• Progress: Learning and Growth beneficial to the well-being of both the individual and all of Humanity.
• True Leader: One who works (with at least some success) to direct one or more individuals' energies toward progress.
• Majority: Characterized by comfort-seeking apathy, the majority of us are (in many cases, willingly) held hostage by one or more disruptors.
• Hostage: In addition to the majority, a true leader whose energies are redirected from progress to crowd control.
• Noisy Disruption: Clamorous, strident fear masquerading as order, convention, and certainty.
• Irrelevant Distraction: Noisy Disruption and/or misdirection and/or the more insidious, more silent efforts to sway, make afraid, and/or confuse with arguments for tradition and whispers of conspiracy.
• Disruptor: One who loudly disrupts and/or quietly distracts. One who is at the upper end of comfortable well-being and/or fear. One who is ADAMANTLY and ACTIVELY against change.

We learn at a very young age how a small number of people (often less than 10%) can redirect energy and stymie progress with noisy disruption and irrelevant distraction. And when there is no accountability and there are no consequences for misbehavior, a true leader is no longer a leader, he or she becomes a hostage along with the majority. On occasion a disruptor acquires a position of leadership; a disruptor is never a true leader. Progress requires change. A disruptor acquires leadership when change is scary, cumbersome or merely inconvenient. It seems a majority of us would prefer convenient ignorance over scary (necessary) progress. And we learn this at a very young age.

As early as kindergarten a disruptor can be identified and should be separated for more individualized attention. Perhaps a separate classroom with a significantly lower student-to-teacher ratio and instead of an open classroom, one with partitioned cubicles. A second open classroom can be nearby and socialization used as a reward for learning and progress.

Regarding any stigma that may be associated with cubicles as classroom, current practice dictates safe seats, learning interventions, administrative discipline, walking laps, shortened or no recess, and a consistent barrage of (often loud) staff and teacher invective and diatribe, so the potential for stigma is already present. I believe possible stigma associated with partitions as crowd control would not only be less but is more than justified by more individualized learning and greater, more efficient progress. Efficiencies can be gained with little or no additional resources by simply moving current staff, (aides, paraprofessionals, and specialists) to fewer classrooms working alongside one or more certified teachers for each grade represented. In addition the classrooms could be fluid moving students back and forth as dictated by behavior and assessed by behavior specialists.

I believe education to be Humanity's best shot at survival and I believe it is too late for this premise to be applied to the apathetic, conveniently ignorant majority of adults in this country. That said, if the wealthy would pay their fair share we could apply the partition plan to adult disruptors by rounding up the most vocal and paying them handsomely to stay out of the way with meaningful busy work; and it could be meaningful as an aid for understanding their fear and anger and disillusionment. Perhaps then we could not only educate the very young but we could do so in a way that encourages active contribution instead of our current state of apathy and discontent.

Perhaps it is not too late.