This letter arrived recently from Rhode Island:
“Dear Ms. Ravitch, Another example of what’s happening in Little Rhody: We also received an incredible letter from Grace (last name withheld), a High School Junior in a southern Rhode Island town who wrote a “breakup letter” with Common Core. I have independently verified the author’s authenticity but have not published her last name for privacy reasons. You can contact me for more details: tad@stopcommoncoreri.org . I hope you publish this letter on your blog to show everyone the sort of creativity and independent thinking we will lose from our students under the Common Core.
Her “breakup letter” is pasted below and also here: http://www.stopcommoncoreri.org/the_home_room_blog
———
Breaking Up With Common Core
I’ve decided to write a letter. A breakup letter, that is. I am a teenage girl in modern day America and, therefore, one might blame the ever-present Taylor Swift songs for this creation. However, I am a teenager in modern day America and, therefore, one might blame a set of standards. Those assuming the latter case would be correct. Common Core State Standards will have us singing the blues before we know it, so before things get too serious, while I still can, I’m breaking up with Common Core.
Dear Common Core,
I would begin by saying the cliché “It’s not you, it’s me.” But I’d be lying. It is you. I’m sorry, I’m too harsh? Maybe I am, so here are some tips for your future relationships. Take these into consideration and you might spare yourself a broken heart next time.
1. You’re too controlling. You’re changing education to become a form of the factory system. I’ve heard people talk about how robots are replacing humans as our technology grows, but it is your fault. Under your standards we are manufacturing robots in huge factories called “Elementary School”, “Junior High School” and “High School”. The result of such manufacturing is students who are being robbed of individuality. However, this is one of the most important aspects of education. Individuality must be present in school because it allows for an exchange of ideas and a great diversity of perspectives; the very things that I believe make education so valuable. Nobody likes “Bossy Pants” looming over their shoulder, constantly telling them what to do.
2. You make unfair comparisons. There is too much testing because of the use of PARCC. Every student learns differently and tests differently; however, they will still be assessed in the same way. With this taken into account, how is it possible that your standardized testing fairly and accurately measures the students’ abilities and knowledge? Even if you are able to do so, you’re still comparing each person to others, so how can you possibly have the time to focus on each individual and build upon their strengths while helping to strengthen them in their weak areas? Additionally, harder tests do not mean more learning, it simply means harder tests. Therefore, this means that between too many questions, not enough answers and static learning, you’re just bad news.
3. You’re a compulsive liar. You say that you help better prepare students for college and careers; your supporters cling to this statement, but do you truly do so? The National Education Association tried to warn me in their policy briefing, where it is written “there is no research or evidence indicating that national standards are essential for a nation’s students to be high achievers.” You almost convinced me that the “real world” calls for finding functions, answering multiple-choice questions and graphing parabolas. In ending this relationship, I am able to understand that there is more than this. I see a world that demands its inhabitants to achieve greatness of all sorts. Greatness, in my opinion is doing something that makes a change; it is something that makes an impact. Whether it is done in complete anonymity or not does not matter, nor is it important how large or small the impact is. I believe that through education we can set the students up to achieve this greatness, because it is what the world needs. This world craves art, beauty, and passion. It is a place in which a sculptor’s hands are equally important to those of a doctor and where the words of a poet are as powerful as those of a lawyer. So let these words be a lesson, in any future relationship, honesty is the best policy.
It would probably be in everyone’s best interest if you went back to the land of bumbling businessmen and paltering politicians. I’m sure there’s other fish in the sea… not in Rhode Island, but maybe somewhere… maybe not.
Good Riddance Common Core,
Grace [Last Name Withheld by Editor]
RI High School Junior”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Love this kid! Kudos to the parents for being supportive in allowing her child to invoke her freedom of speech.
That is awesome!
Love it! I came across this article on how we are asphyxiating education:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-koehler/asphyxiating-education_b_4783787.html
Maybe they’ll change their mind once they read my new book, All I really needed to know I learned in the state standards adopted by 45 states, the Marianas, American Samoa, but not Puerto Rico.
My 15 year old son recently gave a debate speech against the CCSS. I taught him well!
Why not post it? Let’s hear from our youth . . . it’s their future. You could omit his name if it better suits you . . . . I’d be eager to listen to what he has to say . . . . .
I asked my son and he has it on his school drive, but I will post it in a few days. He used Diane as a source!
Inspiring!
Reblogged this on Pace N.Ireland Education Weblog.
Delightful.
Dear Grace,
If you were my daughter, I’d commend you.
That ex of yours tied you and your teacher so much to your worthiness as a learner and your teacher’s worthiness of being employed. That ex of yours never brought things to your level or worked with your pace of relationships.
Tell that ex that if he ever wants to have a another relationship, he’s going to have to really rethink the rate at which he throws himself at a partner and that he has NO business measuring his prospective partner in order to define her and no business defining a teacher.
