I received an email from a parent in Long Island who has decided to join the campaign against high-stakes testing. She blames Common Core for her children’s unhappiness with school, but Common Core is just the latest manifestation of the testing obsession embedded in No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top. She blogs, writes letter, button holes elected officials. She is fighting for her children and for all other children. With more parents like her, we could turn this situation around.
She writes:
Hi Ms. Ravitch,
I’m a Mom from Long Island, NY. I would like to share my story about how my son’s kindergarten experience was Hijacked by the Common Core and how this has motivated me to fight harder for Public Education. I attached a picture of the sad reality of what Kindergarten has looked like this year for my son.
My son started Kindergarten this past September and my daughter entered the second grade. I thought my son would love kindergarten since he loved the Universal Pre K program, but I was wrong, he hates school. I asked my son why he hates school and he said “It’s not fun and all we do is work and it’s too hard.” Knowing my daughter had a wonderful experience in Kindergarten two years prior I thought my son was giving me excuses. I thought maybe he was having trouble making friends, so I asked the teacher and she said, “No everybody loves Mikey. He is very compliant and eager to please.” Then the Pearson worksheets and graded math tests started appearing in my son’s folder. Then I realized my son was right, there is too much work and most of the content was way too hard for a kindergartner. My son’s kindergarten experience has not fostered a love of learning but it has fostered a hatred for school.
When my 5 year old said I rather be dead than go to school I knew I had to do something more than just opt out of testing.
I increased my research into CCSS, created a Refusal Guide for state tests which is being circulated on LI, in NYS, and nationally, attended the United Opt Out rally in Washington DC for 4 days to occupy the DOE, and began political action by contacting and visiting state politicians.
My research has led me to a new philosophy.
State and federal Education departments have been applying band aide after band aide on our current education system for the past 50 years. Education Reform has become part of the norm. We create policy after policy, mandate after mandate, yet nothing changes for the better. It’s time to rip off the band aides and start developing a whole new system.
In order to have a strong education system we need to rid the old one and develop a whole new education system; an education system designed by educators who have spent years in a classroom, instead of our current system that has been designed by lawyers, politicians and corporations.
Thank you for taking the time to read about my Son’s Kindergarten Experience
Warm Wishes,
Sara Wottawa
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Diane we must fight for our kids! No one is willing to speak up, not even our PTAs!
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Please sign our petiton http://www.thepetitionsite.com/565/297/356/new-york-to-withdraw-from-the-common-core/
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I would be curios to know what wound this parent believes the band aide of reforms has been seeking to cover over the last 50 years.
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http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/16c.htm Maybe this???
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You might enjoy this talk:http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_build_a_school_in_the_cloud.html
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I was taken with Mitra’s idea several years ago, when I came across it in Design Like You Give a Damn, but now I’m skeptical. Kids need REAL cognitive experiences, not abstract (Piaget), and Mitra is susceptible to being overwhelmed or co-opted by the corporate reform agenda.
I’ve read Gatto, I think he has an agenda, too, but Inglis’s observations struck a chord with me.
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The first reform change that smacked me in the face was “the new math” that I met in the early sixties when my family moved from one area of the country to another. That was the end of my friendship with math: set theory and base 2 confused the bejesus out of me. I don’t remember much else being any different. We sat in rows, raised our hands, listened to lectures,…Over the years, elementary school seemed to get more participatory. My kids did a lot less sitting in rows and raising hands. Teaching got tougher with each new state mandate but the expectations lost their grip on reality with the advent of NCLB. I didn’t experience the full brunt of the mania as a teacher until I moved out of my suburban cocoon. Now I have shelves of books on teaching tricks that are supposed to keep each and every student actively engaged. At the same time, the technology folk added their mantra and in more recent years the data gurus have joined the chorus. Add into this mix a mad race to nowhere, since educating our children is not a race, and you end up with some seriously miffed people. Hallelujah!
