New York Commissioner John King thought it would be a good idea to hold a series of town halls with parent groups around the state.
No doubt he expected to be showered with praise for his leadership in quickly implementing the Common Core.
He was in for a big surprise. He was met with outrage by parents who do not like the Common Core, hate the testing, and despise the State Education Department for imposing it on their children and teachers.
The parents booed and jeered. They ridiculed everything the commissioner said.
Anthony Cody has some of the video here; parents have sent me many more. They all show the same spectacle: the state commissioner as the object of angry parents.
Commissioner King has canceled all future public meetings with parent associations.
Did he learn anything? Will he reconsider the course that the state has embarked upon?
Don’t count on it.
The authoritarian mindset is impervious to change.
Lesson: in a democratic society, there are no shortcuts to the democratic process. This is supposed to be a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” Bill Gates and Arne Duncan do not own our minds or our children. They are not for sale. The public will be heard.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
There are many PTA members who are upset about PTA’s support of common core. A facebook group started last week for PTA members against CC. We are networking and advocating for our children. If PTA doesn’t change its tune, these PTA groups will switch from PTA to PTO groups to better advocate for our children. Please, join and share our group on facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/PTAmembersagainstcommoncore
First question to ask: How many millions did Gates Foundation give to PTA–state and/or national–to support CCSS?
Well said, Professor Ravitch!
There were several town halls
scheduled to sell Common Core to
the parents of New York state
schoolchildren. N.Y. State Education
Commissioner was the presenter,
with the events organized and
presented by the N.Y. State PTA.
However, after yesterday’s first
suchtown hall, N.Y. State
Education Commissioner King
strong-armed the N.Y, State PTA
into cancelling the remaining town
halls with the following statement:
https://www.facebook.com/nyspta
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
“While our goal was to provide
an opportunity to learn and share,
based on review of the initial
October 10 meeting, the
Commissioner concluded the
outcome was not constructive
for those taking the time to
attend.
“Please know that NYS PTA
will continue to work with all
education and child advocacy
partners to keep our members
updated andinformed on
education, health, safety and
welfare issues affecting children
and families.
“We apologize for any
inconvenience this may cause
and express our sincere
appreciation to those who have
given their time to assist with
organizing this initiative.”
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Well, you can “review” for yourself
the crucial final 20 minutes of
yesterday’s town hall here—
the colorfully titled YouTube video
“Commissioner King Gets Spanked”:
This meeting was a Rhee-like
farce where King spoke for 2
hours straight, and was scheduled
to to be followed by 1 hour of
public comments and questions.
Note that… ***was scheduled to
be followed…***
The best laid plans…
Indeed, 20 minutes in, neither
King nor the NYS PTA
moderator “could stand the
heat, so they got outta the kitchen.”
They were totally unprepared by
how well-informed and
onfrontational these parents were.
At about the 10 minute mark, one
parent brought up the fact that King
sends his own kids to a Montessori
School which has a curriculum that
is the antithesis of Common Core
as a Montessori school is…
(to quote its wikipedia entry)
– – – – – – – – – – – – –
“… characterized by an emphasis on
independence, freedom within limits,
and respect for a child’s natural
psychological, physical, and social
development….
“… and has these elements
as essential:[1][2]
” — Mixed age classrooms, with
classrooms for children aged
2½ or 3 to 6 years old by far the
most common
“— Student choice of activity
from within a prescribed range of
options
“— Uninterrupted blocks of work
time, ideally three hours
“— A Constructivist or ‘discovery’
model, where students learn
concepts from working with
materials, rather than by direct
instruction.
“Specialized educational materials
developed by Montessori and her
collaborators
“— Freedom of movement within
the classroom
” — A trained Montessori teacher
“In addition, many Montessori
schools design their programs
with reference to Montessori’s
model of human development
from her published works, and
use pedagogy, lessons, and
materials introduced in teacher
training derived from courses
presented by Montessori
during her lifetime… ”
– – – – – – – – – – – –
This disclosure and implied attack
on King pretty much ended things.
