Three days ago, I posted about a new group formed to stop Common Core in New York.
I watched and saw vehement arguments among the comments, especially about the extent to which the group was bipartisan or nonpartisan.
The group is called Stop Common Core in New York State. Here is the link to the website: www.stopccssinnys.com or www.stopcommoncoreinnewyork.com. It has a FB group page https://www.facebook.com/groups/607166125977337/
A reader contacted me offline and said she watched part 1 of the group’s video and was disturbed to see the narrator refer to Linda Darling-Hammond as a radical progressive and a friend of Bill Ayers. I want to disassociate myself from these words, and I think the new group should as well. I don’t know whether she is a friend of Bill Ayers, and I don’t care. She is my friend, and I respect her and her scholarship.
Linda Darling-Hammond is one of the most respected education scholars in the nation. If the anti-Common Core group hopes to build a nonpartisan coalition, it should avoid insulting people like Linda and stick to the facts.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Whatever our political stripe we should concentrate on Common Core, not on our disagreements about other people and issues. I am not a fan of Bill Ayers, but I’m an opponent of Common Core. Let’s build coalitions around issues. We don’t need distractions.
Diane, Linda is what this country needed as Secretary of Education, Obama’s first big mistake. She has common sense, insight and compassion unlike the current Secretary of the DOE. To call her radical in any sense tells me all I need to know about this group’s mindset. We need progressives in this fight. Along with you Linda is a shining light in this deep, dark void of corruption known as public education reform. I do not like Common Core, but this group doesn’t not represent me in any shape or form. They need to stop and/or go away before they hurt our cause.
Rickarcher1959 and Diane,
It is indeed dark times in education and ordinary citizens living in NYS are fearful and lashing out. Sometimes, it will be a case of “throwing the baby out with the bathwater” as my grandmother used to say.
It’s easy to judge our citizens, but it’s difficult to understand. It’s easy to condemn, but impossible to have patience when you believe you are on the high road. Isn’t this how we got here?
Please don’t alienate people who are on your side. They just don’t have all the information or may not agree with her Linda Darling-Hammond or a lying because they have an agenda. But Diane, you are in a different position they the rest of us are.
Pamela Stemberg
Wish I could edit…
Pamela,
I respect your opinion, however I disagree with you on this. I don’t want anything to detract from the fight on Common Core. I can and do, like Diane, want to distance myself from those that believe differently than I do about other subjects besides CC. If they want keep to the topic and keep any media they put out strictly to that point I have no issue. That’s as much as I will say.
Part of the problem with the right wing branch of the anti-Common Core group is their right wing beliefs. I recently read a blog post from someone who complained that CC will have students learning about Barack Hussein Obama and Che Guevara, but not Ronald Reagan. Really.
Why do RWNJs focus on all this FANTASY stuff when there are lots of “reality”-based reasons to not like CC or the president?
I would tend to believe that my beliefs are much more conservative than yours but I choose to focus on facts and data in my arguments against Common Core, not personal attacks. If some of the people who espouse my position on Common Core are opponents on other issues and people, so be it. Let’s be allies on this.
Amen!
Great point! The short answer is because they ARE RWNJs and they are haters. Logic isn’t part of the equation.
As a rational member of the Right Wing Nut Jobs, let me just calmly note that President Obama is arguably the worst president this country has ever seen from the point of view of the economy and the expansion of the state and ignoring of constitutional limitations on the actions of the executive (Fast and Furious, IRS, Benghazi, Obamacare [the ‘mandate’ is not a tax, even though Chief Justice Roberts changed his mind and voted to uphold it], the still large deficit, and on and on). Che Guevara was a communist revolutionary murderer. Ronald Reagan brought the country out of a recession, and was instrumental in bringing down the USSR. If the common core holds up the two former as heros and ignores the latter, you can’t really blame conservatives for worrying about the specific materials which will be suggested to teachers to read. There has been so much leftist indoctrination in the schools already, most teachers don’t even notice it. If you all here don’t care to work with parents who may seem a little paranoid to you about content, you have that right. This all reminds me in a very distant way of the destruction of American Communist Party credibility in the late thirties when Stalin made a non-aggression pact with Hitler to buy time for rearming against the inevitable moment when they knew Hitler would turn east on them, whom he saw as his real enemy. At the time it put the American Communists in a rather bad position. Now in this day and age, the refusal of so many here to want to get in bed with the tea party even when they share a common enemy, the CC, is a little embarrassing, I suspect to Diane. It doesn’t surprise ME, because I have you number, though I can’t help liking most of you anyway. When they say politics make strange bedfellows, they mean in a polity where the practical necessity of getting things done prevails. But where ideology commands politics, as it does on this list, I can’t imagine many of you wanting to unite behind a cause with people for whom you not only have contempt, but if you were seen with any of them on the street, might ruin your credentials with the rest of the radical progressive community. Recently, I signed Elizabeth Warren’s petition to reinstate Glass/Stegall. I felt a little strange doing so, but the banking industry in this country is SO screwed up in my opinion that I think we do need to go back and separate consumer banking from investment banking, which I don’t understand, am fearful off, and to which I attribute the beginning of the last recession. So what if Elizabeth Warren is a .60% Cherokee, a Harvard radical kook, and God Save Us a “Democrat,” the most corrupt political party since, since, since . . . well since they ruled the South during Jim Crow, but she is right, in my view, on this issue. Can’t you hold your ideological pure noses and help those tea party, family values, (Gulp, possibly even Christian—Shudder, shudder, shudder), people eviscerate a big-testing, data gathering, score-depressing, possibly invalid (Yay, Duane), certainly inhumane (Yay, both Roberts) testing regimen that tries to impose national curriculum standards in an end run on the Constitution, can’t you just suck it up a bit?
No. I didn’t think so.
Harlen, my sincere thanks for validating my warning regarding those with the tin foil caps. Your rendition of history clearly demonstrates you have had your for a long time.
Your description of Elizabeth Warren is disgraceful, even for a right wing nut. Reagan’s economy was built on sand.. his trickle down theory was a failure that conservatives refuse to give up on.
I am against the Common Core due to my concerns about sound pedagogy .. the Right’s concerns are based in conspiratorial theories based in politics. Big difference Harlan.
The Right is looking for political hay
.. I am looking for sound teaching strategies based in research.
rratto,
I am much more of a left wing nut job and voted for Obama, twice. I do think there are many many deals in place that we have no clue about. I read something today about the money Obama took from Gates in return for some educational direction from his foundation. So just because you are a conspiracy right wing nut job, doesn’t mean you are actually wrong.
Since the middle class is practically non-existent and has so little money, we cannot influence elections. Only the people who have pilfered the coffers of America can buy and sell elections, so they can pilfer the rest of the money. Like the taxes we pay for education, because that is what everyone is after. I didn’t know Georgia has an education budget of 13 billion annually. Wow that’s a lot of money when you begin to look at how much each state spends annually. I’d want to buy a few elections myself if I had the chance to get even 3% of that money from a bunch of states.