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WELL SAID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
AGREE!!1
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She is right. It has been all band aides. Look at Trailblazers, Every Day Math, and every other mandate that has come down on teachers. One year it’s direct instruction the next year it’s reading workshop. Then there are the useless hours spent in staff development on new methods that teachers are supposed to implement with very little training yet children were tested on the CC curriculum when it has yet to be fully implemented. And knowing scores will be lower, no one has stated if these scores will be used as a punitive measure for teachers. Now there is Danielson and it hasn’t even been put forth officially in NYC, but teachers are being judged by those rubrics. Insane!!
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Please sign our petiton http://www.thepetitionsite.com/565/297/356/new-york-to-withdraw-from-the-common-core/
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Oh, no–I got goose bumps, & this letter put tears in my eyes…again. Go, Sara! Show this to EVERY kindergarten parent you know, and have them send it to EVERY kindergarten parent THEY know. I HAD a kindergartener (back when kindergarten was what it was SUPPOSED to be–literally, a child’s garden. I taught kindergarten when our children LEARNED and PLAYED and were NOT given tests, tests, worksheets and tests. NO kindergartener should hate school. Grrrrrr. Principals, pick up some Piaget (as well as some cojones!) and say “NO!” to Pear$on, say “No!” to any superintendent and/or school board that is pushing this INSANE curriculum (not even worthy of being deemed curriculum–let’s just call it what it is–child abuse). Oh–and, yes, let’s compare ourselves to Finland–I recently attended a speech given by Pasi Sahlberg (Finnish Minister of Education–basically, he actually DOES the job that Arne FAILS to do ): “Finnish lesson #3: SCHOOLS ready for CHILDREN, NOT CHILDREN ready for SCHOOLS.” Parents, keep a close eye on your children’s kindergartens and–if you’ve found what Sara has or hear similar complaints from your children, DO SOMETHING–have a meeting with other class parents, compare notes and if you have the same situation TAKE your child’s garden BACK! Only YOU can advocate for your child!
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the
world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”–Margaret Mead
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You are right that those advocating CCSS need to read Piaget…also Vygotsky, Bronfenbrenner, and many others. I’m not holding my breath, however. Dr. Ravitch’s posts about the development of CCSS indicate that only one classroom teacher was consulted. I suspect that NO ONE with any knowledge of child development or early childhood education was consulted. And NO ONE with any background or knowledge about learning disabilities. I am shocked by the ignorance and contempt “reformers” have for true research and scholarship about children and learning.
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Please sign the petition http://www.thepetitionsite.com/565/297/356/new-york-to-withdraw-from-the-common-core
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Please, everyone keep in mind that, whenever you are advocating for developmentally appropriate practice for Kindergarteners, you must always say “and younger,” because the Obama/Duncan push for Universal Preschool means academics, drilling, worksheets and testing for Preschoolers as well…. Arghhh!
Early Childhood Specialist
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Yes, you are right. Here in Connecticut the state DOE has been busy developing draft CCSS standards for pre-K. This breaks my heart. I’m glad my own children, now grown, got the real deal: blocks, paint, pretend play, swings, marvelous picture books, nature walks, puzzles, toy trains and cars, dolls, construction paper, and so much more.
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Yes–sorry about that. I also meant to add this quote from Vivian Gussin Paley, renowned Early Childhood expert (U. of Chicago/U. of Chicago Lab. School!) and author:
“The work of children is play.”
Children have their work, then, and it is NOT Pearson worksheets.
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How bout a return to local control, classical education, pursuit of happiness, good citizenship and scholarship. See ben Franklin and the founders of University of Pennsylvania documents.
