Except for Timothy Hodges and James Harter's restrained research summary, the feature articles in this issue are evangelical in their praise of strengths-based education. It is, they assure us, a major innovation. English teacher Alexis Onishi writes that StrengthsQuest, a specific strengths-based approach, will have "a lifelong impact on how [students] see themselves, others, and life in general." Principal Kathryn Norwood similarly describes the related Clifton StrengthsFinder as something of a pedagogical Rosetta Stone. Hopefully, these claims are accurate. Even if they are, however, the environment into which strengths-based education will be introduced may be largely unsupportive. The present status quo conveys benefits to certain people who are unlikely to volunteer to give up these paybacks just to get kids to learn better.