That ex has potential, but without him undergoing radical reforms in who he is and what he is really all about, and without seeking the help of a competent therapist, your ex will never be able to engage in any meaningful relationship and will only prove to be counter-productive to those he seduces and socializes with.
I’m glad you broke up with that jerk.
I hope you find someone worthy of yourself, because you deserve better.
Your parents and caretakers raised you well . . . . .
She could be famous if she wanted to! What brilliance!
Grace – you were too kind. You didn’t even mention the abuse you’ve received. All those lengthy and unnecessary homework assignments. Common Core constantly needing your attention leaving you no time to enjoy life.
It’s a good thing you are parting ways. It looks like this relationship would eventually have engulfed your very being.
Now to tackle those pesky Charter Schools who are stealing money from our pockets.
Take care, Grace, and keep up the good fight.
Excellence on display. We don’t need no stink’ Common Core!
Priceless.
Dear Grace:
I suppose you are a nice girl, and I concur with your ‘break up.’ He wasn’t worthy of you or anyone else.
But, unfortunately Grace, you know only what you don’t want, not what you do want. You don’t have a clue what life is really about. The best you can manage is that you want to make an impact.
That is no better than our President’s Hope and Change, and you know what that led to— among other egregious effects, the CCSS.
Unfortunately, Grace, the high praise heaped upon you by your teachers, shows they don’t know true excellence any more than you do.
See if you can find a charter that will give you a real education. You won’t EVER get it in the public schools.
I know you want a response, HU, and I shouldn’t feed the troll, but what a jerk comment. You were rude to both a promising young women as well as her teachers. The vast majority of public schools give an EXCELLENT education. And, judging by Grace’s writing, her praise is deserved. I’m tired of bashing by you and others in the name of “reform.” You, sir, are no better than Obama, Gates, Rhee, and the other “reformers.”
No, you shouldn’t feed the troll. I admire and respect your work tremendously. But a “jerk” comment it is not. It is the truth about the quality of her mind.
Now, Louisiana Purchase,
You know by now that Harlan is the judge, jury, prosectuor, and defense attorney all rolled into one.
I don’t know how he does it.
To Harlan:
Harlan, by me in NY, one has to be vetted and licensed to carry a gun or drive a motor vehicle.
I am merely wondering if you yourself possess a license . . . .
to carry that mouth of yours . . . . . . ?
You cannot judge any person’s mind, HU. Nor should you…
“It is the truth about the quality of her mind.”
The quality of her mind. Let it sink in a moment.
Harlan feels qualified and justified to comment upon “the quality of her mind.”
Go find a charter, give me a break! What are you TFA? The charters are worse in Louisiana than the public schools.
And that’s not just the case in Louisiana either. It’s the case in many other states that the vast majority of charters are either no better or worse than the surrounding public schools.
I think, Harlan, a ‘close reading’ of the text that Grace wrote proves you wrong. Grace clearly stated that she wants: “… art, beauty, and passion. …a place in which a sculptor’s hands are equally important to those of a doctor and where the words of a poet are as powerful as those of a lawyer. ”
I’m sure you’re a nice boy, but you should be just a bit more careful before you engage in uninformed criticism (particularly when you consider attacking a clearly gifted young woman).
So, were you educated in a charter school? Perhaps that would explain the lapse.
TAGO!
Robert – Duane will be in touch to let you know how much you owe in royalties.
Dienne,
Oh God. . . . What if he sues me? I can’t afford a lawyer on a teacher’s salary . . . At least not a good one.
You’re lucky, Robert. I can’t afford a lawyer on my teacher’s salary either!
I guess I could try to get one of the two ex’s to take up the case, but then again, that really doesn’t sound like a good idea!
Finally, our resident grinch is back.
Harlan, I’ve not heard from you in such a long time. I miss all the mean spirited and tea-party-ish things you come out with, and I certainly miss the usual responses – mine included – that oppose your offensive, lack of critical thinking.
Since I have not heard from you in such a long time, I sincerely hope your health is okay, and there is truly no sarcasm in that.
It’s just that, as we say in French, “Tu nous amuses . . . . ”
It is a nice try to offer your never-changing beast to this young beauty, but I’m afraid she’s done being the little caterpillar and has already morhped into a gorgeous, irridescent butterfly. She’s off flying in the land of enlightenment.
I’m sorry you’ve never quite gotten there yourself. If you want, I can book a flight for you . . . . the airfare is at a really good rate right now.
As for our Grace, once the metamorphosis takes place, there is no going back to a caterpillar . . . .
Robert Rendo: I agree with your comments including your genuine well wishes for his good health. If I may, let me focus on one point…
The last paragraph: “See if you can find a charter that will give you a real education. You won’t EVER get it in the public schools.”