King made the dubious claim that
his Montessori school scrupulously
follows “Common Core”
“This totally enraged the audience
of parents as it was and is a
ludicrous and demonstrably false
claim that was rightly met with
skepticism and loud booing,
enraging the crowd… if for
no other reason that folks
don’t like to be lied to or have
their intelligences insulted.
The flustered moderator then
quickly wrapped it up, “We’re going
to allow two more people to speak.”
At which point people began
screaming even louder:
“WHAT HAPPENED TO ‘ONE
HOUR’ ?!!!”
This is absolutely riveting video.
Again, you can see that crucial
final 20 minutes at:
When the CCAssessments began to “infect” middle class communities the noise got louder? Those schools won’t face shutdown but those of the lower middle and poorer communities will.
If you intended to add links, something went wrong. I need to feel that outrage vicariously. I am feeling a little Madame deFarge-ish.
Here is a link to my post, with the video embedded: http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2013/10/parents_voice_concerns_about_c.html
“Reform” is implemented quickly in a North Korea, an Iran, etc. Not sure Arne or King really want to live in places like that…or maybe they do (as long as they are friends with whoever is on top-which is never a given for any length of time)!
Nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people that were oppressing them.
Assata Shakur
Would you include the people of India led by Gandhi? I was taught that that was the prime example of a non-violent appeal to the ethics of the British colonialists. Would you also include Martin Luther King Jr.’s leadership of non-violent protests against Jim Crow laws? I always thought he was supposed to be an example of a SUCCESSFUL non-violent appeal to the conscience of Americans. Of course, in the USSR, an appeal to the Kremlin was futile, and only overwhelming economic pressure brought by President Reagan worked. Likewise, so far, an appeal to the conscience of the Palestinians to grant to Israel the right to exist peacefully has not worked. Likewise, an appeal to the rulers of Iran has not resulted in democratization. Nor to the rulers of Cuba. Nor to the ruler of Syria. There are, it is sadly true, that many tyrants and oppressors must be overthrown by force, but to say that violence is ALWAYS justified as the only way, seems to me to oversimplify the case.
So let me get this straight: New York Commissioner John King experienced an ever so small amount of the discomfort that school staff go through every day and it got to him?
He gave up, just like that? No more meetings?
But isn’t it supposed to be all about the kids—when the going gets tough, the tough get going?
Sorry, I forgot—that’s only for educators and the rest of the “little people.”
Still refreshing, though, to know that educrats and authoritarians still find democracy unbearable. Renews my hope in eventually securing a “better education for all.”
🙂
And Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All of KING’S horses
and all of KING’S men
cannot put Humpty together again.
Chicken a la King.
LOL
That was hilarious😂
Hilarious!
Hit the nail on the head!
Brilliant! Now all we need is for emperor Andy to dethrone the King. Not holding my breath.
Emperor Andy did not appoint the King. The Regents did.
If he wasn’t so complicit, he still could make it happen, What Andy wants, Andy gets.
Where is the video link. I’d like to put this on FB. Thank you
>
I forgot the link, added it later, and reposted Anthony’s post: https://dianeravitch.net/2013/10/12/anthony-cody-explains-why-new-york-parents-booed-commissioner-john-king/
Where’s NBC’s Education Nation on this story? Wake up news reporters…this is news important to all Americans…I guess you can’t handle the truth!
No, No .. I’m sure Bill Gates told them not to air the story.
Like they were going to destroy the education for 60 million kids, and their parents weren’t going to notice and get mad.
That’s arrogance for you.
Exactly. The breathtaking arrogance of the deformers will be their downfall. Then, we can use this example in our classes when we teach about hubris as a tragic flaw.
And a follow up lesson on irony.
