In 2006, Xavier High School students wrote letters to their favorite authors, inviting them to visit their school. Kurt Vonnegut–then 84–was the only one to reply. He wrote a letter explaining that he was too old to make the visit, but he offered them sound advice about how to get a real education.
Among other things, it speaks to the current obsession with bonuses and punishments, with grades and test scores and other ways of signifying success or failure.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Odd, he didn’t mention anything about standardized testing. What an oversight!
As in,
“The really important thing to your intellectual, creative, emotional, and spiritual growth is that you prepare to take the standardized tests put together by the Common Core Curriculum Commissariat and Ministry of Truth. So, when you are not sleeping or brushing your teeth, do test prep.
“There is plenty of software available from the educational publishing mega-corporations that will help you with this.
“Remember that no one ever accomplished anything in the history of humankind without having first reached proficiency at bubbling in bubbles and doing standardized prep InstaWriting in five-paragraph theme format. I, of course, wrote Slaughterhouse Five as a collection of standardized test constructed responses before the editors at the publishing house changed it all and screwed it all up. What a fluke that it was successful anyway! So it goes.”
Diane Ravitch’s blog ………..
Since my “becoming” was important to those around me when I was growing up, I took the time to complete Kurt’s assignment, but rather than abandon it………………..this is a complete assignment…………..
Animation Notes
A bit teary. I work in arts education and had the good fortune of meeting the iguana and chatting during a small conference where he spoke and mingled. The conference was titled Working Without a Net. He and other artists make visible, audible, and enactive demonstrations of their creative work. The letter is just as witty and filled with pithy insight as I recall from casual conversation over a decade ago.
Lucky you, Laura. The world with Kurt Vonnegut in it is a much-diminished place.
Yikes!!! correction: The world WITHOUT Kurt Vonnegut in it is a much-diminished place!!!!
I bet he would have had a great response to this. But I can’t imagine what it would be, which is a good illustration of the diminishment.
HA!
Also at that memorable four-day conference in a monastic setting across the river from Louisville, was
Paulo Solari visionary architect (ancillary maker of bells), mentor to other visionary architects;
Karen Grassle of Little House on the Prairie doing four dramatizations of the same passage from Shakespeare–daring to show her terror while performing a normally private exercise in public
and Patricia Renick a sculptor of both monumental public works and autobilographical sculpture–beautifully crafted boats serving as visual metaphors for states of mind, voyages through a lifetime, and more.
Kurt Vonnegut was quite nostalgic about life in the state of Indiana as he wanted to remember it.
I that isn’t good, what is?
I just came across this essay by Alexander Solzhenitsyn again this morning.
There are so many truths on this blog.
One Word of Truth Outweighs the World
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
I THINK THAT WORLD LITERATURE has the power in these frightening times to help
mankind see itself accurately despite what is advocated by partisans and by parties. It has the power to transmit the condensed experience of one region to another, so that different scales of values are combined, and so that one people accurately and concisely knows the true history of another with a power of recognition and acute awareness as if it had lived through that history itself ─ and could thus be spared repeating old mistakes. At the same time, perhaps we ourselves may succeed in developing our own WORLD-WIDE VIEW, like any man, with the center of the
eye seeing what is nearby but the periphery of vision taking in what is happening in the rest of the world. We will make correlations and maintain world-wide standards.
Who, if not writers, are to condemn their own unsuccessful governments (in some states this is the easiest way to make a living; everyone who is not too lazy does it) as well as society itself, whether for its cowardly humiliation or for its self-satisfied weakness, or the lightheaded escapades of the young, or the youthful pirates brandishing knives?
We will be told: What can literature do against the pitiless onslaught of naked violence? Let us not forget that violence does not and cannot flourish by itself; it is inevitably intertwined with LYING. Between them there is the closest, the most profound and natural bond: nothing screens violence except lies, and the only way lies can hold out is by violence. Whoever has once announced violence as his METHOD must inexorably choose lying as his PRINCIPLE. At birth, violence behaves openly and even proudly. But as soon as it becomes stronger and firmly established, it senses the thinning of the air around it and cannot go on without befogging itself in lies, coating itself with lying’s sugary oratory. It does not always or necessarily go straight for the gullet; usually it demands of its victims only allegiance to the lie, only complicity in the lie.
The simple act of an ordinary courageous man is not to take part, not to support lies! Let that come into the world and even reign over it, but not through me. Writers and artists can do more: they can VANQUISH LIES! In the struggle against lies, art has always won and always will.
Conspicuously, incontestably for everyone. Lies can stand up against much in the world, but not against art.