We need to keep our eyes on the prize. And what’s that? Common Core needs to go along with high stakes testing.
Pam
There is so much wrong with this post, so much misinformation and political confusion, that I cannot address it so late in the day. I will another time, but the only thing I agree with is reinstating Glass-Steagall.
Thanks Laura – I just posted something similar on Facebook. I am at a loss as to why they are so hysterical about their opposition. There is plenty that is rational in opposition to CCSS.
You amaze me every day!
Sent from my iPhone
Some of these anti-common core groups are run by Tea Party types who are conspiracy theory believers. This group and the LI based “parent and teachers against the common core” are dominated by extreme right wing ideology. They are quick to ban those who defend teachers unions.
This group is hosting ameeting where Neal McCluskey ,the associate director of Cato’s Center for Educational Freedom is a featured speaker. I have had some interesting run in with him. Here is a recent piece of his http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/now-lets-try-real-student-aid-reform
Here is a quote from a recent piece of his
“In addition, the disease of concentrated benefits and diffuse costs exists at all levels of government, but is worst at the federal level, which is most distant from the people the schools are supposed to serve. Special interests such as teachers unions have the most at stake in education policy — it controls teachers’ and administrators’ livelihoods, after all — and therefore are the most motivated to be involved in education politics. The result is that the people you would hold accountable have the most influence over the accountability system, and because they are rational and self-interested like everyone else, they will try to hollow out the accountability system. Attaching money to children and letting parents choose among autonomous schools is the only way to escape this problem — accountability is then based on consumer choice, not drawn out, cumbersome political processes — but it is reduced the closer the system gets to the people to be served.”
He stands clearly for vouchers and considers unions a problem.
This is typical for this group.
Beware of those in the tin foil hats. That is why I wrote this.
Ralf, its astonishing that you make wild accusations like this with NO PROOF. We have NEVER banned somebody from our group because they made a comment about unions, NEVER. Right wing ideology, really? We came to your defense when you had your little Pearson issue. Do you think I then cared about whether you were right or left on issues? We came to a teacher’s aid.
Also your beef seems to be with me, leave the good folks of “parent and teachers against the common core” out of this discussion.
as you can tell, I have a major problem with the groups and individuals you give credence to on your sites. When you host anti teacher union advocates and pro voucher advocates you lose your ally status. Like the saying goes, you are either part f the problem or part of the solution. Any group that supports groups like the ones you do is part of the problem.
Ralf, its your constitutional right to not like us, but it is not your right make up lies about us.
Hey Glen, everything I posted tonight I found by starting with the links on your site.. you denying your speakers spoke at Glenn Becks Man on the moon event and that it was filmed by freedomworks? You denying Neil McClskey a director at Cato and anotherspeaker has written against teachers unions? Are you denying you dont support vouchers?
Are you denying this? It is easy for anyone to check. I have provided links for all my statements..
Ralf, no need to deny it. As I said on the original blog post of Diane, I will work with anybody who will fight Common Core. If Glenn Beck would invite my group on his show to talk about CC, I would go. If Rachel Maddow or Ed Schultz of MSNBC would ask us to come on, I would go too.
I am grateful to the speakers who are coming to our forum and are supporting our fight on Common Core. My wife and I are underwriting this one ourselves and are forgoing our 10 Year anniversary this year to fund it, out of our own pocket because we believe we need to fight this with all we have..
I would be more than happy to help you coordinate another such forum in NY with national experts on Common Core that are more to your liking. If you get the funding for it I will help you with the logistics, help you promote it and even put it on our web site. What you say?
Yes, let’s see if Ralf will put up as much as he speaks up. It’s the Trotskyites against the Stalinists. It’s more important to be ideologically correct than help the workers (students). Catholics and evangelicals won’t work together. Fascinating. Meanwhile the country’s education system goes down the drain. For want of a nail, the shoe was lost . . . .
Typical, but I understand. McCluskey puts his finger on the truth.
Let’s rethink this article. First, the video that is referred to is from the non partisan group, Pioneer Institute. I’m unclear how someone passing on a video from another group via posting it a FB page, brands the entire group. Second, the compliant should be with the videos author, not the person/group posting that information and letting the viewer draw their own conclusions. Last, the statement was a few seconds from a multi-part series about an hour long. Is that all you found? Again, why does one sentence from an independent group on an hour long that was posted on their site video deserve a public rebuke? Seems petty to label the group and shoot the messenger for passing along information.
The deeper you dig.. you discover more and more Tea Party roots.
That’s not a negative from my point of view. But then I get my thoughts through my tin-foil hat from the “great presence” hiding behind Jupiter. Does the future of your country meaning nothing to you sir?
You will also see links to the Pioneer Institute all over their web site. Here is a sample, touting Chris Christie plan for education in NJ
http://pioneerinstitute.org/news/paying-for-performance-in-the-garden-state/
Non-Partisan? Read, “The Pioneer Institute: Privatizing the Common Wealth” http://www.publiceye.org/libertarian/pioneer-institute/pi-summ.html
The NY group against common core is hosting a forum in Sept. where there will be a couple speakers from the Pioneer Institute, as well as from CATO, both of which promote the neo-liberal agenda to privatize public services..
According to the above report from Political Research Associates,
“Pioneer is one of the principal advocates of school vouchers, charter schools, and standardized testing.”
I asked them there were so many white people on the agenda especially in NY. No one wrote back.
neo liberal agenda? Is that another made up term?Pioneer and Cato are both conservative groups
Dear Diane,
With all due respect, the video you are referencing is not “our” video, but a Youtube video that talks about Common Core.and was created by the American Principals Project. This 5 part video series gives a lot of good information about how Common Core came to be. Not everybody might agree with all statements in the videos but it is still provides a good foundation on Common Core. It has served many well so we will continue to make it available to all and folks can make up their own mind. Obviously you disagree with the Linda Hammond Darling connection mentioned in that specific video, and that is of course your right. However yet again folks have jumped to conclusions and have condemned us without first looking at the detail of this specific item and what our overall fight is about. It is however truly scary that a disagreement on one specific sound bite, made by others, or the even the perception created by it can result into a public figure issuing a public warning to a group that is really on the same side. I truly respect your contribution to the fight on Common Core but again with all due respect that doesn’t sound very non-partisan to me.
If we do not come together as a whole, we will NOT defeat this. If we continue to argue and bicker about about small things like specific sound bites and some statements made by certain groups that we do not like and we continue to distance ourselves from them, we will NOT defeat this. We will and are playing straight into the creators of this mess as we will continue to be divided over minutia and we will have failed the most innocent of all in this tug-of-war, our beautiful children.
