School, my first teaching job — a school without air-conditioning. On the second floor, the rooms reached 100 degrees in June and September, and a fan gave us the illusion of relief.