Frank Bruni argued a week ago in his column in the New York Times that American students are too “coddled” and need the Common Core and rigorous testing to toughen them up. He also suggested that some parts of schooling ought to be “relatively mirthless.” Today the newspaper printed letters to the editor, in response.
Tony Wagner of Harvard University wrote:
To the Editor:
Re “Are Kids Too Coddled?,” by Frank Bruni (column, Nov. 24):
The problem with Common Core is not coddled kids; it is high-stakes testing. And the anxiety that kids feel is not from their parents but rather from their teachers, who fear for their jobs.
We can have high academic standards without high anxiety. In Finland, which is the best performing education system in the world, the first high-stakes test that kids take is the high school matriculation exam, which they have between two and four years to prepare for — their choice — and can retake if they are not satisfied with the results. Kids are assessed continuously in class, and get feedback that urges them to do better, but it is not high stakes. Grades are played down.
If we want Common Core to succeed, we have to dial back the high-stakes testing, and test only sample populations every few years. Otherwise, what we are going to get is just more teaching to the test, squeezing out of the curriculum everything that is not on the test and undoing whatever value Common Core may have.
TONY WAGNER
Cambridge, Mass., Nov. 24, 2013
The writer is a fellow at the Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard and the author of “The Global Achievement Gap.”
Other letters were also excellent, including one from a “white suburban mom,” who says that implementation of Common Core in New York has been “an unmitigated disaster,” and another from a high school English teacher, who writes, “A fourth grader who can’t participate in music, art or recess because she now attends a remedial class as a result of a low score on a standardized test aligned to the Common Core can tell you all about “mirthless.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
How accurate is this proposition?
” And the anxiety that kids feel is not from their parents but rather from their teachers, who fear for their jobs.”
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or this:
“In Finland, which is the best performing education system in the world. . .”
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It’s funny that parents and others questioning the Common Core are called conspiracy theorists and hysterics, because the two writers raise immediate practical concerns that haven’t been addressed by Common Core supporters – the costs to (already) strapped public school districts and the testing.
All of this airy theory and punditry on “high standards” and “rigor” and “coddling” is not responsive to those simple, practical questions.
I think Common Core promoters have a duty to answer the questions that are asked, instead of simply repeating slogans and/or insulting critics.
The concerns are, specifically, the testing and the cost. These are good questions. The people pushing the policy should have to answer them. How much new testing and what will it cost public school districts, in terms of both money and time?
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I agree that the cost has not been given its due. As Diane has continually covered, in L.A., $1 billion is earmarked for testing devices in the form of iPads. Anyone who criticizes that priority is accused of being elitist or racist because we’re keeping poor or minority students from getting technology. Why are they afraid of a debate on whether it is wise to spend $1 billion on data?
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I’ve been a teacher for seventeen years in New York City and have had many,many parents sit in disbelief at pt conferences that their precious bundle was not a genius! Come on! Let’s argue in honesty, there is a strong element of truth in what Bruni and Duncan have said.
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There is a “strong element of truth” in the following: “A. Duncan is tall and a complete tool of the oligarchs”.
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I am a teacher and a parent of a 1st grader. I have sat through many a meeting of “my child is gifted”. My son gets sick at school and I need to leave my teaching job to pick him up. The sickness comes from his very strong dislike of school. It’s too hard for him….it goes against EVERYTHING I learned In college…Howard Gardner’s work and Blooms Taxonomy. He’s in 1st grade….and by the way- he’s not a genius, but he can talk!
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Via Dictionary.com:
Rigor (n):
1. Strictness, severity or harshness, as in dealing with people.
2. The full extreme severity of laws, rules, etc.
3. Severity of living conditions; hardship; austerity.
4. A severe of harsh act.
5. scrupulous or inflexible accuracy or adherence.
Thus, amid all the lies promulgated about the Common Core Standards, we find the deeper truth and purpose motivating them.