Again I thank you for giving our group the extra exposure, All we asked for was for more folks to support and join us if they wanted to fight this in New York State or just ignore us if you did not like our message. I just regret that folks decided that instead of looking at all the wonderful things the passionate members of this group have done, they would pick on the smaller things they did not like and then attack us full force without realizing they are attacking their own cause, their own children’s future. I guess we cannot get away from human nature.
Sincerely,
Glen Dalgleish
Supporting organizations that are anti teacher unions and pro vouchers is a major problem. Goes to the groups agenda and credibility. If you post it you must believe it
@rratto, WE are not against unions at all, another factoid on us just invented. We are for parent’s choice of education, we do not dictate to parents what education choice to make for their children. We are here for education, full stop. You picking out pro-vouchers goes to your credibility as we again never made that statement either. I also actively support the BadAss Teachers (BAT) group as I support public education too but nobody from out homeschoolers have held that against me. Go figure…
Your site highlights groups and individuals who are anti teach unions and pro vouchers. Badass also has the same credibility issue. You are who you CHOOSE to associate with, and clearly your site associates with these groups and individuals.
Heck, Cato institute? Founded by the Koch’s. can’t hide from that Glen
YES…the Kochs who are opening their own colleges to train legislators who will be their toadies. Cato is completely biased.
The Kochs there too!!!! I didn’t know they were involved is so much good work.
Glen, did you really think you’d get any support from a bunch of crypto communist public school teachers? They are wonderful people, serious about children, but even more serious about hating the tea party because the tea party does NOT support bigger and bigger government. They are aligned with the statists, the your Daddy is the State philosophy and they insist that every illegitimate, poor kid, be given a Rich Daddy. The tea party IS willing to look after their own kids and the kids of other two parent families. It’s a truly impossible dilemma, this destruction of the family, because clearly it isn’t the kid’s fault s/he was born to irresponsible parental units. Your heart goes out to them. We want even them, to have the promise of American opportunity. All would be well if money were not short in the states. Most of the good people on this site want to save every kid, and they think that to do so, they must figuratively put a gun to the head of anyone who has made a little money to extort it for their public school systems. And they are MAD AS HELL when someone says to them “No. Not this time. Not no more. Been there, done that.” What they don’t understand is that there really is an Agenda 21 from the united nations. They don’t care because in philosophy they support it. Its premise is “Take from the rich until everything is equal.” And, of course, its corollary, “The end justifies the means.” I wish it were not so, because I depend on the public schools to create and maintain a civil society, but when the supposed upholders of a civil society are preaching (in essence) Marxist tyrannny, and therefore are in support of those United Nations, world [communist] workers’ government, one is not surprised by their touchiness. I wouldn’t be surprised if EVERYONE HERE (except perhaps Diane) were a secret supporter of the Common Core even as they are all, including Diane, overt supporters of the state’s being in control of education. As the late great Kurt Vonnegut put it, “And so it goes.”
Crypto Communist teachers? Love it Harlan.. keep posting. Just makes my tin foil hat theory stronger and stronger
Harlan, consistently when you are given facts, you choose to reply with insults. Crypto communist teachers is disgusting and a major slap in the face to all the hard working teachers who strive to teach America’s children. I am getting to the point that if I see your name, I skip the comment. You never seemed to have learned critical thinking.
Kurt Vonnegut was a socialist who you would probably label a “crypto-communist.” Just saying…
Well said, Glen.
It is regrettable that we have become so polarized as a society that when we agree on an issue, nevertheless we cannot join together on that issue. This is largely a result of the rampant reliance on “entertainment-as-news” that so many have come to rely on as their sole source of information. Note…those programs and TV personalities are wholly owned by just one or two corporations. “We can get all the information we need right on tv,” said no-one ever.
I’m not so sure. I’m no scholar, but a broad brush says teapartiers, ‘rwnj’s’ etc., are unified under the standard of less fed intervention, more local control. The shoe fits when it comes to education. I believe our quarrel is with the neoliberals/ corporatists, who have shown us that changes contrary to public welfare can be brought to bear very swiftly when education is centralized. In this blog we understand well that so-called failures in educational achievement align with poverty, and with our country’s method of funding education via proprty taxes. I suggest that that is a different fight on a different front. For now, we need to take back local control, & I see the extreme right desplite their cultural differences as an ally.
neoliberals/corporatists? Really?
Careful because Diane is right about establishing distance. The extreme right will never be an ally precisely because of the “cultural differences”. They don’t like those differences, Spanish&French Freelancer. They don’t like them at all Sam I AM. So stand tall but don’t lean on people who are definitely not your friends.
Here is a link to a video done by Freedomworks at a Glen Beck event. 2 of Glen’s keynote speakers are highlighted. Get your tin foil hats on..http://whatiscommoncore.wordpress.com/tag/alisa-ellis/
Just a reminder that FreedomWorks comes to us from Dick Armey who invented the Tea Party and uses it to manipulate the Right Wing gun toters to foster hatred amongst the unachievers in our society and turn them loose to debase America with their ignorance. They do not understand the Constitution nor how government is organized but they do pay their dues to the NRA.
I have been reading recently how this caliber of thinker has invaded blog sites to disrupt any positive information leading to much needed change. I suggest not to engage with these folks but rather to ignore them and go on with our civilized interaction.
Hey Glen, also noticed on your FB page you too support Freedomworks and Sarah Palin.. Need I say more?
Ralf, boy you are clutching at straws. I have indeed “Like”‘d something they posted but I have also “likes” for articles or comments in or from Huffington Post, MSNBC, Chris Matthews, Diane Ravitch, Sandra Stotsky and so many others from the right, middle and left. If I PERSONALLY like a comment from somebody I will “like” it. You don’t need to say more. I am done with this nonsense.
I’ve sat back and watched this post for a bit. Thanks to those who spoke up.
I won’t get an apology or withdrawal from some of the crazy things said about me here in the last couple of days, but it doesn’t matter. When you’ve been in the fight as long as I have, it’s hard to be surprised by what you get called or what folks will claim to be (or deny that they are) even when it’s glaringly obvious, and in their own words and deeds.
I wrote versions of this and posted them privately and on FB today:
Obama isn’t the enemy. GWB isn’t the enemy. Bill Clinton isn’t the enemy. The Democrats aren’t the enemy. The Republicans aren’t the enemy. These are all merely puppets and fronts, for the most part, for the folks behind the entire education deform movement, of which the Common Core State (sic) Standards Initiative is but one part.
Those who are really clear about what’s going on know that trying to tie the Common Core to the current administration are either kidding themselves or misrepresenting their sudden interest in and concern about CCSSI. In less than four years, a blink of an eye, Obama will be out. Someone else, Democrat or Republican, will be in. But we will not be rid of Bill Gates, Eli Broad, the Coors Family, the Scaifes, the Koch Brothers, the Walton Family, the hedge-fund managers, and the other billionaires, multi-millionaires, and corporations whose goals are 1) destroy public democratic education by any means necessary; 2) replace it all with privately-managed “non-profit” schools and vouchers; 3) keep control of what gets taught in order to be able to corner the market on textbooks; 4) keep even tighter control on what gets tested and how; and 5) when the current miracle cures fail, control the process by which the next phony miracle cure is created and sold. It’s bloody brilliant. Disaster capitalism at its naked worst.