Once lies have been dispelled, the repulsive nakedness of violence will be exposed ─ and hollow violence will collapse.
That, my friend, is why I think we can help the world in its red-hot hour: not by the nay-saying of having no armaments, not by abandoning oneself to the carefree life, but by going into battle!
In Russian, proverbs about TRUTH are favorites. They persistently express the considerable, bitter, grim experience of the people, often astonishingly:
ONE WORD OF TRUTH OUTWEIGHS THE WORLD.
On such a seemingly fantastic violation of the law of the conservation of mass and energy are based both my own activities and my appeal to the writers of the whole world.
Makes we want to cry a little for what our children are losing, and that decent, caring people can’t stop the power & money machine.
Reading Kurt Vonnegut’s letter reminds me of when I spend time with two of my favorite octogenarians on a daily basis – one learns quickly that what matters in life has absolutely nothing to do with competition, most money, all the STUFF in life, tests, prizes, awards, one more meeting… Old age is a great equalizer, where no one knows or asks…who were you? What did you accomplish? They ask about everything related to HUMANITY! And discussions about illness. Naps are über important, too.
Loved the letter and his recommendations. Who will teach this to young people? We are all too busy working, achieving, climbing, competing, surviving, treading water and helping children with tons of homework and more test prep.
Stop the Madness!
Your comment reminds me of a discussion I had with a father while visiting Spain. We were discussing how the business world talked of eliminating the two hour lunch/ siesta tradition to improve the economy. This very wise father’s comment, ” But when would I see my family?” A humble man, who saw time with his loved ones to be the most important priority in life. We have much to learn from the wise individuals of the world who value humanity over the mighty dollar.
Thank you for your beautifully written comment. It is so true.
Comrade Hurley: Please report to Room 101 for rectification. Before reporting, please watch the new video, “Life as a race to the top of a stairway,” by the CCSSO (the Common Core Curriculum Commissariat and Ministry of Truth) and be prepared “to discuss” this with us. –your friends at the Ministry of Love
BTW, my recent post about this video featured on the newly designed Common Core site can be found here:
How did I not know you had a blog? I have some reading to do…
Alan, on the left side, if you scroll down, you will see that one of the topic headings on my blog is Education Deform. There are several pieces, there, that deal with various topics related to the Common [sic] Core [sic] State [sic] Standards [sic].
Thanks for your interest! 🙂
In one of his later books (I can’t recall which one), Kurt Vonnegut stated that a young reader summarized all of his writing in one seven word phrase: “Love May Fail but Courtesy WIll Prevail”… How any sentient being can ban his writing is beyond me…
Love it.
Love Vonnegut.
Love art.
Since my “becoming” was important to those around me when I was growing up, I took the time to complete Kurt’s assignment, but rather than abandon it, I’ll share:
With what am I invested,
If they prove that I am bested,
By my classmates when I’m tested?
By these marks I and my teacher,
Become one beaten, deformed creature,
Education’s stringent bleacher.
******
Note: Bleacher” from my perspective in this little verse is meant to have two figurative meanings: to lighten or to remove the color, as in to take the shades, hues, and nuances out of learning and teaching, and to sit on the sidelines, watching the action, because one is deemed not worthy of true participation.
A super little work, Blind Noise!
Your name, BTW, is a reference, perhaps, to the official propaganda, or “news,” as it is sometimes still, ironically, referred to?
No; my name refers to the fact that I am blind and that it is extremely difficult to shut me up, and I will be there, constantly chattering in the background until noticed. Besides, Blind Bitch was taken. As was Darediva, which is a nickname bestowed upon me some years ago by my students at the time.
Awesome, Blind Noise. Now that you mention this, I recall an earlier interaction on this blog and your moving story about your personal history. Hilarious response, BTW!
I love the name “Darediva.” And your poem was wonderful. It made my day.
🙂 I have suffered from that condition for most of my life. Not blindness. Difficult to “shut-upism.” I am especially vulnerable to its control on subjects in which I have a passionate interest.
BN, do you have other work posted online? You write beautifully.
Delighted to have done so. I was very disappointed when I discovered that Darediva was already taken on WordPress.
Naw, I love “Blind Noise,” now that I have heard your explanation. Great.
blindnoise.wordpress.com
It is my second blog; I left the blogosphere for a while, but the stress of teacher-bashing and other things related to the political and social direction of the world caused me to start another.
Writing keeps me sane; it has always been my main form of catharsis.
Thanks!
I agree with Bob. Very nice Blog, Blind Noise. You are very eloquent and right on the money. You are also a good poet – perhaps a book is in your future.