Sane alternative: “See if you can find a better school that will give you a real education. You won’t EVER get it in the bad schools.” Or something to that effect.
An excruciatingly honest statement in favor of that old saw: “unfettered greed will answer every need.” [To be honest, I made that one up recently, but I’m hoping it becomes an “old saw” someday.]
For example, just today a posting here on the increasingly well publicized charter practice of dumping their unwanted/test suppressing/troublesome students on public schools just after the deadline passes for collecting their full school year funding for those students.
Link: https://dianeravitch.net/2014/02/15/reader-offers-a-dose-of-common-sense-about-high-test-scores/
Charters have the ‘non-strivers’ for 1 month, get 9 months of funding.
Public schools get the ‘non-strivers’ for 8 months, receive 0 months of funding.
The most sacred edumetric of all, the North Star of all critics of public education, song only to be sung on the most EduExcellent High Holy Days of Testolatry:
One Bling to rule them all, one Bling to find them;
One Bling to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them.
[With all due apologies to J. R. R. Tolkien]
😎
King George III would be soooooo proud…
KTA,
I loved your comment. . . . True beyond belief!
How charters can “counsel out” students who are not a “good fit” is beyond me. How can it be legal?
Anyway, maybe you can talk to Duane on my behalf and convince him to wave all liabilities towards me. . . .
You have a future, Krazy, as an author of Rheformish jingles! Well done.
Hate Harlan’s remarks but you lose me when you try to go political on it by calling him Tea-Party-ish. His remarks are nothing of the kind and way too many of the people fighting Common Core are Tea Party members trying to get government out of their lives to let you get away with this hateful comment.
I have often wished that the Tea Party and Libertarians and some parts of the Left in the United States would recognize where they have common ground–in their opposition to the politics of the back-room deal cut between a few oligarchs and their wind-up toys in Washington and in state houses. The Common Core is precisely such a deal. A few people got together and made these decisions for the rest of us, and they have the financial muscle to enforce their will–their top-down, totalitarian mandate, and to make it a permanent structural feature. You will have new ideas about learning progressions, outcomes to be measured, assessments, pedagogical approaches, etc., when the Politburo meets again to make these decisions for you.
This is not how things are done in a democracy.
Candace,
I am not hateful toward Harlan, but if you preceive me to be so, I am no more hateful of him as he is towards the general mindset on this blog.
That’s number one.
Number two: Harlan is a proud, vocal self professed member of the Tea Party, so when he makes statements that denigrate public trusts, like public schools, then, yes, Candace, it’s a Tea-Party-ish thing to say.
We non-Tea-Party-ers actually overlap a great deal, and if you have followed my exchanges with Harlan, you will see on my behalf, real robust agreement with him regarding our mutual opprobrium for Obama and the way “government” is representing the people (that’s code for “representing big business” by giving corporate welfare to those who don’t deserve it).
So, while I am repulsed by Harlan’s approach to this young woman Grace, I certainly don’t hate him, even if he did at one time declare me to be a wife beater and a pill and booze addicted individual, notions are are completely anethema and foreign to me, words that characterize the opposite of who I am. I still have not figured out to this day why he came out with such bizarre statements, nor am I motivated top waste me time.
If you are of the Tea Party, then I join hands with you in getting rid of this brand of big government and its involvement in education. But I believe in replacing it with the right kind of government and in maintaining education as a sacred public trust and societal, collective responsibility and moral obligation. If we part at than point in our overlap, well, then, that’s more than fine with me.
And by the way, Candace, you will not find me to be alone in my objections to Harlan’s “style”, let alone his critical thinking.
One thing I do admire and respect about him is that is he genuine and intentional about his views and is not putting on any act. He is also acceptably articulate about what he is thinking and feeling . . . .
Am I to assume that if I make reference to the Tea Party and you declare that to be “hateful” that you therefore find something “hateful” about the Tea Party?
I am confused . . . . .
I certainly do not find the Tea Party hateful, I am a proud member. I just see nothing Tea-Party-ish about Harlan’s comments. I did not know that he claims to be part of the Tea Party but based on his remarks I doubt his claim, Most people I know are not in favor of charter schools run by corporations but wish to see public schools educate students in a well researched and balanced way – definitely not Common Core. The preferred schooling method to save our children while we fight Common Core seems to be to home school them (or do as much to help them get through by teaching them correctly after school, during vacations – by making games out of it for the youngest ones so they will again enjoy learning and being creative). Very sorry that you seem to have completely misunderstood my first comment.
Robert Shepherd and Candace Crider:
“I have often wished that the Tea Party and Libertarians and some parts of the Left in the United States would recognize where they have common ground–in their opposition to the politics of the back-room deal cut between a few oligarchs and their wind-up toys in Washington and in state houses.”