Anyone who claims to be anti-Common Core who is bending people’s ears about the UN, Obama, Obamacare, mind-control, and the rest of the tin-hat nonsense that’s being thrown about is a waste of my time. No, I don’t want to join forces with them, to pretend that we’re friends, that we share a common vision of education, democracy, or America. Because we don’t. And the behavior of some folks here the last few days made that crystal-clear. Talk about protesting a bit too much!
Warm thanks to Diane, to Ralph Ratto, to Cosmic Tinker, to Laura, to Joan Kramer, to Jeff Larsen, and others who spoke up here or on the Sunday post or on Facebook.
YES!!!
I agree. Anyone who can’t or won’t understand that what’s left of our government is being used as a sock puppet by hyper wealthy special interests ultimately has little to offer in the long run. THAT is the real source of the CCSS and many other problems, including the disinformation that leads to a belief in tin foil hat solutions (on all sides) in the first place.
Ralph,
I am one of the administrators of the Group Parent and Teachers against the Common Core and your accusations that the group is lead by extreme right wing ideology could not be further from the truth. In fact I’m registered Green Party I voted for Jill Stein! We are not Anti union we are upset that the union presidents sold out the teachers and accepted the whole APPR crap and took millions of dollars in grants from the Gates foundation. I understand you are an angry scorned teacher that was accused of tweeting test questions. You are obviously carrying a great deal of anger and resentment on your shoulders and must have been quite traumatized by your experience. I have a few names of excellent therapists that can help you work through your trauma.
Respectfully,
Sara Wottawa
Sara,
Your ad hominem attack is typical for your group. I posted links that backed up every one of my statements. Every link leads right back to your group.
You can not deny it
The thing that REALLY gives the game away is that Sara throws that abominable, undemocratic incident from last year in your face as if you were in the wrong there rather than an ethically bankrupt administration, some dead-wrong little official in upstate New York who got exercised about something you did that was not only legal, but which had already been done by the State itself. Anyone who opposes the whole Common Core boondoggle would recognize just how much that incident exemplifies the insane things going on in public schools BECAUSE of high-stakes testing mania.
There seems to be an emerging pattern here: point out the connections between these groups and extreme right-wing, Tea Party ideology, groups, and sites, and you’re told that you have no evidence, you’re helping Arne Duncan, you’re a right-wing (!!!) troll, and blah, blah, blah. And it gets awfully personal and nasty awfully quickly. Seen it all before thanks to the Math Wars. Same tactics. “Oh, we’re a fair-minded group with both conservatives, Socialists, libertarians, and life-long liberal Democrats.” When you find out that the last Democrat some of them voted for was maybe George Wallace before he left the party . . .
I have enormous respect for Ralph Ratto, even before he was put through the wringer last year (he handled himself with class all the way). I know what he does and stands for. The folks protesting too much? Well, frankly, no.
Sara, when I raised an objection to your connection with the Heritage Foundation on the other site you run, parents and teachers against the common core, I was accused of being one of those teacher union lovers, and then I was banned from that page. Don’t pretend you are neutral when you are not.
There is a big difference between being (1) anti-common core because you want to see public tax dollars going to unregulated private (and often) parochial schools and home-schooling, and (2) being anti- common core because you want to support inclusive, high quality public schools that have equity in educational opportunities.
I will never see the first group as an ally because their brand of parent choice is only about their child- and not about high quality public education for all.
That’s about the size of it, Terry. Thanks for making the differences and issues crystal-clear.
Thank you, Diane.
I’m glad to see everyone is enjoying the ” fundamental transformation” ! The ending should be a hoot!
I don’t understand why Mr. Ratto wants to waste so much of his time attacking other groups. He’s a waste of time and breath Glenn. Leave him to his own demise.
Leave Mr. Ratto to his own demise. He gets pleasure out of trying to destroy others.
Candace, don’t know who you are, but you don’t know what you’re talking about.
That groups phone lines must be buzzing.. “quick get on and defend our cause”. To Candace, that was a funny post. Guess I won’t be getting a Christmas card from you.
How much do you want to bet Mr. Ratto is completely enjoying the RWNJ roast that he began here….how much do you want to bed that he went back to his PNJ group and asked for all of you to come here and attack?
Candace
It is all about exposing the true agenda of your group. All I did was post what I found .. roast no, show the connections yes.
i’ll say it again.
I oppose Common Core because it is not based in valid pedagogy.. Your group opposes it for political reasons.. I know that stance will hurt us all in the long run, because when politics is involved we all lose
Mr. Ratto, you claim to know my heart? You claim to know my “agenda”? Your claims are based on posts put up by people who are members of a facebook group. We do not police the PTACC wall, We do not remove posts that we think may “make our group look like RWNJ’s” or “Liberal Loonies” The only time admins involve themselves, as in your case, is when posters get contentious, name-call, get on their soapbox and are argumentative to the point of distraction and destruction. Oh, and posts bashing teachers are immediately removed. Your false claims to KNOW my agenda are as bogus are you are. PTACC’s alignment HAS and ALWAYS WILL BE with the CHILDREN. We are willing to overlook various political posts to allow for a free exchange of ideas…as long as everyone plays nice in the sandbox, and is respectful of differing views. CCSS isn’t going away without a fight from ALL sides….but it will truly only be defeated when we can check our political alignments at the door and be motivated ONLY BY THE CHILDREN.
“Warning” to the NY group?? Is this the mafia or something?
Also, I would certainly care if one of my “friends” was friends with an unapologetic terrorist.
And now the real right-wing ugliness begins. Macey, do you want to call Joe McCarthy now to investigate Diane? Please, start with me. I already have relatives who told the McCarthy committee to get stuffed.
It’s not the Mafia, of course. But I think we’re starting to get a very clear picture of what sort of folks are steering the ship with some “anti-Common Core” groups.
Oh, I know what I’m talking about. He is trying to destroy any group that isn’t PROGRESSIVE.
What ties back to Parents and Teachers against the Common Core? NY has Two different Groups so maybe you have us confused??? We have never aligned ourselves with any single party never had any person speak at any of our forums that was tied to the dismantling of public education! Our group is not just against the Common core we are also against Testing, APPR, and Data Mining. We are all fighting to stop the hostile take over of our public schools! It’s not about Politics, It’s about doing what’s right morally and ethically for our children!
I’m confused to what links back to parents and teachers against the common core? I don’t understand why everyone makes everything a political battle when this is about protecting our children!
