Katie Hurley, who is a psychotherapist who works with children and adolescents, writes at Huffington Post that Common Core is having a harmful effect on students.
Her first discovery was seeing what happened to her own daughter:
“My daughter has four tests this week. Week after week she has at least four tests, one of them a high-pressure timed math factor test. If she gets more than one answer wrong, she repeats the same test the following week (which, by the way, is a great way to start an unhealthy competition among classmates). Some weeks, if they happen to finish a unit in social studies, science, or math, they also have a unit test. So now we’re up to five.
“What’s the big deal? She’s 6-years-old. This is first grade we’re talking about. For the first couple of weeks of school, it actually wasn’t a big deal. She’s never taken a test before, so there was no fear of incorrect answers or failure. As the daughter of a musician and a psychotherapist, she’s actually one of the lucky ones. There is no pressure to perform, academically or otherwise, in this house. We believe in creativity, low stress, and happiness.”
The stress is evident among teachers:
“So far the Common Core appears to be putting fear into teachers — they very people who care about, teach, and protect our children. I happen to know a lot of teachers. These are people who stay up entirely too late each night planning fun and engaging lessons for the following day. These are people who call me to seek help for those hard-to-reach students. These are people who hide first grade students in cabinets and sing them songs to keep them calm while a shooter wreaks havoc on their campus.
“Forget about all of that. Today teachers are being forced to follow a script. They teach to tests and fear job loss if they don’t see the expected results.
“The result of this test giving, job loss fearing style of teaching is written all over the faces of the little kids caught in the transition. The people behind the Common Core might think that they are ensuring college/career readiness, but what they are really ensuring is a generation of anxious robotic children who can memorize answers but don’t know how to think.”
She then gives five reasons why Common Core is ruining childhood. Read the article to see what they are.
Correct link http://www.huffingtonpost.com/katie-hurley/5-reasons-the-common-core-is-ruining-childhood-_b_4153698.html
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I think the link is incorrect :-)…. Here is the correct link.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/katie-hurley/5-reasons-the-common-core-is-ruining-childhood-_b_4153698.html
This is what these parents and
students—and child
psychotherapists who oppose
Common Core curriculum and testing
are up against… told in a parody
of John King talking to his advisors:
““What’s the big deal? She’s 6-years-old. This is first grade we’re talking about.”
If the people who design, plan and execute these educational malpractices believe in hell, may they burn in it forever. If they believe in re-incarnation may they come back as a leach to be eaten by a fish, then re-incarnate as an amoeba to be eaten by a water flea to reincarnate ad infinitum to a lower level.
I gave a talk to my stepsons on the way in to school today (we have a good 20 minute drive). Last night the 5th grader was in tears over his math homework. We worked it all out (exponents) and he got it. But on the radio this morning came the public radio version of the drop in test scores anticipated for next week (NC and what McCrory had to say about it). The 5th grader often feels in the shadow of his high achieving brother, so after the bit on the radio finished (which simply expressed that the drop is because of new standards that were exchanged for the ABCs adopted in the 90s—-of course, no mention of RttT or federal money or CCSS, which makes me wonder what the back story is on other things I hear on the radio) I turned down the radio and explained the whole mess to both of them. I explained to them that they are guinea pigs in an experiment right now that our previous governor signed us up for and that they need not let any test scores make them feel bad and that if they want we will make it so they don’t have to take the tests at the end of this year. I held back nothing. The boys are old enough to understand what is happening. I don’t mention things like this in my own school, but for the children in my home I am going to let them know what the adults in charge have chosen to do for them in this state. I did not sugar coat it. I told them they don’t need to discuss it, but that they need to know they are smart boys and being half-way finished with school, to not get discouraged. That life and education is more than just what happens at school. We will need to help our children navigate through this, particularly if we are determined to keep them in public school.
The fact that our current governor (or those he aligns with) has it out for teachers is another subject, and not one I need to bother them with.
Joanna Best: please excuse me if this is a little personal.
I think honesty is the best policy in this situation. You are teaching them an important lesson about treating others with respect and dignity, i.e., talking to them [age appropriate, of course] as if they had some smarts and judgment. That sets a standard for moral conduct and critical thinking in later life.
I talked honestly and directly with students when I was a bilingual and SpecEd TA. It never ceased to amaze me that so many [thankfully, not all] young people had developed a kind of reflexive cynicism because they could not find one adult in their lives before me—not one—who would [with all appropriate boundaries being observed] simply have conversations about real issues and not act as if young people needed to be ignorant and stupid.
Thank you.
🙂
Krazy TA: Thanks. And no problem; I am way too personal usually on this blog anyway.
