David Coleman, the architect of the Common Core and now president of the College Board, once famously said–in a presentation at the New York State Education Department–that as you grow older, you learn that “people really don’t give a s–t what you feel or what you think.” And so students will be reading more “informational text”–not prose, not nonfiction, but “informational text,” which sounds like instruction manuals or textbooks. But it turns out that some very important people think that it matters very much what you feel. They even care what you think. One of them is the celebrated poet ee cummings.
You see, if we learn to think critically, we will think critically about the advice of those who tell us what to do and how to think and when it is appropriate to feel, or not.
“since feeling is first”
e.e. cummings
since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;
wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world
my blood approves,
and kisses are a better fate
than wisdom
lady i swear by all flowers. Don’t cry
—the best gesture of my brain is less than
your eyelids’ flutter which says
we are for each other: then
laugh, leaning back in my arms
for life’s not a paragraph
And death i think is no parenthesis
Diane Ravitch's blog 
i did not realize ee cumings wrote this poem to respond to the common core. thanks for putting it in its propper historical context.
LikeLike
I assume you are being cynical since E.E. Cummings died in 1962. Your comment is the perfect illustration of someone who has not learned critical thinking. I believe Diane’s point, and the point of the poem she gets from the poem, is that what we think and feel about learning, developing a passion for learning about life, is lacking in Common Core. As someone who I assume is a supporter of Common Core, reading manuels and textbooks for test data, you cannot comprehend what a passion for learning is.
LikeLike
philaken, friend, thanks for the ad hominem argument, but i actually have a degree in english studies and can perfectly comprehend both the interpretation of the poem diane is leveraging, as well as the point of the post.
what i’m being sarcastic about (not cynical, if we’re going to get all ivory tower about english, we should use the right words), is the framing of this poem as “ee cummings on the common core” (see diane’s title). ee cummings did not write this poem about the common core. or even about learning standards, as they did not exist in his lifetime. to frame it as such is to intentionally overstate. i’m disappointed in diane and calling her out. she is a brilliant woman who can argue the merits of the common core (or lack thereof) without stooping to fox-news-style sensationalism and misdirects.
i also think it’s unbelievably ironic that diane would make such a hermeneutical misstep with this text when the proper use of informational texts (like a biography of cummings, or critical theory essays, etc), would have helped her to better situate cummings in light of the common core.
the poem *certainly* can be brought to bear on our current educational situation. but let’s use our words accurately and with precision.
LikeLike
To “a,”
Re ee cummings: think irony.
Diane
LikeLike
a, she shared a poem and is making a thematic connection to current events. What about that is hard to understand?
LikeLike
I agree with a that the headline/title is off kilter. I could have been worded something to the effect “eecummings on feelings vs Coleman’s ‘. . . no one gives a shit. . ‘”
But then again I’m a tad cruder than Diane-ha ha!
LikeLike
Jim Morgan: you are stating the obvious, namely, that Diane was “making a thematic connection to current events.” So you wonder, as I do, how could that have been misinterpreted?
Perhaps there are clues that can lead us to reinterpret the author’s original intent. Now there’s a lot of us down at Pink Slip Bar & Tavern that toss around phrases like “hermeneutical misstep” and decry the use of “fox-news-style sensationalism and misdirects” all the time—especially after a few sips of Edushyster’s fine wines. Just for starters, Socrates [an old Greek guy, all questions and no answers but aside from that pesky habit a standup sort of fella] and a few of the regular posters on this blog.
But truth be told, that not typical talk. So I asked myself: could this be a very clever dig at the edufrauds? You know, a parody of the eduspeak so common among the self-styled education reformers, i.e., “An imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect.”
So there you have it. Touché! Or as Tommy Smothers used to say: “Touchy! Touchy!”
With all the dreadful news we see and hear, I am reminded once again of Mark Twain’s observation that “Humor is mankind’s greatest blessing.”
We all need a good laugh now and again.
🙂
P.S. Thank you, Diane, for the poem.
🙂
P.P.S. Duane Swacker: still think you can’t quantify a quality like humor? 13th percentile get you a 90th that someone will figure it out!
🙂
LikeLike
KrazyTA,
Your on and I’ll take the 13th percentile as 13 is one of my favorite numbers (along with 666)! I’ll leave the rheally better percentile (it has to be better because it’s higher right!) for you!!