I keep hoping that the same will turn out to be true for President Obama, hubris, leading to a mistake, leading to a change of fortune (downfall), leading to recognition, leading to catharsis. But I’m not holding my breath. It will take a few years, decades?, before it is generally acknowledged that the President has been an Oedipus or like the suitors of Penelope in The Odyssey, a thief. So many Democrats seem to think that the end of redistribution of wealth justifies any unconstitutional means.
After watching the tape of the supposed “town hall meeting,” I can only deduce that King is a pompous bully. The amount of time he spoke, versus the paltry amount of time given to the community is just one more indication of the ignorant and dictatorial policies generated and forced upon us by the powers that be. It’s an outrage that he is the education commissioner.
But he will not go gentle into that good night because the authoritarians who pull his strings build their puppets complete with ideological fire-proofing.
It doesn’t matter to him, but he now knows for certain that parents will continue to burn and rave and rage. They see with a loving, blinding sight the intelligent light that burns so brightly in their children’s eyes.
There’s a film–the name of it is escaping me right now–that begins with a scene in which an elderly couple is being chased through a field by a mob of villagers weilding pitchforks, shovels, and other such farm implements turned into weapons. It’s a horrifying scene. Then, in the body of the film, watches this couple collaborate with the Nazis, doing horrible things, and at the end, the opening scene is repeated with, of course, an entirely different reaction from the audience. This time, they are rooting for the folks chasing the elderly couple.
Well, we’re going to see a lot of those sorts of scenes when these tests hit nationally. There are going to be a LOT of politicians and pundits who supported this one-size-fits-all standards-and-testing lunacy and these amateurish “standards” who are going to meet the mobs of furious parents and teachers and local administrators.
The hubris of those who thought that they could unilaterally make these decisions for every teacher, curriculum coordinator, and curriculum developer in the United States will meet its day of account.
And then, lots of folks who were big supporters of this nonsense will be falling all over themselves to disassociate themselves from it. They will pretend that they were against it all along. This is, I think, inevitable.
I often think of one particular very well-known education pundit and consultant who FOR YEARS made tons of money running around the country explaining that emphasizing summative testing was a dangerous, counterproductive educational practice. This person invented a brand name and cashed in, big time, on preaching the gospel of formative testing and feedback AS OPPOSED TO summative testing. Then, the river of Gates money started flowing, and this same person changed the meanings of the key terms that he had been using all along so that these now were ALL ABOUT standards and summative testing. And weirdly, education departments all over the country that were implementing this fellow’s ideas seemed not to notice AT ALL that he had completely sold out, completely undermined EVERYTHING HE HAD BEEN SAYING for decades. What he did was exactly equivalent to changing “All animals are equal” to “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.” Now, this fellow is feeding grandly at the “reform” trough.
And I suppose that when the deform movement implodes, as it inevitably will, he will not skip a beat but go right back to pretending that he was against high-stakes summative testing all along.
It’s a wicked world.
cx: wielding, of course. Excuse the typo
None of these educational carpetbaggers or their supporters will have the guts to apologize for getting it just so wrong – wrong on every level.
They will lie, and they will stonewall, and they will point fingers at anyone but themselves. They will count on the short term memory of the general public and they will move on to the next scam.
He has learned Rhee’s lesson: democracy is the enemy if educational Deform.
Guy Brandenburg Sent from my iPhone so full of hilarious errors… ;-€}}
>
Maybe Overlord King can have NBC arrange a fake community meeting that Bill Gates scripted. He could save face and then have NBC promote it as news at 6:30.
I love your comment about Bill Gates and Arne Duncan not owning our minds or our children. I said something similar about Pearson vis-a-vis the standardized testing answer sheets: that Pearson does not own my child’s mind or my child’s work product; all of that belongs to my child and to me, her parent. Moreover, I did not give the State my consent to waive any of my rights vis-a-vis that work product….
You realize that data mining of test results was part of the Race to the Top contest criteria. NY students have been sold out – unbeknownst to them or their parents.