In fact, a little more of people being personal could go a long way in education. The best professional development I ever heard was at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas with this very compelling, quite funny woman who had been a special ed teacher who emphasized that. . .our students want to know us (as you say, with all appropriate boundaries being observed).
Along those lines I offer up this clip from one of my favorite fluff movies. I actually think about this movie a lot during this reform stuff:
Joanna Best: the movie clip is outstanding.
It reminds me of an old Woody Allen movie where [as usual] he is asking his ‘love interest’ why she doesn’t want to be with him. She reels off a litany of complaints, then responds to his dismayed look with something like “Nothing personal.”
When the edubullies mandate training in docility, obedience and low-level skills, it’s not personal for them because that’s only for OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN. It’s Harpeth Hall and U of Chicago Lab Schools and Lakeside School and Sidwell Friends and Cranbrook and the like for THEIR OWN CHILDREN.
But they’re tough. They follow Mark Twain advice to a fault:
“By trying, we can easily endure adversity. Another man’s, I mean.”
😦
Link in the post takes you to an article from the L.A. Times. Here is the link to the article by Kate Hurley: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/katie-hurley/5-reasons-the-common-core-is-ruining-childhood-_b_4153698.html
I was looking into Ted Mitchell, the charter school promoter and Obama and Duncan pick for undersecretary of public ed in the US.
Thought this was interesting and revealing, from 2002:
“Occidental College President Theodore R. Mitchell told campus trustees that former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan would donate money for a top-level executive position at the college if Mitchell ran for the Los Angeles Board of Education, according to participants in that trustees’ meeting.
Riordan has denied being part of an effort by billionaire Eli Broad to recruit Mitchell to run in the March 4 primary election against board member David Tokofsky. The Times reported earlier this month that Mitchell had told trustees that Broad offered to donate $10 million to Occidental if Mitchell ran for the school board. Broad has denied that.”
“According to participants in the Oct. 30 telephone conference between Mitchell, who was in New York, and the Occidental trustees’ executive committee, Mitchell told them that Riordan would pay for a position at the college similar to a provost. The proposed administrator would take on some of Mitchell’s duties to give him time to campaign for a school board post and hold office while remaining in his Occidental position, said participants who asked not to be identified.
Occidental’s spokesman said Mitchell declined to be interviewed for this story.
Broad, when asked about the reported offer by Riordan, said, “I’m not aware of that.”
Broad said he was considering his own $10-million gift to the college while encouraging Mitchell to run, but insisted that such a gift was not contingent on Mitchell’s agreement.
Mitchell told The Times last month that he considered his candidacy for the spring election and the donation as a “package.” He had said earlier that they were unrelated.”
http://articles.latimes.com/2002/nov/12/local/me-schoolboard12
Scroll through the charter schools Mitchell promotes and financially supports on his website. Looks like the 10% of US schools that are privatized will have a very powerful advocate at DOE, and the 90% of US schools that are public will continue to be abandoned:
http://www.newschools.org/ventures
My 5th grader likes math. He’s quick and intuitive with it. Last year, he had test prep to take home (on paper). This year the district went to an online test prep program, but it’s exactly the same as math drills on paper. There are some graphics and a little more color, but it’s test prep. He actually does the calculations on paper, and then enters the answer, so it’s one more step which he dislikes because he sometimes COPIES the answer incorrectly and these are large numbers.
It was amusing to watch. At first, he was interested, but he quickly realized this is simply a fancier test prep program once the novelty of “online!” wore off.
Adults can’t really trick an 11 year old for long. They figure it out.
No word on whether the adults at the federal and state level have figured out what he knows yet 🙂
Fear of high stakes tests leads to desperate actions by teachers and administrators. These abusive testing stakes contribute to sorting and segregating children not seen since Brown v BoEd. Check this out:
http://www.wsmv.com/story/23835141/la-vergne-students-separated?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=9472631
“…can anyone tell me what kind of career requires people to spit out the answers to 20 math problems in two minutes or less,” asks Katie Hurley at the end of her article. Ten years ago, I was required to test my Kindergarten students on their recognition of alphabet letters, both upper and lower case…IN ONE MINUTE, while I was holding a STOPWATCH! HA…NO WAY!!! At the end of that school year, so as not to compromise my principles, I sadly left my treasured Kindergarten classroom of 32 years and spent the next eight years of my beloved career in Pre-K. Since that time, the testing regime has continued its deadly path, taking a countless number of students with it, all the while destroying creativity, individuality, and a love of school and learning. As the walls are high and the monster is huge, it has certainly been an uphill battle. However, at long last, I’m beginning to feel the earth move a bit as more parents, teachers, and administrators are beginning to speak out and take action…together, we must continue the fight!
