According to Bryan Warwick, policy can cause tragedy. A famous example is the tragedy described in Sophocles' play "Antigone." In this play, Creon, the political leader of ancient Thebes, causes tragedy in his quest to educate his people about civic loyalty. The conflict engendered by his educational policy eventually brings death and suffering. While educational policy seldom results in such personal and bloody outcomes, it can clearly cause, or contribute to, heartbreaking results. Since tragedy is something to avoid in formulating policy, it may be useful to look at Sophocles' work. Thinking of "Antigone" as a cautionary tale about policy gives people several things to look out for in education. For example, just as Creon failed to consider the impact of his decree on specific people like Antigone, educational policy is often formed and justified on the basis of abstractions. These abstractions sometimes appear as vast piles of aggregate statistics, which do not tells educators anything about any specific student or any existing school. Abstractions also appear in vast generalizations about public education. In fact, the rhetoric of the dismal failure of "America's schools" has put in motion policy dynamics that have upended public education and continue to do so. The language of educational crisis, mixed with generalized abstractions of American schools, is a potent concoction, animating extreme educational reforms.