Thank you for saying what I was thinking, Robert Shepherd.
It’s okay and even healthy to have some critical overlap even if the bulk of the Venn Diagram is not overlapping . . . . .
Candace, thank you for your feedback . . . .
Candace,
I no longer misunderstand you. Thank you for your clarification. I hope you also better understand me . . . .
Wrong as usual, Harlan. She knows exactly what she wants – someone who sees and loves her for who she is. Smart girl.
This
Welcome back Harlan. I’ve been watching for you and am glad to see your name amongst the others.
Whereas I welcome a diversity of opinions, I am uncomfortable with your derogatory
comments in reference to Grace’s well-spoken, intelligent, and witty remarks. This young lady put herself on the line to give her opinions in a clever manner on a timely topic. We need more young people to take ownership of their education and not sit back listening to people on the sidelines. We will never hear their voices if others disparage their attempts at conversation. This is especially true when the words are as literate as Grace’s comments.
Come after the rest of us, but leave the children alone.
AMEN!!!!!
And, HU, IF I do post my son’s anti-Common Core debate speech and you say ONE THING about my hard-working, learning disabled, but well spoken young many…just DON’T.
to take ownership of their education
precisely
Education is something we undertake, not something we undergo.
The writer of this letter understands this and is furious that anyone should presume that things should be otherwise. In such young people lies our hope for the future.
Your comment was just plain mean! Most juniors in high school do not know much about the real world. That’s something we learn through years of the experience of being out in the real world. My question to you is this. Are you a product of public education or charter schools? And how can you judge someone about the quality of her mind without ever meeting her? The public schools that I have known perform miracles every day. I only hope that one day I can see the federal and state governments actually give the public schools the money and other resources that they so desperately need.
“. . . we learn through years of the experience of being out in the real world.”
AAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!
Please explain what the “real world” is.
I contend the “world” of schooling is the “real world” for students, along with many other “worlds”.
To imply that only the realm outside of the school experience is “real” is risible and ludicrous.
Unfortunately, many juniors know way too much of the real world, especially in the inner city. Poverty is a real eye opener. Even suburban folk deal with everyday hardships. And those rural kids, especially those born on farms, also know the harsh reality of the world.
Very few children are brought up in a sheltered environment and they probably attend private schools.
Actually, Harlan, it is age-appropriate, & exactly what one would expect of a high-schooler exercising critical thinking skills, that Grace would begin her journey toward identifying what she wants her education to encompass by enumerating the way in which her current displeases her. It’s the separation process, crucial to maturation.
Great Post Spanish…but will H understand.??
Outstanding post, Spanish % French!
Gibberish
@Harlan Underhill,
I recall a rather lengthy discourse that you had with another poster on this blog a few months ago. To be honest, I don’t have the time or the inclination to scroll through months of posts to find it, but I recall that she suggested that your political viewpoints were inherently selfish and you suggested that she get past calling you “an old meanie” and that perhaps it was her political viewpoint that espoused selfish principals since it encompassed forcing you to give your tax dollars to pay for things that you found objectionable. I thought that you made some interesting points once the two of you got past the initial mudslinging.
Harlan, your contribution, along with those of FLERP, teachingeconomist and others who may not agree with the majority here are valuable. In fact, while I may not agree with all that you and the aforementioned contributors put forward, I don’t summarily dismiss them either and I appreciate the fact that you have the courage to publish your ideas regardless of the flak that you may take from those who disagree with you here. Most importantly, you prevent this blog from becoming merely an echo chamber for the likeminded; however, I don’t think that you do justice to yourself or the ideas that you espouse if you indulge in personal invective of the sort that you did against the young woman who published the letter that is the subject of this post.
People like Anne Coulter and Rush Limbaugh, though entertaining, have their limitations because only people who share their viewpoints will take them seriously. The sort of hyperbole that they spew forth causes most people to tune them out without seriously considering any merit that their argument might have. Likewise, when you disparage the quality of mind of an obviously articulate though young and inexperienced person whom you have never met, when you indulge in a condescending tone in the service of a need to be hyperbolic or be shocking enough that people will pay attention to you amidst the endless chatter (or whatever it is that motivates you and some of your political persuasion to articulate your ideas in the offensive way that you do), in my view, you do the fine quality of your own mind, as well as any merit that your ideas might have, a disservice.
hrh88,
So eloquent . . . You have more patience than me. I could learn a lot from your statement . . . .
Ah… and right after Valentine’s Day!!
Grace, that was a delightful bit of satire. Brilliantly executed. Of course, it doesn’t take much close reading of what you say you don’t want, above, to ascertain what it is that you do want. So don’t believe a word Harlan has to say above. Many of your elders clearly have much to learn from you.
For example, it is clear that you understand that education is not something that is done to you but something that you do, that it is not something you undergo but something that you undertake.