LikeLike
Deliciously funny title that Diane gave to this post! Love it!
LikeLike
One of my all-time favourite poems, and one I’ve read to classes many times.
LikeLike
I don’t care what David Coleman thinks..
LikeLike
I don’t either. Unfortunately, Bill Gates does, therefore Duncan does, therefore Rahm does, therefore Cuomo does, therefore Reformy John King does, and therefore what we teachers care about, which is our students, is of no importance in this brave new reformy world.
LikeLike
For now, Arthur. For now
LikeLike
I am in my sixties but can still remember my first exposure to ee cummings in high school. A gift from my high school English teacher that showed me how art and writing doesn’t have to fit into neat little boxes (or bubbles!). Thank you, Mr. Murphy.
LikeLike
A good boss DOES care what their employees think or feel. A real professional is respected (like say, a teacher), is given input into how their workplace develops, and has opinions that may not necessarily be expressed emotionally in flowery language, are still opinions that are based on a large number of factors.
The boss that doesn’t care about how their employees feel is the one who perceives their employees as tools to a financial end that are highly replaceable. Otherwise yes – a boss does need to consider whether their workplace is “happy” for those who work for them.
If he doesn’t believe me, here’s an informational text. It’s called the Family and Medical Leave Act. It’s legislation that we put in place to make sure that people’s OTHER non-work needs (a family) are respected and so that women especially, were not punished for being human beings. The world is not as cold and unfeeling as he’d make it out to be.
LikeLike
I noticed that when SLC became inBloom all of the SLC document links on NYSED Board of Regents meetings were now fresh & sanitized inBloom words. I have wondered since then if it’s illegal to replace one document voted on with another.
Essentially, I am saying the record doesn’t reflect what the Regents voted on. I will go back to find the examples however I distinctly remember seeing the replacement documents & thinking it didn’t seem OK. The record should reflect the record, not something new entered into the system.
LikeLike
David Coleman is obviously not an educator but one selfish SOB, for the moron would realize that as we get older, myself included, (my 60th birthday is Tuesday July 9th) I read more relaxing non fiction and less instructional reading matter.
Cucooclock Coleman’s other comment, “as we get older you learn“people really don’t give a s–t what you feel or what you think.” is NOT TRUE because the people that matter to us are the ones that do give a sh*** as to how you feel and think. It is those that are meaningful to us,..our friends, perhaps family, neighbors, colleagues, respected professionals who we deal with in our lives…they are the ones whose thoughts and statements we put a value on and not the idiots of the world like Coleman, the reformists, the greedy corporates who are out there for the sole purpose of acquiring huge profits any way they can get them (through privatization) ….
LikeLike
Uplifting, Dr. Ravitch. Thank you.
LikeLike
Thank you for reminding us of this beautiful poem. David’s often quoted line about the adult world not giving a shit about what you think and feel was the one line that turned me off to the Common Core as soon as I heard it. What about drama, art, poetry, novels, Op-ed pieces, etc.? I thought he was a literature major. Does he have no regard for the power of literature to enter people’s minds and hearts and deepen their humanity? If anything, this is what our suffering world needs most. The Common Core is not about deepening humanity, not about empathy, not about flexibly dealing with the terrible injustices of the world humans have contrived. It’s about technocratic efficiency and reducing complex human activities to meaningless numbers. It’s about control. It’s about maintaining the power structure and excluding the masses. And they have the nerve to say it’s for the children. They have instituted quasi-witch hunts that humiliate students and teachers and schools for irrational and mercenary motives. Maybe we should bring back other medieval tools, like the pillory. David, Bill, Arne, Eli, and their ilk should be ashamed of their handiwork. Future generations will look back on this period with profound dismay. How did we let it go on for so long and harm so many beautiful children, families, and teachers?
LikeLike
Hmm . . . didn’t the Odell Education Sample Common Core lessons published this past year include a considerable amount of memoir or argument based upon personal experience: e.g. the Jobs Commencement speech? Sojourner Truth? What about “A Long Walk to Water” which is the core text for the grade 7 Expeditionary Learning CC unit, or the core texts for the grade 6 and 8 Expeditionary Learning CC units . . . ????