Thanks for the offer Glen but unlike you, I recognize those who are the problem and support ways to a solution. Those speakers you are hosting are a major problem in my eyes. Beck, Koch,Heritage, Freedomworks, Pioneer are all in this for the wrong reasons and will destroy any chance we have to turn this around. Bipartisianship in name alone is a dangerous thing for society
Ralf, my offer stands. You get from behind your computer and pick the speakers and I will help organize it. Lets put some of those words into actions. Let make folks sure know you are not just somebody who attacks from his big comfortable armchair but is willing to roll up his sleeves, go out and get the speakers organized, get it funded, hand out flyers to promote it and do it although he might get slammed for his efforts to stop CC. You know to get to me should you want to do it.
Your Sept. forum is stacked with speakers who support the privatization of public education.
Did you invite Diane? How about people like Leonie Haimson? Deb Meier? Lois Weiner? Julian Vasquez Heilig? The New York area has many people who support public education and want to see national standards and high stakes testing eliminated.
@Cosmic Tinker. My offer is the same to you. I will help you set up a forum with these folks if you get them to come together. If they speak out against Common Core I will help you. Don’t fear, despite the rumors I am non anti-union or not anti-public school at all, those are just fabrications by Ralph who claims to know what everybody thinks here.
Glen, I am not a New Yorker. I live across the country, cannot afford to travel to my state capital let alone NY, and I only know the people I mentioned from their writing. I would suggest that you connect with the people in NY yourself. You could readily begin here with Diane, who also happens to know those people personally.
This is all making me terribly upset. I have worked with many of you in our attempt to take back public education from those who seek to privatize and use our children as pawns in their investments. Common Core is but a piece of the puzzle. It is linked with RttT and high stakes tests. As I read through the posts I see sweeping generalizations from many who have written and assumptions and accusations being hurled. Parent activist, Sara Wottawa, has done more research on the corporatization attempts of public education than anyone I know. She, like many others, is in this fight for the right reason-a pure reason- children. That being said, I would find it disappointing to think that others are in this fight for political reasons, whether Right or Left. This fight should be solely focused on the children.
Thank you Gail. My sentiments exactly!
I’m not a teacher. My wife was however, for 33 years. I have heard all the complaints about NCLB, RTTT and Common Core. I believe our mutual goal should be that of defeating Common Core, whatever our individual motivations. I further believe the education problem is not caused by teachers. They struggle mightily to encourage children to learn and develop the power to think, not simply take tests. My wife’s expression for this test taking,and I suspect many of yours, is “teaching to the test”. I also believe the federal government should get out of mandating standards and involving itself in what is a local problem, best resolved at the local school board level. These are the folks who know their students best. I’m sure we disagree on more issues than we agree but on this one we agree that Common Core must be defeated. The bickering I’m reading here about whose motives are purest on this topic is nonsense and self defeating. Let’s just work on the immediate task of opposing Common Core.
I’ve just read a piece by Dr. Ravitch in the August 11th Parade insert to our local Sunday newspaper (Traverse City-Record Eagle). I agree with its sentiment and I suggest we concentrate on her views in the article. They are timely and accurate.
I am anti Common Core mostly because I believe that it is developmentally inappropriate. The high stakes testing that I have read about is dangerous for everyone involved, no matter how you look at it. I dislike how the standards were claimed as being internationally bench marked when that turned out not to be the case after all. I also do not care for the fact that Obama tied the adoption of Common Core to both RTTT funding at a time when many states were in need of federal funds and NCLB waivers,which of course, everyone wants. I also dislike the fact the funding based on adopting CC was made available before the standards were even available to see. Finally, I find it disturbing that education today is being run by people who know nothing about it….Gates, Jeb!, Duncan. etc. Finally, It is disgusting that some such as Gates are able to buy what they want and could care less about the real life consequences.
We all seem to agree that we oppose Common Core; let’s come up with a way that we can agree on to STOP IT! By the way, I’m not always sure of or in agreement with everything that is posted on my state’s Stop Common Core website and Face Book page
but I keep checking what is posted and simply use/pass along what I agree with.
Diane, I respect that you are sticking up for your friend. I would do the same for any of my friends, but to issue a public warning to a group of people who are trying to fight the same cause as you is a distraction. As a NY parent I have joined every group that is fighting the common core and everything tied to it through race to the top. Right now we are in the most important fight for our education system. The only thing that matters is saving the public education system in every state. If I follow the money trail, I believe that most politicians are to blame as well as **gasp** the teachers union. As a parent I want to know why the union leaders looked the other way and took money from organizations such as the Gates foundation? I personally believe the union sold out their rank and file by allowing the high stakes testing to be tied to APPR’s. The most important job I have right now is protecting the children from this mess. They are the innocent ones that are being hurt by this so called reform. Every day that they learn from the common core is another day they aren’t getting a proper education. The corporate grab at our education system must be stopped. I refuse to be the generation that sat by and watched the public education system be destroyed. Name calling and public warnings only distract from the real enemy, the drivers behind this education reform. We must stay united and focus on fixing the education system for all generations to come.
It was not I who did the “name calling.” My warning to the group was to say that they would not create a bipartisan coalition if they called names. Linda Darling-Hammond is one of the most respected figures in American education. Calling her a “radical” or other names hurts the cause and makes it impossible to forge a nonpartisan coalition. The only way to work together is to collaborate in a collegial way on common goals. Name-calling–in this case–smearing a distinguished educator–undermines the cause.
As professionals, the appropriate (read better) way to address this issue would have been to discuss it in private. To publicly call out a group and “warn” them about something a member posted is creating further divide amongst people with the same goals in mind. It is very difficult to manage what others post and disclaimers cannot be added to every comment. Just my humble opinion…. This entire issue could have and should have been addressed better (on both sides).
Although professionals, teachers have been publicly trashed for decades and know only too well that even those who claim to be in favor of accountability and transparency regularly conceal their motives and make back room decisions on matters impacting others. Therefore, Diane and educators here were right to bring to public attention exactly who and what this supposedly non-partisan group promotes besides doing away with the Common Core. As educators, we often tell students to “consider the source” and we would be remiss if we did not do so ourselves.
Groups with “wizards” pulling the strings just don’t like having the curtain pulled back revealing the truth, especially when that means the light is shining on their own lunatic fringes.
You did good, Diane and others!
I understand that you didn’t publicly name call but you did issue a public warning. A simple email back to both Glen & Yvonne would have been sufficient. If you had done that, the name calling would never had started. Their website has been put together by links found by us, parents doing our HW. We all have free will and can draw our own conclusions based on what we watch and read. That is the beauty of a proper education, not being a follower, and having the freedom to filter the information. I want that for the children. Honestly I haven’t looked at all of the videos, I saw and read enough to know that common core is no good. We as parents need all of the help we can get. We are being told by educators that is us, the parents, who will be leading the charge against common core. We have encountered great resistance along the way. Many of us are not as rich nor have the political know how as the people pulling the strings. Many are willing to accept help from any source to help save the education system. The great news is that some people have woken up and are willing to fight, the greatest fight in our life-time. If you think about it, a whole profession is at stake. I am not willing to let that happen, I am not a teacher but have the greatest respect for them, as they teach my children what I can not. I have read your blog and have gotten a lot of information that helped me research further and do my own HW. When you issue a public warning, it distracts and allows for the people above to come out and discredit the people who are trying to make a difference in this movement.