I did self-publish one, but it wasn’t up to my standards. Probably had something to do with writing it the summer after being hit by a car. Painkillers and creativity do not mix (although I suppose some artists might disagree).
Blind Noise, it sounds like you’ve led an incredible life. I sense an autobiography or at least a memoir in your future. (And I know about those self- set standards – I’m writing a book myself and it never seems to be up to my personal snuff.)
Keep us posted.
Kurt Vonnegut: what you said!
😎
again and again and again, what that man said
Were Kurt not in heaven now, if he were still among his fellow great apes, he might tell a tale something like this:
The year was 2030 and there was a grit crisis.
Not that people weren’t warning about this way back in 2014. Some few visionaries saw the crisis coming. Secretary of Education Privatization Arne “Dunkin” Duncan had let the country know in no uncertain terms, way back then, that Amerika, Inc., was in trouble. If it didn’t do something to get those lazy, shiftless teachers and kids in Topeka and Jacksonville to stop being failures, Singapore was going to throw the whole country to the mat, stomp on its rib cage, buy up its MacDonald’s franchises, and replace its Walmarts with Singaemporiums.
The Common Core Curriculum Commissariat and Ministry of Truth–CCCCMiniTru for short–had tried to stave off the disaster. It had really tried.
It fired all the teachers for underperformance and replaced them with nifty “personalized” software from Gates Pearson Murdoch Knowlogy, Inc. (Company motto: “Teaching, there’s an app for that”). It hooked up all the kids to retinal scanners and galvanic skin response monitors to measure their gritfulness in real time as they did their identically personalized worksheets on a screen. It installed headphones to blast into kids’ ears Barry Sadler’s “Song of the Green Beret” and The Mormon Tabernacle Choir cover of “Everything Is Beautiful” whenever their gritfulness fell below proficiency level 3 point 86. Kids would do anything to avoid these.
From their gleaming, floating offshore cities—Xanadu, Elysium, Redmond, and Shangri-La LA—the 0.1 percent dispatched drones to monitor the general population for terrorist activities such as spending too little on consumer goods and failing to show up on time to their meager and part time but nonetheless essential service jobs, assigned to them by Gates Kelly Temp Services, the sole employer of proles. Everyone, young and old alike, was rigorously tested every 23 point 4 minutes to ensure proper understanding and performance of whatever task he or she happened to be engaged in—nail polishing, going to the bathroom, preparing Happy Meals—whatever.
To no avail. Sure, people (well, proles) were doing what they were supposed to do–they were going through the motions at the required pace. And they were hitting their grit benchmarks. The Good News of well-met production quotas for grit, along with other key production metrics, was continually broadcast from every wall and street corner by Gates/Murdoch Fox state television, and if you missed those reports, you could always check the running ticker on your Gates/Murdoch Google Glass and Retinal Scanner.
But weirdly, nothing quite worked. Everything the proles produced, though to specification, was shoddy. Things fell apart. STUFF–the essential output of Consumer Homo Economicus–was produced with grit but not, it seemed, with True Grit.
Fortunately, Walmart Pharmaceuticals and Neurological Engineering had a solution: Happy Juice, piped into people’s heads via ports installed in the back of their skulls. Gates Goldman Merrill Chase Bank of Amerika Citi Inc arranged a loan from the Singaporeans to install the necessary infrastructure. Soon, a network of piping covered the entire country and, and one tendril of a pipe led to the back of the head of every student and worker at every desk.
What could go wrong?
Yeah, Bob, I think you covered all their bases.
Great advice from a man who had lived a long life and see the value in the freedom to follow what you love. Why did they burn Slaughter-House?
Because it told the truth?
Bob, you used the five-letter T word. Revolting!
A slightly revised version:
Were Kurt Vonnegut not in heaven now, if he were still among his fellow great apes, he might tell a tale something like this:
The year was 2030 and there was a grit crisis.
Not that people weren’t warning about this way back in 2014. Some few visionaries saw the crisis coming. Secretary of Education Privatization Arne “Dunkin” Duncan had let the country know in no uncertain terms, way back then, that Amerika, Inc., was in trouble. If it didn’t do something to stop those lazy, shiftless teachers and kids in Topeka and Jacksonville from being failures, Singapore was going to throw the whole country to the mat, stomp on its rib cage, buy up its MacDonald’s franchises, and replace its Walmarts with Singaemporiums.
The Common Core Curriculum Commissariat and Ministry of Truth–CCCCMiniTru for short–had tried to stave off the disaster. It had really tried.