You have a bright future. Maybe one day you and other gifted young people like you will retake our schools from the totalitarians. Sorry about the mess we’ve created for you to clean up.
Thank you for your letter. I leave you with this quotation:
“I believe in standardizing automobiles. I do not believe in standardizing human beings. Standardization is a great peril which threatens American culture.”
—— Albert Einstein, Saturday Evening Post interview, 10/26/1929
You and Albert think a lot a like.
It gives me hope to know that there are young people like you coming up.
Couldn’t have4 said it better Robert.
Excellent letter Grace!
“. . . that education is not something that is done to you but something that you do, that it is not something you undergo but something that you undertake.”
Over the years, I remember hearing older teachers saying that today’s students aren’t like (in a negative sense) the ones from earlier times. And for years I’ve countered that kids are kids and that they’re still the same as we were when we were that age, that not much changes.
Well, I think the above statement points to a difference in those students who have now been subjected to these testing regimes all their young lives and the prior students who weren’t. And that is that now it seems the students do seem to think that education is “something done to them that they have to endure” instead of “something they undertake and do”. It is the nature of these standardized schemes and tests to “do something” to the students, something they can’t and don’t understand but still internalize, that what matters is not the student learning but correct answers done in a certain “acceptable” way that erases individuality and personhood.
Yes Duane, many students will take a passive role, but their will also be true leaders, such as Grace, who will rise above the fray.
Ellen,
My post was not so much a comment on the students but on the fact that all of this testing has dulled, has killed, has cheapened the teaching and learning process that it is natural that the students would respond thusly. I see it as an inherent problem to the standards and testing regime/discourse of what education is.
Agreed.
That this young woman was able to create this impressive piece without having had 12 years of a Common Core education speaks volumes about her education thus far. Would she have been able to write this well, with this level of creativity and cogency, had she been subjected to the CC education that policy makers would force upon her?
I find that there are quite a number of students who could have written what Grace wrote. Far more than most realize. I see them daily and they enjoy getting a little positive feedback and reinforcement from a teacher with whom they can freely speak their mind and not just play the “good” student role.
My hope is that the unspoken curriculum in all of this has been and is being sniffed out by the students and they will react against it.
I think, Duane, that that is our greatest hope in the era of scripted lessons–that it lies with those bright, creative kids who will rebel against the same and carry that attitude into their adult lives.
Grace,
I loved your letter! Keep up the excellence . . . . .
Uh-oh: Here comes the teacher in me:
Grace: A+ . . . . . .
Well done, Grace! I wish I had been as strong as you when I was a junior in high school.
It’s almost time for a restraining order!
I think Grace should press charges and have her ex arrested . . . . .
lol…but on the other hand..not a bad idea !!!
BTW, in other news:
01/07/14
The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust announced today grants to Smarter Balanced and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) totaling more than $1.6 million. These grants will fund a partnership between the two multi-state assessment consortia and the nation’s largest teachers’ unions, the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), to further engage educators in the development of next-generation assessment systems.
From the Rheformish Lexicon:
union: universal scapegoat. See, however, AFT and NEA.
AFT and NEA: propaganda ministries of the Common Core Curriculum Commissariat and Ministry of Truth (MiniTru). Archaic usage: organizations representing the rights and interests of teachers; teachers’ labor unions. See Union.
You know Leona, even posthumously:
“Only the little people get defined by standardized tests . . . . . “
Yes, the undead Leona is funding the collaborators with the education deform invasion who used to represent teachers’ interests. This is disgusting beyond words.
The K-12 education system has been invaded by deformers. The teachers’ unions are collaborating in the deforms. It’s Vichy France all over again. This is sickening.
Robert,
Right, right, and right!
But also realize that the backlash movement is growing.
I personally can’t wait until all these faulty tests are given nationwide – as you declared in a previous post. What happened in Kentucky and New York and all those children failing the tests on such a widepsread basis is I think, yet another major ingredient in the pushback brew.
You cannot have change without first having awareness.
Parents are more than aware because their children are being mischaracterized, miseducated to some extent, and local control is being taken away from the citizenry and handed over to the state, which in turn hands it over to corporate cronies.
There is hope, but there will be many educational and career casualties. Still, awareness and pushback movements are better than nothing, which is just about what we had 3 to 5 years ago . . . .
Let’s build on this.
I don’t know, Robert. The new deal between the NEA, the AFT, Smarter Balanced, and PARCC suggests that the fix is almost entirely in.
It will take something like a miracle (or like the testing fiasco in New York happening nationwide, and the deformers would be insane to let that happen) for this to be reversed, with both of the unions working hard, on the ground, to set up the propaganda machine and enforcement apparatus. When it becomes very clear to employees in every school that the ones who are on board with The Party are going to prosper and the ones who are not are in danger, . . . well, we’ve seen this before, haven’t we? In East Germany, by 1995, 2.5% of the civilian population was registered as informants on the rest of the population.
