In response to a post about the Common Core, contemplating whether the ship had already sailed, our resident poet “SomeDAM Poet (Devalue Added Model) wrote these lines:
from the old folk song
Oh, they built the Common Core, to sail the ocean blue.
For they thought it was a standard that Gates could ram right through.
It was on its maiden trip, that a teacherberg hit the ship.
It was sad when the Common Core went down.
Chorus
It was sad, so sad.
It was sad, so sad.
It was sad when the Common Core went down (to the bottom of the….)
Duncans and Rhees, Pearson Testing lost their fees.
It was sad when the Common Core went down.
Oh Obama smiled and winked
As the ship began to sink
And he said “The scores are surely going to stink”
So he S.O.S.ed Bill Gates
And he sealed both of their fates
It was sad when the Common Core went down
Repeat chorus
They were not far from the shore, ’bout a thousand miles or more,
When the states refused to teach the Common Core
So they canceled all their waivers, and burned up all their “savers”
It was sad when the Common Core went down.
Repeat chorus
Oh, the teachers saved the weak, as the ship began to leak.
And a band of VAMmers played their mathy hymns
With, “Nearer my God to Rhee”, they were swept into the sea.
It was sad when the Common Core went down.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Loved this post! Heard the original “Titanic” when I was student teaching in 1972 at the progressive Bank Street School Children’s School in NYC, where the day often started with a sing along involving all the kids. A similar folk song in this genre is “Rueben James” which we also sang. Surely someone could do a reform parody with that one as well. Nothing like catchy tunes with biting lyrics to fire up a protest rally!
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Absolutely destined for iTunes or Google Play. A Movement Chorus can spread its songs across a country of educators and families awakening to the sounds of democracy.
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Great! Put it to music for Amazon.com ! CCSS also inspired me to write a poem in Dr Suess style. Here is a copy of my Common Core Protest poster to share 😉
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Gates, Obama and Co can blame Bob Dean for that one. 🙂
There’s lots of creative inspiration to be had from folks on this blog.
I’m honored to be the translator. A channel from the deep, in this case.
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And we are honored to have you translate for us.
May the muses continue to pay you visits.
😉
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I think that in this case Bill Gates might hint—with a hundred million dollar grant to fund the PR and propaganda campaign—to Obama to send in Seal Team Six to rescue the VAM supporters and shoot the teachers who are saving the weak.
In the Gates funded PR propaganda campaign, the teachers and the weak they were attempting to rescue would be labeled as members if ISIS, and Bill Gates would take credit for saving the U.S. from a terrorist attack.
The media—in the best traditional of yellow journalism—would trumpet this message far and wide after Bill Gates had his behind closed door meeting with representatives from the New York Times, NPR and other major media outlets. Rupert Murdock would attend the meeting with suitcases full of money. Any journalists who did not comply would mysteriously die of food poisoning the same day.
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My sons and I have been going around the house singing the new chorus of this song all afternoon. They’re both Eagle Scouts and learned the original song at Scout Camp. It’s a beautiful thing. Thanks, SomeDAM Poet!
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Diane are you a fan of Dan Zane’s? Is this from, “”titanic” front Carl Sandburg’s American song bag? Joe Herrmann
Sent from my iPad
>
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Joe Hermann, the video clip was sent by a friend. I don’t know the source.
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