Strictness, severity, harshness, austerity: these are the real lessons embedded in the standards, with high stakes tests used as the lash to force compliance.
And David Coleman spoke the only true words he’s ever uttered when he said no one – meaning no one who really matters – gives a S#&* what you think or feel.
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Someone once observed that the difference between rigor and rigor mortis was not all that great. Seeking the former, we run the risk of achieving the latter.
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“. . . said no one – meaning no one who really matters – gives a S#&* what you think or feel.”
Yep, there’s a “strong element of truth” in that.
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Rigor Mortis…rigor mor·tis (môrts)
n.
Muscular stiffening following death.
[Latin : rigor, stiffness + mortis, genitive of mors, death.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Yvonne Siu-Runyan: and what would the Latin be for “atrophy of the intellect due to the death of the teaching profession”?
I already know the short English version: “education reform.” Or as Michelle Rhee and a host of other edufrauds [thank you, Linda!] would admonish, “$tudent $ucce$$!”
😎
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For over 14 years, I worked in public schools as a Special Education teacher and Special Education Administrator: I lived and breathed students, teachers, parents and administrators. Prior to my public School experiences, I worked for the Division of Special Education at the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, formerly, Massachusetts Department of Education, conducting onsite compliance and quality reviews, complaint investigation, as well as providing technical assistance to parents snd public schools in the Greater Boston area, which includes Local Education Agencies (LEAs) with demographics that encompass Boston to Wellesley and everything in between.
Lest I forget: I am also a parent.
I was, prior to my recent retirement a lifetime education worker. I am no naif regarding public school education issues.
The public school world has long suffered from insufficient funding from the federal and state governments, as well as long term pressures on students and their parents/guardians, and teachers and administrators. Chronic exogenous and endogenous pressures, engendered a host of contradictory positions from all stake holders.
Frank Bruni, knows nothing about public school education; that is obvious. The fact that he appears to be unaccountable to any person or institution, makes his Op-ed piece provocative, not thought- provoking, and insulting and dangerous to students, parents and all those who work in the public schools.
In the past, I would have recommended that he do a bit or work IN the public schools, to ameliorate a bit of his profound ignorance. Not now. To inflict this person on public schools would be an act of abuse..
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To be exact, I worked for 16years at the state level.
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The Long Island Press’s response is a comprehensive investigative piece on Common Core and the protest movement against it: http://www.longislandpress.com/2013/11/29/li-parents-teachers-revolt-against-common-core/
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I plan to post it.
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That would be incredible. I really appreciate it.
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Thanks for that link, Jaime!
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So, both Obama and Duncan support, promote the ccss, yes?
Are the ccss in use at tha schools their children attend?
If not, why not?
Are the Obama children subjected to a mirthless school experience?
If not, then why is it ok for Other people’s children ?
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I would also like Mssrs. Obama, Duncan and Emanuel to explain publicly why their chidlren attend private schools in which the student:teacher ratio is very favorable, teachers are not evaluated according to algorithms developed by for-profit entrepreneurs, and in which their children are actuallly encouraged to think for themselves.
Are they so much more special than other peoples’ children, or is their dirty little secret that they view themselves as part of the 1%?
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Ang and Bonnie: I share your outrage at their self-serving hypocrisy but I suspect you both already know the answer.
They defend their words disconnected from their actions by invoking a litany of reasons that exempts them and theirs from the painful constraints that are necessarily applied to “the little people” like us.
Of course, they use veiled and bewilderingly contradictory explanations. For example, State Commissioner John King assures one and all that the Montessori school his children attend offer the same Common Core experience that every other school will offer under his mandates. Word salad, I know, but the beauty of such cobbled together nonsense is that the people peddling it apparently believe it themselves. And there’s nothing like a true believer to be the best salesperson for such claptrap.
“A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true.” [Demosthenes]
Ah, those old Greek guys…
😎
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