This is a very funny
spoof of federal education policy. Imagine Arne Duncan
and Roger Goodell, the president of the NFL, calling a joint press
conference to announce a new program called Race to the End Zone.
Imagine an agreement that all teams will use the same plays. Now
the NFL will have no failing teams! “We in the NFL love the Common
Core Curriculum that Mr. Duncan is pushing on schools here in D. C.
and in forty-five states,” Goodell continued. “Just as he believes
Common Core Curriculum can save the schools, we believe a Common
Core Playbook will save our struggling teams. Beginning with the
2013 season every coach and every team will use the same playbook.”
The press corps grumbles: “An MSNBC reporter shouted from the fifth
row: “Do you truly believe if all teams run the same plays they’ll
all have the same success?” “Of course,” Mr. Duncan interjected.
“It’s going to work in education, too. I promise. And I went to
Harvard. So you have to listen to me.”
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Thought this was funny! 😀
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“Every player can succeed”
That’s hilarious.
Reblogged this on Roy F. McCampbell's Blog.
John is one of my favorite writers.
It is funny if not totally ironic that an educational policy promising equity for all is founded on competition which promises winners and losers. That’s where the major break in policy is – how do you have real competition with all winners – and then how do you have people who excel if they’re all lake woebegone children where everyone is above average. Even if the CCSS COULD deliver – its promise is excellent mediocrity for all.
In football, folks like Arne Duncan are called “armchair quarterbacks.”
It’s not a compliment.
The leading charterites/privatizers believe that mating brainless one-size-fits-all standards with proven worst management practices will produce success. Facts, logic and decency deter them not.
Notice that NCLB was succeeded by Race To The Top—not One For All & All For One or Every Child Successful or We Are In This Together or Education Is Every Child’s Right!
No, a rigged race, with few winners and many many losers.
But not to fear: that’s only for OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN.
For THEIR OWN CHILDREN, there’s the race to enroll them in Harpeth Hall and U of Chicago Lab Schools and Cranbrook and Lakeside School and Delbarton School and Harvard-Westlake School and Sidwell Friends and Waldorf School of the Peninsula and the like.
Common Core? Endless prep for high-stakes standardized tests?
Here’s the “Mission” statement for Lakeside School [think Bill Gates and his children]:
“The mission of Lakeside School is to develop in intellectually capable young people the creative minds, healthy bodies, and ethical spirits needed to contribute wisdom, compassion, and leadership to a global society. We provide a rigorous and dynamic academic program through which effective educators lead students to take responsibility for learning.
We are committed to sustaining a school in which individuals representing diverse cultures and experiences instruct one another in the meaning and value of community and in the joy and importance of lifelong learning.”
And the nonsense that that “shrill” and “strident” Diane Ravitch spouts about preparing people for being a citizen of this country and the world?
The “Mission Focus” that follows:
“Lakeside School fosters the development of citizens capable of and committed to interacting compassionately, ethically, and successfully with diverse peoples and cultures to create a more humane, sustainable global society. This focus transforms our learning and our work together.”
Link: http://www.lakesideschool.org/aboutus
I want to resurrect a now-forgotten rheephormista slogan: every poor child should have the same opportunity to attend the same kind of schools that rich parents send their children to.
Calling all self-styled “education reformers”—any takers?
😎
Ed reformers and the NFL actually have a lot in common. They’ve used similar strategies to sell a false narrative…
For years, the NFL had refused to acknowledge the long-term effect concussions and other head injuries had on former players. They used testimony from non-experts (team doctors with limited expertise in head trauma) and non-peer reviewed studies to “prove” there was no relationship between concussions and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) which causes memory loss and depression. The NFL, like the reformers, had to protect their financial interests. Over 4500 former players sued the league (settled for $765 million), their family-friendly image was tarnished and parents are reluctant to let their children play youth football.
Another important similarity was both groups’ ability to sell and protect their image/message in the media. Since about 90% of the media is owned by reformers, it’s easy to frame the issue around “bad, lazy teachers.” With the NFL, it’s different. All four major networks (keep in mind ESPN and ABC are both Disney properties) hold rights to televise games. No network would dare to suggest any wrongdoing by the league because they would not get awarded the rights to televise games (which is the Holy Grail of TV contracts).
“. . . the rights to televise games (which is the Holy Grail of TV contracts).”
But the Holy Grail of Sports is named after the lord!
Good points.
Another similarity between the NFL and so-called education reform is the lie that either have anything to do with that chimerical “free market” that both worship.
In the NFL’s case, it’s the immense corporate welfare that teams receive via tax breaks and public subsidies of their stadiums. Add to that the fact the the NFL functions internally as a socialist state, evenly dividing its multi-billion dollar TV revenues among its large market and small market teams.
As for charter schools, they are crony capitalism at its worst, with politically connected or favored chains given decisive advantages over smaller, mom-and-pop operators, and tax credits offered to real estate developers and investment banks to build them.
Isn’t it interesting that the dummies always go for the sports metaphors–Race to the Top, etc? I used to teach in a wonderful Catholic school that had a resident priest–a drunken old Polonius who used to get on the PA system in the mornings and say, in his already slurred voice, “Gurlzz, you gotta get out there today and carry that ball.” The old priest just added to the charm of the place. He didn’t do any harm. Unlike Arne.
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education and commented:
I love the comparison.