These people are determined to have their centralized Common Core Curriculum Commissariat, and they are going about this in time-tested ways, via methods for which there are existence proofs of their effectiveness. You may say, well, that approach failed in East Germany, but East Germany was a special case because of its dependence on the Soviet Union, which was brought down by its dependence on oil export prices.
The method being adopted by the deformers is working in the People’s Republic of China like a Dresden clock.
I cannot begin to tell you how depressing I find the news of this deal. Free thought in this country about learning outcomes to be measured (standards and frameworks), assessment methods, curricula, pedagogical approaches, learning progressions, lesson organization, evaluation methods for teachers and schools, etc., at least within public schools, may be FINISHED. If that’s so, then anyone who has an idea about teaching English or math that doesn’t line up with what the Commissariat says can forget it. New ideas will be issued when the Politburo convenes to do so.
It may be that freedom to think outside the CC$$ is DEAD, for a long, long while to come. We shall have David Coleman or whatever other functionaries the Commissariat anoints to do our thinking for us going forward.
Bill Gates is right about one thing (he’s right about many): it will take decades for the most dire consequences of this enforced sameness and mediocrity to become clear.
@ Robert Rendo:
As I have mentioned before, it’s child’s play to manipulate the questions you include, the raw-score-to-scaled-score conversions you use, or the cut scores you set to get any outcomes that you wish to get from these criterion-referenced tests as they have been conceived. So, I’m guessing, now, that the deformers probably will NOT allow what happened in New York to happen in the national roll-out. Yeah, the data from these tests will be purest numerology, but if the deformers ease the country into the new regime with easy tests and cut scores, at the start, and progressively more “rigorous” ones in years thereafter, they will inure everyone to Son of NCLB, and so they will accomplish the goal that the folks who paid for this stuff had of creating a national market for products “at scale” from a few educational materials monopolists. And we shall have a centralized group empowered to make decisions about what can and cannot be thought about educating our children.
There is some chance that people might demand, anyway, to see the tests and that those tests might be exposed under scrutiny by scholars, but. . . . the deformers will likely push back against such release as well, doing only very selective release of items, for example.
What a mistake the deformers are making! There are some in that crowd who actually believe that a central education Commissariat like that of the old Soviet Union or of the current People’s Republic of China is a good thing.
Robert, I grieve for my country and for the loss of the free and varied public education system we once had.
Lord, forgive them, these deformers, for they know not what they do.
The question is, Robert, Why did NYS raise the hackles of parents by “failing” so many? Why not pass 2/3rds rather than “fail” 2/3rds? Then everyone, but teachers, would nod their heads, smile, and blindly murmur like zombies, “Rheform, ahh!”.
Very funny, Robert, and thank you. I needed that. 🙂
I do not accept your doom-and-gloom, Robert. States will back off Common Core and its PARCC etc wherever local control exists. In places where there is no such control– like Pa, Ohio, NC– young families will vote with their feet.
I hope so. I will do my best in the ongoing struggle to stop this.
However, there has been so very little outrage about the abysmal quality of these “standards” and so much cheerleading for them by people and organizations that ought to know better, that I sometimes start to think that the situation is hopeless. If people don’t see that these ELA “standards” are prima facie unacceptable, then the task of explaining to them the problems with the “standards,” for there are so many, at so many different levels, begins to look overwhelming, as though one had to start with the most obvious stuff and explain and explain from dawn until doomsday. By comparison, the twelve labors of Heracles seem like so much tidying up after dinner.
I am shocked and saddened that these “standards” (and most of the state ones that they replaced) have not been met, on all sides, by howls of derision. That they have not is truly disturbing. When it was just state standards that were this bad, one could blame them on lowest-common-denominator groupthink in state departments. And, at any rate, the low quality of the state standards was less consequential because seeing that the standards varied so much from state to state, developers of curricula and pedagogical approaches and learning progressions and lesson templates and the like took them less like Holy Writ and gave themselves SOME latitude in what they would consider acceptable “correlation.”
But I have now seen mountains of new CC$$-based curricula that follow the amateurish new CC$$ “standards” lock step, and many people seem OK with the crap that’s being produced. Worse yet, they seem unaware that one might, in the absence of these standards, be able to approach teaching in these various domains in ways of enormously greater value, and that is especially disturbing, that few seem to understand how much of what value is PRECLUDED by this amateurish crap.
Equally disturbing is that almost no one seems to understand how having national standards will kill innovation by creating enormous economies of scale for a couple of big publishers and how dramatically that will affect the educational materials market, reducing innovation and further Walmartizing the profession that I love. There has been almost no public discussion of that. Almost none, though I have been writing about the problem for a couple years now.