Wow, this has gone downhill.
I am not right-wing or left wing.
Looks like, from reading up (I am just seeing this) as though there is opposition to this group as is.
Someone was wondering why some people were invited and some weren’t. Is it so terrible the usual aren’t at a NY education event?
I find this unsettling. Not for myself, I’m going to be there.
If others aren’t going to attend because after breaking down every word on a web page or a video & concluding there is no value in this group stay home. Seems as though the opposers of the group already have the answers to the problem of CCSS.
If so, do something about it.
Oh, I must add I’m not anti-union or pro-charter. I am pro-chidlren.
It’s very sad that for some reason this group’s right to meet & discuss is being challenged & tainted.
Thanks, Glen & Yvonne. This must be incredibly hurtful to the two of you.
You don’t deserve to be treated this way. And the other speakers don’t deserve being critiqued by people who aren’t going to show up or listen, to start with.
And please, those opposed to this event, don’t waste your time looking for every word I have said & place me on a political continuum.
BTW — I heard school in Vegas are open. If kids’ in your state are back in school please spread the word to OPT-OUT of school directory to protect kids.
OPT-OUT NOW
http://www.opt-out-now.info
And don’t forget about NYS Senate Education Hearing on Sept.17th in Suffolk County. I think it’s in the afternoon.
wow.. Glenn & Yvonne are victims now? Aren’t they responsible for what they put on their web site? Never attacked them personally, only revealed their ties to the Right. I guess the secret is out
I mentioned neither of them (or anyone else from their site, FB page, or even the names of those who commented there or on the dumb-ass piece off the Glenn Beck site) by name, but that certainly didn’t keep some of them and their allies from insulting me and accusing me of being all sorts of things I’m not and never possibly would be. But of COURSE they’re the victims. I’ve yet to see this game played in which the super patriots don’t complain about being abused, even as they have sites that abuse the heck out anyone and everyone they perceive as one angstrom left of center.
Obama’s biggest crime in the eyes of the Tea Party is being the wrong color and occasionally SAYING some progressive things. Problem for actual progressives is that he rarely, if ever, takes the opportunity to do much that is progressive or appoint progressives to his administration. His educational polices and people would have fit in perfectly with GWB’s administration, but the majority of the squawkers from the Right don’t seem to have noticed and don’t care even if they have. Meanwhile, there are so many things Obama has done that SHOULD make him popular on the Right, if only he would wear a white-boy suit for them and change his name.
Once again, this fight is supposed to be about educational policy and the Common Core. That it isn’t for a lot of folks is readily seen by what they post, approve, like, and otherwise stand with and for. Unless they want to scrub their webpages and Facebook timelines (and it’s too late for that here), they come off looking like folks with an agenda that only marginally touches on education policy and flaws in CCSS.
A truly non-partisan site would not allow people to post such blatantly partisan (and dishonest) material with complete impunity. And since all the partisan material is from the right, the biases of the site become. . . transparent. To a blind man.
I by chance stumbled onto this blog and have over the last few days been watching the chatter on this specific group with interest. I was not planning to get involved until I saw the actual author step in herself and make the statement that she did not do the “name calling” and that all should stay bi-partisan. I also understand that Linda Darling-Hammond is a good friend of the author so good for you to defend her honor, especially as a distinguished educator. A shame that the same wasn’t done when one of the posters attacked another distinguished educator Sandra Stotsky, and this not through spoken words on a 3rd party’s video but directly on her blog in some pretty strong terms. Would “Name-calling–in this case–smearing a distinguished educator–undermines the cause.” not apply here too?. It seems that this group from NY got caught up in a less than bi-partisan response by the author who in her sense of loyalty to a friend decided that in her position of power she could shoot a warning across their bow to stay bi-partisan while being partisan herself. I still cannot figure why she would put herself in that position. The poor fellow from the NY group still thanks her, for what I might aks? The one thing I do agree with the author, calling others names does hurt the cause and makes it impossible to forge nonpartisan coalitions.. Being selective is however not the way to accomplish that.
Connie Francis,
I do not monitor what readers say in comments, although I delete those that contain the F word. I did not object to comments between and among readers. I objected to a video that was posted on a website that I promoted. I did not want to take responsibility for false accusations.
Figure out the distinction. I am not here to correct what readers say.
As a left-of-center woman I cringe when I hear folks are part of the tea party but I decided to go to this group’s web site and look for myself. Based on Mr rratto description I was braising myself for what I would find and to be honest was already ready to condemn it. I ended spending over two hours there reading and listening to the information there. As like the author, I didn’t agree with everything that was said in the videos, but their library section was filled with lots of documents, official ones that really opened up my eyes. So much that I will be talking to my daughter today about Common Core and how this will impact my grandchildren and I want to get actively involved. I am however still looking for the tea party connection and feel bad about my own bias towards this group because of what i saw here. Shame on you Mr rratto, you might not like what these folks are all about but calling them extremists does our children a disservice. I for one will spend more attention to Common Core now thanks to Mrs Ravitch and yes, this web site.
Mrs Ravitch, I am glad you took the time to respond to me. I still disagree with the way you warned this group as I believe you created a conflict-of-interest or at least a perception of one by stating “She is my friend, and I respect her and her scholarship.” in your warning You are a well respected blogger and have influence on how folks think about this fight so when you issue a warning people pay attention. I hope that influence will not impact this group too badly as they too have been smeared and false accusations have been made against them. If this is the worst of the right we have to deal with, I will embrace that.
Connie,
I backed up every accusation with links. I suggest you read them again.
Mr. rratto, I have seen links to organizations you do not care for, however I did not see anything that associated these folks with extremists, right-wing nut-jobs as you call it. Just because you do not like everything that is there does not mean you should. I also visited your blog where you seem to have continued your tirade.
I fear that folks like you give us folks on the left a bad name as you resort to extremes when confronted with a hint of something you disagree with. Mrs Ravitch is asking for bi-partisanship, you just throw bombs and then run. I am pro-union, anti-vouchers and pro-public education and I am ashamed that you are associated with this cause as your attitude destroys any chance of folks working together. If the extreme right and left would just stand down, things might get done.
Connie,
I guess I won’t be getting a Christmas card from you this year. All joking aside..2 of the featured speakers gave presentations at Glenn Beck’s “man on the moon” event.. Doesn’t that qualify as a concern?
Considering Beck is against unions.
Also another speaker ( from Cato) has publicly stated that teacher’s unions were a problem. He questioned our salaries and pensions. Does that concern you?
The research they post is from Pioneer.. I challenge you to do a little research on that think tank.