The specific content of the Common Core isn’t the problem, even though many conspiracy-theorists, generally those of a conservative bent who get their information from Faux Snooze, The Blaze, Rush Limbaugh, and even more extreme right wing sources, have jumped on the anti-CCSSI bandwagon because they see communists, socialists, Muslims, pornographers, and Satan hiding behind every math problem, every text, etc.
The problems are, not necessarily in order of importance: 1) top-down reform with little or no flexibility, forced onto states with carrots ($$) and sticks; 2) a one-size fits all approach to education; 3) specific content standards that are developmentally inappropriate for most children; 4) a relentless barrage of high-stakes tests, preparation for those tests starting as early as Kindergarten, that utterly undermines teaching and learning; 5) the overarching goal of destroying most or all public schools so they can be replaced by privately run, for-profit charters, or by giving vouchers so that the affluent can get a break on paying tuition at pricey private schools, while the rest of us might be able to send our children to the local Catholic or fundamentalist Christian school, like it or not.
That might not be the complete list, but it’s close. Forget the Obama conspiracy theories, though: this same stuff will be pushed by billionaires and corporations long after he’s out of office.
Absolutely none of this has to do with common core. All of it has to do with how states and districts are assessing and approaching new standards. Standards have always existed (in recent history), and testing is nothing new either.
If there are issues with common core, be specific about them. Overgeneralizing hurts your case.
I’m so glad that this is being recognized. I don’t know WHO said it first, but I repeat it a LOT: “The working conditions of the teachers become the learning conditions of the students.” When I first mentioned this in a group of people who are supposedly “friendly” toward public education, I was met with some snide comments about teachers being “whiny.” That really ticked me off… one CANNOT separate the two… if they think they can, then they are missing a very basic understanding of working with human beings. As the sole adult alone with 20+ kids for hours on end… there’s a type of exhaustion that occurs when you pour your heart and soul into those young human beings. When your energy is being “zapped” by “adult demands” (think data reports, documenting RTI, spending more time on DOCUMENTING that your teaching as opposed to ACTUALLY teaching, calling parents, documenting that you’ve called parents, … the list goes on), then there’s not much left for the kids. Teaching is a human service… and the human providing the service (teacher) needs support… not more people asking for more, more, more.
I’ve worked in public ed. for 10 years… I’ve been in “the fire” of reform with spec. ed. & high risk kids for all 10 years. What did it get me? Compassion fatigue / ptsd symptoms…. and NOT because of the kids… because of the insane demands of the ADULTS. I quit public school & am now teaching in a Catholic school. There are still issues there… there are still stresses there… but I’m not in the middle of the reform fire like I have been for the last decade. There is considerably less stress now; but my body still reacts like it has for the last 10 years. When there is a parent note or request to “talk,” anxiety spikes. When we have faculty meetings, I’m still waiting for the next shoe to drop about what we teachers are doing wrong or need to improve on. It’s visceral. Having been OUT of the “fire” since June, and now continuing to react “as if” I’m still in it tells me so much MORE about just how toxic teaching has become in the public sector.
I quit teaching public school for my physical and mental health. I took a 30% pay cut. I quit with integrity. I have deep respect for the lady who was my principal, and I told her months in advance that I would be leaving; although at the time, I had no other job lined up. I don’t regret my decision. I’m grateful to be in a much healthier environment. And most of all, I’m grateful to be teaching in a school where if not enough kids “pass the test,” I will be given training and support… not job threats. 2 months into my new position… and with the lowered stress… something amazing has happened… I’m starting to love teaching again! Along with that, my OWN creativity is returning. Lesson ideas are starting to pop into my head… and when implemented, the kids LOVE them!
Financially… I’m on the edge. I’m in the student loan bubble… and now with LESS pay, I’ll be paying on my loans the rest of my life. I’ll never own a home. I’ll never own a new car. I’ve come to terms with that and have accepted this as my lot in life. So… to the lady who was supposedly a friend of public ed. who made remarks about whiny teachers… she can (BLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP)!
Please have area psychologists come forth, telling about how many teachers they are seeing with stress related anxiety. Schools with all of these initiatives are making teachers sick.
Please have a lawyer come forth and file a class action law suit.
And these teachers will leave the profession and then what will happen to the reform movement? Where will the new teachers come from when young people are scared off of the teaching profession?
The link for this article goes to the wrong place.
Rebecca Miller
The psych stuff automatic for all very invasive. As high school teacher would recommend to counselor to refer to psych eval if kids bruised or seemed abused which is law and only kids that were quite “crazy behavior” and let professionals decide. I think the effort govt since mass shootings school systems don’t want to get sued by not eval all but still don’t think it is not right. Plus all schools are test crazy academics to show teacher good or bad(stupid measurement). I think I average 15 days a year with classes due to testing. Thanks visit my blog.