There is so much that I would like to do in ELA–many, many ideas that I would like to see implemented that I have thought carefully about for decades now–and much of that is PRECLUDED BY the particular standards and learning progressions in this bullet list. And surely other scholars, researchers, and curriculum developers must feel the same. If so, WHERE ARE THEIR VOICES? I am not hearing them. And that is depressing indeed.
cx: and it is especially disturbing that few seem to understand how much, of what value, is PRECLUDED by this amateurish crap.
I ask myself, for example, where are the professors of literature? Why haven’t they had a look-see at the purported “literature standards” in the CC$$? I’m certain that if a few of them gave these “standards” half the critical attention they might give to an article to be refereed for some journal, there would be an EXPLOSION of derision of these “standards” from that quarter. And where are the linguists? and the rhetoricians? and the cognitive psychologists of learning and language acquisition?
Silence. Dead silence. While this travesty is visited upon our nation.
Robert,
You are right about what you say 100%, but so am I.
This is not a contest, but have you really been hanging around with local school boards, parents, and taxpayers and listening to what they are saying about the reform movement, the way standards are written and being used, and how their tax dollars on all levels are piad to the government on all levels while local control is being snatched from them at an unprecedented rate?
First, because I am pressed for time, I agree with you also about the “Walmartization” of education and standards. NY state actually had a set that was far more comprehensible, far more researched, and far more resplendent with richness and depth than the current sometime dry and brittle CCSS that we have now.
But te CCSS is not the problem if only one could adapt it to the right ages (that’s based on our experience as teachers and cognitive scientists) and fill in the gaps as needed. Educators have always been dealing with standards and adapting this. This is what competnent educators do. I preach to the choir, Robert.
But now that standards are being tied to high stakes for students and teachers, the danger of of coming out of 12th grade not fully educated is a real one. We are obviously measuring and accounting for everyone, every millisecond of the day, 24/7, 365.annum, and this will be the demise of public education and eventually democracy.
However, people still vote,
Like Diane says, we are still a democracy. In the sense that the mechanisms set into place for getting people in and out of office – with the excpetion of ampiagn fund – is still purely democratic, and I think the citizenry is waking up.
Robert, you also have to look at the general apathy when it comes to keeping aware of politics, keeping on top of elected officials as constituents, and voting, not to mention protesting, demonstrating, and boycotting.
Remember those?
If elected officials still want their jobs – you know: the things that pay their salaries and give them their perks of health coverage and pensions – then they are going to have to listen more to their constituency, something they did not have to do nearly as much before.
American apathy and heads stuck in the sand has evolved as part of the American psyche and has virtually become a cultural institution.
People know more about Kim and her worthless sisters and their jewelry and more about dancing with celebrities on contests than they do the names of their local legislators and how they vote.
NOT any more, I think.
Change is hard and slow, but the germination for pushback is clearly there, even if one needs a magnifiying glass and flashlight to see it.
Meanwhile, write more papers on ELA and methodology and get them published and push them. Lots of people still need and want to learn about that realm with or without CCSS.
Thank you always for your eloquent and informed voice.
And one more thing, Robert:
Whether or not I agree with your comparisons to past and current history, I cannot tell you how much I genuinely appreciate your connecting the dots to realms outside of education and even this epoch.
You are a true gentleman scholar, and you provoke critical thought, something everyone needs. I’m a huge fan, and there is NO sarcasm here whatsoever.
I’m not Monsieur Optimist, but I agree with Spanish and French.
Don’t be depressed!
To conjure up a classic scene from modern cinema, I defer to “Moonstruck” and Olivia Dukakis:
(smack).
Snap out of it!
Really sorry for all the grammatical, structural, and orthographic errors in my two last posts. . .. wrote them in a rush and did not go back to edit. Oops.
Again, thanks, Robert Rendo, for your comments.
Well, if charters have more teachers who know teaching excellence, then how come they have ridiculously high attrition rate than public schools??? And why can’t so-called ‘excellent’ teachers stay in charter schools for no more than 5 years even though they could get paid more than public school teachers?
Students are smarter than a bunch of close-minded reformers. Seems like she knows the stituation way better than you, sir.
Maybe I should not say this, but sometimes I think Harlan is a person who craves attention, shock value, provocation, and, well, I wonder sometimes if he feels isolated and alone.
I could be totally wrong about this, but it amazes me how he can just go into this missive about how bad public schools have always been to our newly discovered Grace.
I mean, really, Harlan, can’t you pick on someone your own age?
Is this your pedagogical approach to such a youth, and your virtual dismissal of her is not something I would bet is found in your own teaching of the students you serviced at the private school you worked in for many years.
Harlan, I went to an excellent public school system, and it was located in a very working class, blue collar set of towns. I don’t know how you can say this.
Can you try to aim your spit at us adults and leave the young ones to be free and articulate?