Legal challenge dismissed by federal
judge, Sept 26, 2013.
http://epic.org/apa/ferpa/
The national database of student responses and test scores was part of Arne Duncan’s blueprint for preK-12 education published at the beginning of his tenure. This has been the plan all along. It was fully in place from the beginning.
Phase 1: Put in place national standards (with no vetting or public debate) and national tests requiring every child to work at a computer
Phase 2: Hook all students up to a national database to record their test scores and responses. This would be come the national curriculum portal.
Phrase 3: Deliver “adaptive” curricula through that portal. based on the student responses in the database. Charge districts to have their kids hooked up to the database. Charge curriculum providers for offering their curricula through the database. Become the gatekeeper who decides what curricula will be available by this means.
What we are seeing is the unfolding of a strategic plan in place from day 1. The Common Core, the new tests, the database–all are parts of this plan. It couldn’t be done without first having a single set of standards to assess and keep track of in this database.
And guess who makes billions via this plan?
When, at the beginning of Duncan’s tenure, I read the new federal DOE technology blueprint and came to the bit about the national database, a chill went down my spine. I could see, then, what the plan was.
This is crony capitalism at its worst.
The backroom deal for to assist a certain monopolist in creating a gateway through which most U.S. curricula would pass was made at the very beginning of the Obama administration, perhaps even before Barry O took office.
The deal depended on having national standards and tests in place, of course, so that there would be one set of criteria to track in the national curriculum portal/student response database.
A LOT of people have been played to make this happen.
jb2
The court was clearly wrong. This needs to be overturned. The legal battle needs to continue moving forward. If the teachers’ unions were not stooges and shills of the deformers, paid to promote the Common Core, then they would be fighting this, teaming up with the ACLU, for example, to do so.
Judge dismissed saying EPIC lacked standing to challenge the law. So, let’s find someone WITH standing….
The idea of a national database of student test results will not stand up in the court of parental opinion
Welcome to an Engaged New York, Commissioner King! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_Eiz406VAs
Watch the video of this town hall. what you are seeing here is what will we see throughout the United States, in every community, when the new tests roll out. This is inevitable. It’s all going to be quite interesting to watch.
Robert, you are so right. This Poughkeepsie NY town hall meeting is a glimpse of thins to come. A tsunami of parental outrage will drown the Common Core and the standardized test reform movement. . Dr. Colemanstein has no chance against the monster he created.
Doubtless even the slow learners in the deform movement are learning from this experience. Here’s the dirty little secret of the testing biz: Tell the test maker what outcomes you want, and that entity can create a test to give you those. They may “save” this whole deform approach by doing some minimal vetting of the tests to get rid of difficult questions. In that way, they can move merrily ahead without incurring the wrath of parents nationwide and continue doing the damage that they are doing via turning our schools into institutions for teaching a list of amateurish standards in preparation for tests. This is my fear. It could well be that they will take this tack.
Using test scores to evaluate teachers (as required by RTTT) will still create insurmountable legal and practical problems for the test makers.
Not all of them…
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall
and all of KING’S horses
and all of KING’S men
cannot put Humpty together again.
Man, I had a heavy case of WOW and HEAVY BREATHING after that one. ALL THERE IN THAT AUDIENCE YOU ARE HERO’S AND HEROINES. We twisted the audience when Arne Duncan tried to pull a fast one on us in Pico Rivera also. He got a lesson in life as did that arrogant purposely stopping the owners of the schools, the public, from actually speaking, They said at the end it was supposed to be I guess two hours with one hour of the Superintendent of State Instruction and an hour of the public comment and the public probably had less than 12 minutes total of 2 minutes each and they cut them off right at two minutes.
THANK ALL OF YOU THERE. YOU ARE LEADING THE WAY. DON’T GIVE THEM A BREAK. MAKE THEM RUN. YOU SET THE AGENDA AS YOU DID. IT IS YOUR DISTRICT NOT THEIRS.