The ” mind arson ” of outcome based education, and all its stepchildren and cousins is destructive and that seems to be the point. Forget orwellian charters, have we not all read ” the Giver ” and seen the hunger games,omg! Parents need to wake up and read this pearson/ coleman /gates curriculum and like your previous post exposing it, revolt. When control of education was highjacked by freudo marxists and how kids learn became the focus, kids became guinea pigs for political power and here we have the results. My kindergartener was bullied by her teacher about her wardrobe . I dressed her in tights and skirts and maryjanes and everyday she came home and said, mrs. Blank said why dont i wear pants? Mrs blank said my shoes make too much noise. Mrs blank said the boys could see my underwear… Thank goodness it was half day. The response i got from the robot guidance councillor: ” we educate all the children “. I knew the system was rigged against parents and certain kids. Of course this teacher wore jeans and sweatshirts, my daughter wore bows and dresses. Social justice? She was a bully and had tenure and i found out later how many other parents had similar bullying from her. She is still there 7 years later. My point is, social justice, social and emotional learning, skinner, freud, all this clandestine emphasis on psychology and equity are torture for kids and have mutated the curriculum enough to render the pearson et all continuous dumbing down, mistake laden greed seeking to bring us common core and kids who hate school at 5 years old, and consider suicide by 12.
Retrenchment rather than utopia seeking seems a far better choice for our children and society. Teach the basics. Get rid of the mindbending, spoon benders conjured by both cultural marxism and greedy banksters, left right is irrelavent. They will be whoever will fool us. Read alinsky. Read gramsci.
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So sad. There is a video floating around of a kindergarten class in a CCSS Engage NY math lesson. It’s heartbreaking, what’s sad is that Engage NY is highlighting this as a great lesson.
The students are disengaged, the teacher is automatic, it’s a training session for monkeys. The teacher claps prior to moving to next frame of dots. It’s awful really. Pavlov’s dogs.
Am sure Montesorri is not teaching this way.
Why are we not using past research based instruction models like the brilliant minds of Vygotsky, Piaget, Gerber?????
In grad school these were my professor’s heroes.My kids attended a daycare/preschool rich in discovery based on these teachings.
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I think I would be great if public school students had the opportunity to attend a Montessori school.
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Cant resist this…your Freudian slip is showing..
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Sara is part of our group parents and teachers against common core Please sign the petition to have ny withdraw from common core. Please sign the petition http://www.thepetitionsite.com/565/297/356/new-york-to-withdraw-from-the-common-core
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This is sad, – but all too true! I tell my second grade students about what Kinder was like when I went, some 63 years ago, and to them, it is a different world! I tell them about the dress up and role play corner, about the easels where everyone got a turn to paint every week, about making special holiday crafts (I still have some of them), about the story circle, about outside play which included scooters and rideable toy cars as well as a sand box and swings. And then I tell them how we got milk and cookies, or a fruit, every day, right before we hit the mats for a ‘nap’. The groans and gasps from my students fill the air!
When I got to first grade, I learned to read without too much effort (perhaps because I really wanted to, and I was ready), I had a good grasp of numbers (when you have to share things, you work out how many children can share with you), and I just knew school was the best thing that could happen to me.
I taught fourth grade for four years. The last year I did, I counted all the days I had to give tests to those students, both classroom and state, formative and summative, and it was more days than we were in school! It was breaking my heart! I asked for a reassignment to second grade.
Because of the time constraints and content expectations in Kinder and first grade, and the large class sizes, my students arrive in second grade unable to cut a straight line with scissors, holding their pencils incorrectly, forming their letters and numbers badly, and counting on their fingers. They have problems reversing letters, tracking lines in print, and keeping their bodies in a chair. They have social skills deficits and have turned harassing each other into an art form. All those things could be handled in Kinder, if the students didn’t have to reach Common Core standards!
In addition, they are already so blasé about tests (we start MAP testing in Kinder), that some of them just ‘click through’ the computerized tests, and achieve losses in their scores.
I keep reading that the education system in Finland is the model and basis for Common Core. In Finland, they don’t start school until they are 8 years old, and they have universal pre-school. When they start Kinder, they are ready to learn to read! Five year old children are not ready, and yet, that is what we expect from them.
We are killing the future of our country by not letting small children just be kids in school! My Kinder experience was full and rich, and memorable! We are turning it into something the students want to forget. How sad!
Judi Lister 2nd Grade Teacher
Sent from my iPad.
