Susan Ohanian hates the Common Core standards. She hates the way they were created and marketed. She thinks they are a great con job. She fears what this mad rush to standardization will do to children. She would oppose them, she says, even if all the recommended readings were her choices. Ohanian lives in Vermont, where she has taught English for many years. She has long been an outspoken opponent of standardized testing and No Child Left Behind.

Susan Ohanian’s article rocks!
LikeLike
Great article! Her website also amazing.
LikeLike
“The Common Core State (sic) Standards are the result of hundreds of millions of dollars disbursed in carefully distributed grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation accompanied by the threat from U. S. Secretary Arne Duncan to withhold federal funds if individual states did not sign on the dotted line.”
Enough said.
LikeLike
Susan is right and not alone in her hatred to the Common Core, which is why opposition to it is growing like wildfire across the country. Most notably, Alabama, Kansas, Georgia, and Missouri all have upcoming activity in their legislatures aimed at halting the Common Core. My state, Indiana, is scheduled to pass out of the full Senate what is being called a “time out” bill (SB193) this week. It would require the State Board of Education to conduct public hearings in each of the nine congressional districts, as well as having a cost analysis done, on the Common Core. We hope this will mark the beginning of the end for Common Core in Indiana. For more information visit the Hoosiers Against Common Core website at http://www.hoosiersagainstcommoncore.com.
Only when parents, teachers, and national leaders, such as Diane Ravitch, decide to come together from across the political spectrum and speak out, will our children have a shot at receiving educations free from the Common Core bucket of junk!
LikeLike
Alabama, Kansas, Georgia and Missouri…all very progressive states. When I thinking of cutting edge education reform the prepare students for the 21st Century, I think of those states.
LikeLike
This was a very valuable article, although I thought her opinion was a bit over the top. I know it was an “opinion” piece, and not necessarily research.
I don’t have a problem with common curriculum – teachers use curriculum as a guide and tool. I have more of a problem with the testing that this curriculum is designed alongside.
I also have a problem that non-educators mostly designed the curriculum, and that Bill Gates was involved in such a manner as he was. Susan does a great job bashing this scheme.
Again, I’m not so sure the curriculum will be that detrimental, its the testing that is bothersome as really, for all intents and purposes, the tests ARE the new curriculum. Teachers only care about the tests – at least the “good” ones (as prescribed by administrators – the best way to get an administrator to leave you alone is to produce high test scores).
Testing is our ultimate battle, although the common core is not too far behind.
LikeLike
I agree with you, Susan. Read my book, “Yes, We Are STUPID in America!”. It emphasizes your points.
LikeLike
I don’t get this “no one is interested in how you think and feel” business. Opinion journalists like David Brooks and George Will are among the most respected and well-compensated career writers out there.
Anyone who has a job involving persuasive communication will use how they think and feel as a foundational tool for coming to understand how _other people_ in their target audiences think and feel. Sure, your personal pinions will not be present in the final draft, but learning to express your feeling and experiences is very good practice for creating writing which moves other people to action.
Perhaps the creators of the Common Core “lack the empathy gene.”
LikeLike
Thank you for this post referencing Susan Ohanian’s commentary. I’d just like to add a louder shout-out to her. Susan Ohanian has been documenting the so-called reform movement since NCLB was first put into law. She has accumulated a decade’s worth of evidence, commentary, op-eds, news articles, and opinion on her website, and has also authored several books on the subject. She was my first source when I began following the politics of “reform” back in the early years of NCLB. Her wonderfully satirical style makes reading about the destructiveness of “reform” just a little less depressing. Her crusade against the common core (sic) is the natural continuation of years of tireless writing and research.
Check out her website! http://susanohanian.org/
Thank you Susan!
LikeLike