One word…..homeschooling
I saw this video last night. I think what King did was disgusting. Not allowing equal time for the opposite views. Trying to weasel in his rebuttals during the patents’ time to speak. I am infuriated and cannot even begin to imagine how I would feel if I were a parent who had attended the meeting!!!
You may be interested in the behind the scenes video after this town hall :))
Brilliant…. very funny and disturbingly fitting.
The video needs to go viral. Take time to watch and send it to others.
Which video? I just emailed “Commisioner’s Downfall” to my husband.
“Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand.” [Mark Twain]
🙂
Awesome!
Wow, I think they’ve really captured the spirit of the common core.
The only proper response to the amateurish, backward CCSS in ELA is derision.
The people who foisted these “standards” on our country need to be laughed off the stage.
Clearly, the authors of these “standards” knew nothing of the sciences of language acquisition and very, very, very little of best practices in the teaching of English.
It is as though someone handed David Coleman and Susan Pimentel copies of Galen and of the 1858 edition of Gray’s Anatomy and sent them to a cabin in the woods to write new “standards” for the medical profession.
These misbegotten “standards” will set the teaching of English back a hundred years. They are already narrowing and distorting and rendering incoherent our pedagogy and our curricula.
No one died and made David Coleman and Susan Pimentel king and queen. A handful of plutocrats took it upon themselves to give these two the authority to overrule every teacher, every curriculum coordinator, every curriculum developer in the country.
The CCSS in ELA are an embarrassment.
I have a litmus test for determining whether someone knows anything at all about teaching K-12 English: Does he or she support the implementation of of the Common [sic] Core [sic] State [sic] Standards [sic] in ELA.
It’s time to end the Coring of our country.
Thank you for posting this. It was just the medicine I needed after the nausea I felt watching the commissioner visit my “failing school” for a photo op. One of my students even said that he tried to speak with Commissioner King only to be hushed and directed to smile for the camera. I only hope King’s visit was as enlightening for him as it was for my students.
Maybe Cuomo will also suggest a “death” penalty for failing commissioners
Sadly, what was intended to be an imitation of political salesmanship has revealed just how rejected this approach is. If you are unable to withstand the result of the decisions you have made then you are unfit indeed to make any other decisions which have real impact on human beings. Stand up and take ownership or cower and step down.
What was intended to act as a political-style sales tactic backfired. What do you do? Well you can either take ownership and say “I meant well but I got it wrong apparently” or you can hide from the consequence of your decisions.
GOOD for the parents! I hope they don’t let up! They should organize marches, sit ins and any other demonstrations they can think of to continue to let King know of their disapproval.
Cuomo HAS to be worried about this….regardless of who appointed King. These parents VOTE!
Very worried. He played a major role in fast-tracking of CCSS and especially the APPR provision. There is a reason only Kentucky and New York are ahead of the curve. Andy leapt before he looked so he could add to his political resume which he might as well use as toilet paper now.
TOILET PAPER? I’m hoping that when we parents and teachers (and possibly a branch of goverment) are done with him, his resume won’t be fit for such high standard!
Get ready for “scapegoats on parade”
Brave Sir Robin ran away.
(“No!”)
Bravely ran away away.
(“I didn’t!”)
When danger reared it’s ugly head,
He bravely turned his tail and fled.
(“no!”)
Yes, brave Sir Robin turned about
(“I didn’t!”)
And gallantly he chickened out.
****Bravely**** taking (“I never did!”) to his feet,
He beat a very brave retreat.
(“all lies!”)
Bravest of the braaaave, Sir Robin!
(“I never!”)
Read more: Monty Python – Brave Sir Robin Ran Away Lyrics | MetroLyrics
Where is Bill Gates???? Why doesn’t he come out and DEFEND his Common Core Learning Standards??? Why does he continue to lurk in the shadows and only meet with people who will kiss his ass???
BILL GATES PLEASE GET YOUR UGLY NOSE OUT OF EDUCATION
I’ll second that.
Why is this COWARD, Bill Gates always hiding behind his “Great Oz” exterior?
