Steven, I agree with so many points in your piece and in the comments. They are very important points, having been involved in education by getting to know teachers by working in an educational software company, docenting in classrooms, and representing through grant-writing the situations and needs of at-risk kids. I only have a few tangential thoughts to add.

1) "Our Inner Ape" (highly recommended) by primatologist Frans deWaal suggests we are more bound to maximizing our social stature than anything else. It's in our genes, worth keeping in mind to understand and work with both adults and children. I was bullied in school too. I rarely think back on it, but it changed the trajectory of how I see myself in the world of people.

2) From being a parent, my aphorism is "children are adults, and adults are children," meaning we have to handle every person as both adult and child, because the needs of both are in everyone. It meant explaining my parenting decisions to my kids. It sounds silly, and they probably didn't enjoy it, but I think it had something to do with their now being competent, successful adults. In other words, if we aren't fully respecting our kids, we're shortchanging them.