I think the readers of this blog widely recognize the absurdity and embarrassment of Coleman’s unfortunate remark. Of greater concern now is the impact he will have, indirectly, on the development of a national curriculum. If the redesigned SAT tests require engagement with specific texts (see his remarks here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1jn7XZc93Q&feature=youtu.be at time stamp starting approximately 1:11:50 “Public Education Challenges and Possibilities”) what impact will this have on the curricular and instructional decisions in grade 9-10-11 classrooms? Not that I object to the study of our nation’s founding documents . . . but I object to the indirect determination of a national curriculum through a privately owned and operated assessment company.
LikeLike
The stress on informational texts comes from a goofy, superfifial “analysis” of NEAP as follows:
In 2009, the grade 12 NAEP was comprised of reading passages that happened to fall in the percentages 70% informational text and 30% literary text. So, Coleman and other primary drafters of CCSS, College Board and ACT, decided that grade 12 students must have this ratio (70-30) across all courses during their senior year in order to prepare for… what? The unwritten CCSS assessments at the time that this rule was made? The NAEP? College success?
70-30 is the magic number to prepare seniors across the nation (did I write “nation”? I meant across the “state-by-state”) for some flimsy idea of “college and career readiness.”
The above nonsense is explained in a footnote in this link:
Click to access CCSSI_ELA%20Standards.pdf
LikeLike
superficial
LikeLike
You have to be NON-FEELING to KILL with DRONES. You have to be NON-FEELING to for OLD MEN to SEND YOUNG PEOPLE to WAR for OIL. You have to be NON-FEELING to do what our MOST CORRUPT GOVERNMENT is DOING to OUR OWN CITIZENS and OTHERS of the WORLD. THIS IS WHY “FEELINGS” dont matter and onlly NONFICTION does. Anyone connecting the dots? And YOU HAVE TO BE NON-FEELING to be running either a for profit and non-profit organization. The BOTTOM LINE IS $$$$$, the source of ALL EVIL.
LikeLike
Yvonne,
Agree totally except your last statement. $$$$$ or money are/is not the source/root of all evil. Good can come about through using an exchange medium, i.e., dollars or whatever you call the monetary unit.
The LOVE of $$$$$ is the root of all EVIL. (an oft misquoted aphorislm)
LikeLike
agree 100%
LikeLike
Believe me on this one…WE ARE STILL A RACIST AND SEXIST COUNTY and guess who gets all the perks and all he rasberries.
LikeLike
Thank you Diane
LikeLike
Poetry?
Check the box for “Ineffective.”
If poets, as Shelley said, are the unacknowledged legislators of the world, then David Coleman is the unacknowledged Pinochet, helping to engineer a coup against humanistic education.
LikeLike
Kind of like when Nietzsche said God is dead, maybe God had the last laugh. Coleman says people don’t care what you think, more irony because he’s right, soon enough few will care what Coleman thinks.
LikeLike
VERY FUNNY, DIANE!!!
LikeLike
“David Coleman, the architect of the Common Core and now president of the College Board, once famously said…,’people really don’t give a s–t what you feel or what you think.’ ”
How undemocratic. This type of thinking justifies bullies. I once read that one of America’s most important contributions to civilization was suffrage, which is just another way to codify that our thoughts are important. That’s what democracy is about…
http://www.bartleby.com/109/20.html
LikeLike
I once had to testify at the legal hearing about the firing and prosecution of the school district’s business manager. (Yes, he was stealing by “using” district funds and then returning them later.)
The attorney he hired got in my face while I was testifying and yelled, “Answer yes or no, as I direct you to do!” (It was of the “Do you still beat your wife?” category of trap question.)
I threw my head back and laughed aloud as I turned to the judge and asked, “Is this guy serious?”
The judge laughed and then controlled himself by saying, “Just answer his question honestly.”
Yes, I did that intentionally. Yes, my critical thinking skills helped to dump that thief.
To this day, I’m proud of that.
I told the court what I felt, and informational framed text be damned.
LikeLike
cummings is saying, in precis, “don’t think, feel; let’s make love now, because we’re going to die.” It’s a sort of modern version of TO HIS COY MISTRESS. So, what is Diane’s point? That feeling is to be preferred to wisdom? Or the reverse?
LikeLike
Did the above just happen at a site for education activism? #doomed
LikeLike