I know you can be better, even at your worst.
Sometimes I think you have more issues than a magazine . . . .
I would never want H to teach any of my children or my students.
Not for an hour…or a second..
He is lost.
Well said Robert
Not an hour..not a second.
correction
Poor Harlan.
He tries so hard. He fails so well.
Effort and Intention: A+.
Learning Outcomes and Social Skills: F-
Grace respects herself.
exactly
Grace ! Keep talking and sharing . You are an inspiration. thanks
Even kids like Grace know that an individualized, self-directed, self-paced approach is the real future of education. Helping kids learn how to live happy, healthy, and fulfilling lives in support of themselves and others should be our real educational goals. If kids leave the public school educational system knowing how to make informed decisions, knowing how to solve real problems, knowing how to get along with themselves and others, knowing how to take care of themselves physically and emotionally, and with their curiosity and creativity still intact, they will be able to accomplish whatever they set out to do. Common Core does not promote any of these outcomes; we need to create a system of education that does.
It is time the NEA and AFT wrote their own break up letters to the Common Core. We know it’s easier and even comforting to stay with an old flame no matter how abusive the relationship, but courage and the support of friends will get them through this!
Love it Grace!
By all means, keep this letter anonymous. If THEY find out who taught Grace to think and write so well, check out the news from San Diego last week, teacher removed from his classroom for the things he says to students, not arrested, but escorted by school police out of his classroom, in front of his students.
I know D. thinks San Diego is great. Scratch the surface, the teachers are saying Bersin is back….
Go Grace, from one G to another, You Rock!
Whoops, I know better, here’s the link:
http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Serra-High-School-Teacher-on-Leave-for-Alleged-Inappropriate-Remarks-245278331.html
Teachers who teach creative, motivated, artistic kids use language to build these kids up and to help them do things they couldn’t do before.
What drives people to success in cognitively challenging activities is not external rewards (test scores):
The ed deformers do not understand this. They are living in the nineteenth century.
Dear Grace:
On the advice of my colleagues, I have reread your letter. They seem to think that I have been too hard on you. I already agreed with your position before I read your letter, but I am unable still to see how your clever conceit will persuade any one of your ex’s parents to desist in trying to force this arranged marriage on you. The real world is totally dependent on functions for modelling it. The equation of a parabola is one such function, and in addition the relation between it and it’s graph ( which IS the parabola), has as much beauty as you are likely to find anywhere in the intellectual world. Denigration of multiple choice test items is perhaps justified, but in favor of what? I say an essay tells us more about the mind and heart and soul of a person than MC items. Presumably, therefore, you would be content to be evaluated on your essay. Perhaps you might lay out for me what your criteria are for an excellent essay. In particular, I a interested in your wish for a world in which poetry and art are equally important as doctors and lawyers. I think what makes lawyers and doctors valuable is their knowledge of the true causes and nature of acts. What makes art valuable to us then? Does it gives us a kind of knowledge? And if so, of what? I hope you will not be too put out if I consider this essay as a promising first draft.
Gee, Harlan . . . .
This would remove you from the “unsatisfactory” to the “basic” rubric scores offered by Charlotte Danielson.
If you could remove and rephrase “your clever conceit” . . . (if you meant the last word in its most popular definition) I would be hardpressed not to put you into the proficient category . . .
Interestingly enough, if Grace were your student, her essay and endeavor as a whole would give a promising chance of achieving a “distinguished”, the highest, and most coveted and exotic rating the Danielson framework gives to teachers where the students take initiatives, drive the learning and the lesson, come up with the questions, prompt and dialogue with other students, all basically with negligible to no prompting from the teacher. . . . Grace did exactly this.
I know I would be considered to have won the pedagogical lottery if Grace were my student, as she did present this letter to her teachers, administrators, peers, and community . . .
I should be that lucky.
I admire your willingness to revise your sentiments toward this young woman. I think you thought it through more carefully . . . .
If you keep this up, one may have to remove you from the TIP list . . . . . .
You don’t want to be on a TIP list . . . unless you were a novice.
I use conceit in the ‘English teacher’ sense, a kind of metaphor. The Metaphysical Poets of the 16th century, Donne, Marvell, Herbert were famous for their ‘conceited’ style, i.e. well provided with unexpected and imaginative comparisons. “A Valediction: forbidding Mourning” is one of his most famous ‘conceited’ poems.
Yes . .. “Conceit” meaning artistic device or artistic effect . . . .
“clever conceit”
That word is hitting right back at you on the forehead.
Don’t you wish. I may, in fact be “conceited,” but a fully educated person would have recognized from the context what the meaning of the word was as I used it. Ho hum. Right back atcha.
Excellent response by a very articulate, creative and on target high school student.I thoroughly enjoyed reading your “break up letter”…thank you