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Judith,
Thank you for your thoughtful comments. I am 62 years old and have the same wonderful memories of my own kindergarten experiences. A half century from now, will today’s children cherish and relish the same precious memories about their first school experiences? Sadly, tragically, I doubt it.
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My kindergarten was the same, i still have a giant psychadelic painted paper mache elephant i made in kindergarten, same cookies milk, nap, art play, alphabet, numbers , stories… Joyful. I loved my teacher, she wore a dress and looked professional, not sweats.
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I agree with the mom from Long Island. We are fighting hard in Alabama to stop Common Core for a variety of reasons. I also think the USDOE needs to be drastically reduced in its size,t outreach and top heavy beaucracy. Let the states take control of education. So many private and charter schools and voucher programs have been started due to the endless rules , bureacracy and I must say SOME of the teacher Unions/ tenure rules.. Political correctness and refusal to require accountability and responsibility for the parent/parents have added alot to the mix.. Keep up your fight.
Now there is big money to be had in the new tech world of educating our children, which I think leaves less parental control to the input the child receives in school and the non-academic data that will be shared amongst many corps.
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Dear Diane,
I would like to bring to your reader’s attention a recent article in Shanker Blog that uncritically praises common core; this was my comment:
Shanker Blog » Can The Common Core Standards Reverse The “Rising Tide Of Mediocrity”?
Lisa,
You invoke the name of Al Shanker in your praise of the stampede to the Common Core for all; do you really believe this revered man would sign off on an initiative so poorly researched, with little or no mechanism for effective teacher feedback? At the risk of sounding condescending, I urge you and your readers to do your homework before adding your voices to such a potentially harmful course for education; this article is a good place to start:
A tough critique of Common Core on early childhood education
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/01/29/a-tough-critique-of-common-core-on-early-childhood-education/
Comment by Rangoon78
April 28, 2013 at 10:07 AM
http://shankerblog.org/?p=8233&cpage=1#comment-113950
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Sound like spin, consider the source, 2 clicks and i found this page on her org’s site
http://www.coreknowledge.org/mimik/mimik_live_data/view.php?id=194&sp_id=10&record_id=59
Classic hegelian dialectic, she suggests in her title that common core is the answer to a vaguely stated fiction ” rising tide of mediocrity”. Imbedding in the vulnerable reader the false narrative that gave rise to common core nationalized education.
Thesis: education is becoming more mediocre: ed is broken
Antithesis: common core is only hope to fix it, raise bar
Synthesis : acceptance of some or all of nationalized takeover of ed
Propaganda 101
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AMEN to all the above. On the way home from spring break, my kindergartner said she did not want to go back to school. She has sweet teachers and loves her classmates. She is a smart and social child. She is active. Her teacher does the best she can to keep some fun in kindergarten but she covers the curriculum. A “good” teacher, she meets the expectations set for her from principal, district, state. So, level is too high, too many worksheets. No children’s garden, for sure.
The conversation went something like this,
Olivia- Mommy, I don’t want to go back to school. For my birthday (which was the following week), will you homeschool me?
Me- (having heard similar comments about not wanting to return a few times over spring break and several times over winter break and knowing she would say it is too much work) Oh sweetie, it is springtime! I think you will do some fun things during these last weeks of school.
Olivia- Well, will you text my teacher and tell her not to give us too much work?
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My son’s 5th grade teacher told me after asking her how much of the curriculum was common core, that it was100%. she also said confidentially that she would not recommend teaching to anyone. She is 30, and like so many teachers she is on maternity leave and may not come back. This is private Catholic school. Everybody has been duped by common core schemers.
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As a kindergarten teacher from Canada, this breaks my heart. I am so thankful I have not been pushed into a system where I teach my students how to perform mindless tasks without play being the main focus of their precious childhood. It’s comforting to know I teach in a school district, as well as in a city, province, and country, that supports me as a professional to make kindergarten how it should be – filled with fun, laughter, and meaningful learning experiences. All the experiences that happened 62 years ago according to some of the comments above. I will be thinking of you in your fight against Common Core in order to make kindergarten how it was intended to be.
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