Finally, check out the FB pages of the admins on the LI teachers and Parents against CC.. Wonder if they took down the Don’t tread on me pics they had on their in June?
So Connie, others have checked out the links I posted and confirmed that my statements are true.. So as that great Conservative Ronald Reagan always said, ” you are entitled to your opinion, but you are not entitled make up your own facts.”
Well spoken from a President who believed in trickle down economics which never worked.
PS glad you read my blog. http://rlratto@wordpress.com.
RR
Then maybe you should also include her failed attempt at a Charter School? I would think you would want to also be honest about her failures in education too.
With all of the political extremism hurled around by the heads of the Teachers unions, you are now going to take the high road?
Maybe you should investigate the connection between Darling-Hammond and Ayers. Maybe we should analyze if there is a relationship, what that relationship was and what the agenda is if there is one?
Many of us see the political hacks representing teachers in this country and we have to ignore their political rants. We do this because we know that they sell their souls for the power they receive from politicians. (think: You scratch my back I’ll scratch your’s)
I personally oppose Common Core and will align with a Right wing extremist or a Communist if we share this same goal. If I wait for someone who shares my EXACT political views, I may sit here alone and unable to build a coalition that would be effective.
Amen
“crypto communist public school teachers”
“I personally oppose Common Core and will align with a Right wing extremist or a Communist if we share this same goal.”
“I depend on the public schools to create and maintain a civil society, but when the supposed upholders of a civil society are preaching (in essence) Marxist tyranny, and therefore are in support of those United Nations, world [communist] workers’ government, one is not surprised by their touchiness.”
“The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
Dear Diane Ravitch:
Many of the responses to your simple post demonstrate the exact mentality and style of conversational hijacking that infected BAT by early July, (the insistence on giving equal time to Sandra Stotsky, repeating the Bill Ayers line, the paranoia of government, the conception of “bipartisan” or “nonpartisan” that allows for no critique or fact-checking or dialectic of any sort–) growing to dominate it by the middle of the month and on until now. In my own state of Alabama, I can assure you that the people espousing talking points like those above are in not, in the long run, friends of public schools. I’m sure you know that.
You are a reasonable person, an educator and a leader. How would you advise progressives who find themselves attempting a short-term, one-issue coalition with people who are ultimately working against public education as well as working against rational public discourse? I find it impossible.
In mid-July, I wondered in a Left in Alabama blog post,
>> Since Ravitch understands that “We live in a time when entrepreneurs are eyeing the schools and their budgets as a source of profit, a chance to monetize the children, an emerging market,” it will be interesting to see what she thinks of the squelching of independent, progressive voices in BAT who understand this problem, in exchange for keeping the Tea Party crowd. …. Will Ravitch continue her support of the Badass Teacher’s Association? <<
Our shared opposition to high stakes testing doesn’t put progressives on the same team with the anti-progress tea party, right-wing libertarians or states-rights conservatives (because you know what that means in the south.) I fail to see what good ultimately comes from Intelligent and thoughtful people aligning themselves with the inept and delusional of any stripe when it comes to education.
Jane DeNeefe
Huntsville, Alabama
Jane in Alabama, join the Network for Public Education. You should not belong to any group with which you are uncomfortable, but you should find an outlet to express your concern with the present course of education.
Diane
Thanks, I will be team-teaching the first Huntsville Opt Out Teach In with Russell Winn August 27 and again September 10. Don’t worry–I will NOT and do not belong to any group I am uncomfortable with, but many local progressives think they have to— unless they have concluded that if rednecks, racists and creationists are against CC, then “we” must be for it, so they support Broad, CC, Pearson, etc— because that appears to them to be the non-ignorant, non-redneck position.
What I am most curious about after reading your original post is if you plan to continue your support of BAT, knowing how infused they are with the very mentality you are warning against.
Yes its all racism to you. Everyone you disagree with is a racist. ” you know what that means”…. Nice bludgeon. What is a progressive? Define it. Who spoke of progress? Who spoke of using hegel’s dialectic for progress? Progress toward what?
You are boxing everybody in including yourself. Everybody does not live and breath politics and pedagogy. There are too many reasons why common core is lame and destructive for everybody so why be so hateful? It helps no one. Hey and its not paranoid when a group is out to get you or in the case of common core, your children. Too much factual evidence out there. If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck its a duck. Or a quack.
ROTFLMAO! That’s priceless stuff, Samual. Do you do stand-up, too?
It’s tomorrow, Diane. Thursday morning. I haven’t read up this post to see how the conversation progressed over the day. It’s already tomorrow & a post of the past.
On Wednesday you wrote:
[Linda Darling-Hammond is one of the most respected education scholars in the nation. If the anti-Common Core group hopes to build a nonpartisan coalition, it should avoid insulting people like Linda and stick to the facts.]
I agree with what you are saying.
Loyalty is very important & I wouldn’t allow someone to speak poorly of someone who I respect & care about.
I don’t think the harm was intentional. Sometimes people agree w 80% of solid knowledge & filter out the outliers.
This is a learning experience; achieve a common goal. Stop Common Core.
I continue to remain highly concerned about the tablets & mobile learning devices. Not the purpose of this comment.
I respect your loyalty to friends & colleagues. And your open & welcoming forum.
We are collectively on the same side.
Have a good day.
No, not victims.
They are new to opening themselves online.
They may have been shell-shocked but people who put themselves out there are strong. Otherwise they wouldn’t take the risk.
I’m sure their egos are still intact. : )
I have a question: Let’s say we put partisan bickering aside and defeat the Common Core and all its nasties: the ridiculous emphasis on testing, the deep data-mining, all that.
Then what? What replaces CCSS? What form will it take?
Can we believe that once the dragon is slain that there won’t be at least the same amount of discord and disagreement about what comes next?
IMO, the abolishment of CCSS is about the *only* thing that the extremes (and those in the middle who want it gone) have in common. But the reasons behind wanting it gone are so different that if/when the battle is successful, the hue and cry for and against what will replace it is not going to be any different.
Some will say, “See? If the unions had been stronger, we could have kicked this in the teeth before it had a chance to get established;” others will point – rightly so, in some cases – to places and times where bad teachers got away with truly bad teaching and use that as fodder for anti-union rhetoric. Some will hail the removal of high-stakes testing and the return of teacher freedom to the classroom, while others will insist that we still need some sort of objective way to “grade” teachers and schools. Some will insist that this was all brought about by The Evil Republicans, others will be pointing fingers at The Neo-Liberals And Their Gay Agenda. One side will still be trying to find ways to privatize education – easier to make more ineffective charters without that pesky data showing they aren’t all that much better – while the other will be pushing for only regular public schools….. and so on.
The rhetoric will continue even after the battle is over, because the extremes want it gone for different reason related to their agendas – and IMO the agendas are so different as to defy any rational discourse about what replaces CCSS.
Just my two cents, worth what ya paid for it.