He should come out and show himself as The Person behind so many of these absolutely awful “reform” policies. It’s sickening he can get away with this, with everyone afraid to tell the great wizard what they really think of him.
It’s time we start standing up to Gates; no matter how much money he might have.
This is what John King really thinks of
parents who “opt out”, or even complain
about his “education reform.”
http://www.southbronxschool.com/2013/10/fine-dining-with-new-york-state.html
King draws an asinine analogy between
parents bitching about Common Core, or
excessive or inappropriate-for-grade-level
testing or whatever…
to…
the lack of restraint to a customer
would show at a restaurant when that
customer has a problem with
the wine or food served to him:
http://www.southbronxschool.com/2013/10/fine-dining-with-new-york-state.html
He puts himself in a higher order of class
than those belly-aching parents because
when a waiter brings him substandard
food or wine… well… in such a situation,
he doesn’t complain, or send it back. He
sits there and eats it whether he likes it
or not…
(*** actual quote… no joke***)
JOHN KING: “When I’m in a restaurant,
and the waiter opens the bottle of wine for
me to taste, I never say ‘No,’ send it back,
even if it’s horrible. The same with my
meal; if I don’t like it I’ll eat it anyway.”
AND DAMN IT!!! THAT’S WHAT THE
PARENTS AND STUDENTS IN NEW
YORK STATE SHOULD DO AS WELL!!!
That video was the highlight of the new school year. Please parents don’t give up. We are drowning in our classrooms among piles and piles of paper documents we have to teach little first graders. An hour straight of phonics skills…an hour of listening to stories and topics way above their heads…another hour of confusing math concepts and yet another hour of writing. We are told we have to teach it and there is no choice. The lessons are followed by assessment after assessment. Please go on engageny and see what these so called “leaders” have done to the children in our state Commissioner King should be ashamed of himself. He is a coward and will go down in history as being defeated by the parents who love their children too much to let him get away with this.
On a humorous note, I just found
this over at STUDENTS LAST:
————————————————
THE KING’S DICTIONARY:
New York – The reigning Commissioner of Education for the State of New York, John King, has released the following dictionary of terms that he would like distributed at any other town hall meetings he deigns to attend.
accountability — fireability, what the King is above
child — learning unit available for sale to corporations (notable exceptions include: King’s child(ren))
critical voices — that to which the King is deaf
democracy — a form of government in which people choose their leaders and their leaders choose not to listen to them because it is time-consuming and inconvenient
dissent — that to which the King is impervious
education — marketplace
educators — pawns
experience — overblown requirement for teaching
evidence — that which does not exist to support the use of Common Core Standards
knowledge — facts, information and skills not necessarily required before implementing state-wide learning standards
money — short cut around democratic process
parent — easily manipulated adult unit in charge of child (see above)
Ravitch — she who must not be named
respect — what silent acquiescence shows
rigor — developmentally inappropriate
schooled — what the King got on October 10, 2013 in Poughkeepsie, NY
special interests — those who disagree with the King’s policies
Town Hall meeting — gathering at which the King speaks and you listen
——————————————–
This is at:
http://studentslast.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-kings-dictionary.html
NY parents:
Read all about Hirsch’s Core Knowledge New York curriculum aligned with the Common Core that King promotes. It’s all about what to teach, how to teach, when to teach and for how long. King paid Hirsch millions for his scripted “curriculum” nonsense and at the same time King says that it’s only a “resource” – it’s not “curriculum.” File open records to get the contracts between Hirsch and the NY Department of Education.
On the cover pages: Core Knowledge – New York Edition (copyright)
Login to the “core knowledge” and read the lessons that Hirsch the “culture warrior” is pushing into classrooms with NY parents paying for the scripts that students, parents and teachers don’t need or want.
The NYT article is a must read:
Culture Warrior, Gaining Ground
E. D. Hirsch Sees His Education Theories Taking Hold
King needs to go.