What should replace it should be constitutionally appropriate and truly controlled within each state. It is completely absurd that all people MUST know all the same things.
Like programming robots.
Reading writing and arithmatic then kids can truly critically think, not the obvious ruse of ccss leftism.
Seriously one group deciding to teach kids HOW to thonk is complete denial of humanity. Retrenchment to states and a big lesson that government is sneaky and dishonest.
If the current [non-Constitutional] situation can occur, I can only hold out so much hope that what follows will be better. One argument made *for* CCSS was that kids who move from one state to another can expect some continuity in their education; I moved from one district to another in middle school and ended up repeating a year because the curricula and standards were so different in 2 neighboring school districts, so I can almost make a case for that – so when CCSS goes away, do we go back to that? [playing devil’s advocate here, not arguing one way or another] That’s one example of where I can see the devil in the details – let alone in the overarching motivation when planning what comes next.
BTW, not everyone left-leaning has any love for CCSS; I’ve also read enough of that rhetoric to last me a lifetime. In calls for a bipartisan approach to getting rid of CCSS, that right there is one reason I really don’t think it will do anyone any good beyond the short-term goal of abolishing CCSS. We can’t even leave the other-party poking out of the good fight; do we really think we can avoid it after?
For someone who is so worried about robots getting programmed by Commies, Sam, you might try explaining how state government is not sneaky and dishonest. Or where you get your evidence that the Common Core, which I personally loathe, is a peculiarly left-wing plot. Particularly given who is funding it and who has written it and who stands to profit from it. You think the money is going to Bill Ayers and the Weather Underground? Al Qaida? The Elders of Zion?
Just what size tin hat do you wear?
Oh, look…. the insults go both ways, from Right to Left and from Left to Right.
This is not how one creates or nurtures a climate of “bipartisanship,” or working together for a common goal. This is how one makes sure that even if both sides work toward the short-term goal, in the long term, the Extremes will still be unwilling and/or unable to see the other’s side or to work with the other.
It would be nice to see either more actual constructive dialog (and less of the snark) or an up-front acknowledgement that no, we really *don’t* all want the same thing.
This is your blog Diane. You get to issue warnings in protection of your friends but at what cost? This seems like somebody got to you mob like and said shoot a few shots in the air to clear the room. A warning is a strong invective. Your viewsabout Common core have always been mixed that is clear in your articles. But protecting one scholar as a friend over another
Non friend while human nature does not illustrate the bipartisonship you demand of your readers. Both of these woman have reputations that preceed them. One is a leftist with political ties and the other is not. This is why you will take some major heat here. Many of your readers care more about children and ethics and freedom than political gain, power and psychological methodology and pedagogy. One can can just watch some of their videos to see who they both are. Sticks and stones…..
Samuel Jones, please do not twist my words. First, my warning was meant to say clearly that it is impossible to build a coalition of any kind by throwing stones and calling names. I have no power to do anything but write and speak. Second, I defended Linda Darling-Hammond not because she is my friend, but because she was smeared. She is an outstanding scholar, not a political extremist. It is impossible to build a nonpartisan coalition by using smear tactics.
Diane, there are reasons people equate Linda with common core and progressive politics. She was first pick for ed sec and she has had alot of imput and ties to the ccss so that makes alot of people uncomfortable with the potential red herring of nonpartisonship coalitions. A republican or conservative or southernor can’t cross the street without being called a name. So name calling is part of the
business, it just is.
Who said ” if you are going to stand above the crowd you are going to get some bricks thrown at you”? Or something like that…
But of course it is understood that you want to distance yourself from the brickthrowers here but the fact remains that bricks are thrown in every direction every day and right here on this page. And a warning to anti common core activists, left right or center is a strong pronouncement in itself.
I am not twisting your words i
am applying critical thinking. I
am sorry if it appears as
twisting but it is a view through another prism.
Aside from your being illiterate and clearly nuts, Samual, you’ve gotten pretty much everything wrong about Diane and this blog. Do you see people from your side of the crazy patch running for the hills? Only 111 comments so far and growing all the time. They’re not one-sided, are they?
Now, take those nice pills they prescribe for you and relax.
Oh, and Sam: Linda D-H was an advisor. She was never nominated to any post in the cabinet. Her being a candidate was a matter of public speculation, period. She’s come under criticism from many of us on the left for her involvement in one of the two high -stakes testing coalitions. She didn’t write the Common Core.
You really ought to try reading the documents and figure out what, exactly, it is that you object to, rather than relying entirely on the right-wing sources that obviously fuel your paranoid fantasies. Then write a critique, in your own inimitable, solecism-filled style, and put it on-line for us to benefit from. If there’s a single word in it that is your own, with ideas that are documented and grounded in fact, I’ll be amazed.
To be clear, I say that as someone who has opposed the Common Core probably for a lot longer than you even knew there was such a thing. And YOUR critique is, quite frankly, worthless.
Finally, your intriguing dichotomy (children, ethics, and freedom v. political gain, power, psychological methodology, and pedagogy) is rather intriguing. I would have thought that pedagogy and children belonged on the same side in any conversation about high-quality education. Psychology, too. Or are you of the opinion that anything scientific or theoretical that rubs you the wrong way can just be lumped in with politics and power-mongering? Your mind is a fascinating place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there. The lack of coherence, facts, and logic make it uncomfortable to be in the vicinity after a while.
The first video seemed to be just as much propaganda as anything put out by the deformers. The second one made much more valid points, I thought. Haven’t see the rest yet. http://www.stopccssinnys.com/Videos.html
I belong to many groups. Just as I do in my personal life, I find values in people according to what they are good at and strive for such skills. I also find people that have made huge mistakes, and live vicariously through them by not doing the same thing. For instance, I will look at someone’s success in personal finance and observe while looking at one’s bad decisions and avoid making the same ones. I am a BAT, also Lace to the Top, OPT OUT, Social Justice Unionism Member, etc. I am a local union, NSEA, NEA, & Democratic Club, and BATs leader. I don’t like all that occurs, but I believe in the cause and don’t get stuck in it. I will fight for the cause while strategically striving to see what is and is not working to join in to help make it better. I have nothing to lose. I don’t need anything more than to make our causes successful. If I can find people with the same cause, I make them stronger and they make me stronger as a united front while we educate each other on further PUSHING THE CAUSE. Anything else, is NOISE ruining the cause. Letting one vent, is good until it ruins the cause if they are not committed to it. I am 100% committed to it, Diane is 100% committed to it, are you? If you are, I am happy to share our unity. If you are stuck on a level that is not leading to progress and solutions, please let us through…we got work to do.
Thus doth politics make strange bedfellows of the unions afraid of VA evaluation and privatization, amd The Tea Party afraid of socialist indoctrination and national data collection on children which will become part of their health care info in their ‘general dossier’ or jacket, necessary for college admissions, mortgage loan approval, or food stamps, the one to retain power, the other to retain freedom.