It had fired all the teachers for underperformance and replaced them with nifty “personalized” software from Gates.Murdoch Pearson Knowlogy, Inc. (Company motto: “Teaching, there’s an app for that”). It had hooked up all the kids to retinal scanners and galvanic skin response monitors to measure their gritfulness in real time as they did their identically personalized worksheets on a screen. It had installed headphones to blast into kids’ ears Barry Sadler’s “Song of the Green Beret” and The Mormon Tabernacle Choir cover of “Everything Is Beautiful” whenever their gritfulness fell below proficiency level 3 point 86. Kids would do anything to avoid those.
From their gleaming, floating offshore cities—West Xanadu, Elysium, Redmond, and Shangri-La LA—the 0.1 percent dispatched drones to monitor the general population for terrorist activities such as spending too little on consumer goods and failing to show up on time to their meager and part-time but nonetheless essential service jobs, assigned to them by Gates/Murdoch Kelly Temp Services, the sole employer of proles. Everyone, young and old alike, was rigorously tested every 23 point 4 minutes to ensure proper understanding and performance of whatever task he or she happened to be engaged in—nail polishing, going to the bathroom, preparing Happy Meals—whatever.
To no avail. Sure, people (well, proles) were doing what they were supposed to do–they were going through the motions at the required pace. And they were hitting their grit benchmarks. The Fair and Balanced Good News of well-met production quotas for grit, along with other key production metrics, was continually broadcast from every wall and street corner by Gates/Murdoch Fox state television, and if you missed those reports, you could always check the running ticker on your Gates/Murdoch Google Glass and Retinal Scanner.
But weirdly, nothing quite worked. Everything the proles produced, though to specification, was shoddy. Things fell apart. STUFF–the essential output of Consumer Homo Economicus–was produced with grit but not, it seemed, with True Grit. Whatever could the Plutocrats and their windup politicians do?
Fortunately, Walmart Pharmaceuticals and Neurological Engineering had a solution: Freedom Juice, piped into people’s heads via ports installed in the back of their skulls. Gates/Murdoch Goldman Citi Merrill Chase Bank of Amerika, Inc arranged a loan from the Singaporeans to install the necessary infrastructure. Soon, a network of piping covered the entire country and, and one tendril of a pipe led to the back of the head of every student and worker at every desk.
What could go wrong?
So according to Kurt we can just mess around with whatever stuff we want to and have fun with it? You mean we don’t have to produce something that someone else can critique and grade? I can do something just for the sheer pleasure of doing? I don’t have to “perform”? Is that really allowed in the Common Core world?
No, in Common Core World, everyone is a trained seal. Behaving like a well-trained seal is called, in Rheeformish tongue, “having grit.”
My response to Mr. Vonnegut’s prophetic missive is simply, in the words of Billy Pilgrim, “And so it goes.” Unfortunately, the beauty and delight of learning as it should be, and as described in Mr. Vonnegut’s letter, is an endeavor that no corporate reformer could ever understand because it does not correlate to dollars and cents and profit margins to be garnered from privatizing education.
I am thankful to have read these words which are a balm to my soul amidst this struggle. I will share this letter with all of my teachers in district. I hope it lessens the burdens they carry in this age of accountability and test, drill, and kill.
“God bless you, Mr. Rosewater,” are my parting words to an author who has proven himself worthy of my attention and my admiration especially with this letter which allows his spirit to live on. Vonnegut always has proven to be an astute social critic, and apparently at age 84 he had not lost one bit of his sharpness.
There is no room for humor or levity in common core. Get right to work – we strive for rigor. Vonnegut is too irreverent for our attention. Now back to this article about the day in the life of an ant. Read three times and answer these 100 questions.
Yes, there should be at least as many questions as there are words in the article. Otherwise, it would show no gritfulness at all to get through them.
Yes, we all know how important grit is to the general well-being. For instance, I must top off my pigeon’s seed bowl with a layer of grit each day; otherwise, he might find the daily sustenance I serve up quite too difficult to digest. I imagine this is analogous to the reason my students require grit; it ensures that the stale fare we are asked to serve up to them in the name of enhanced rigor can be more easily digested though their very nature resists it.
Every bit of this has made my day. Connecting with others who are creative and wise and talented and have opinions and are willing to challenge the status quo is almost heady. Thanks for the animation today and almost every day
I believe what you are describing is what in Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle is called a “granfalloon,” an arbitrary association of people gathered for some common purpose.
Oh no, Alan. A granfalloon is an arbitrary, accidental association: 1. “You’re a Hoosier? OMG! I’m a Hoosier too! What about that!!!” 2. “OK. Everybody wearing colored socks today, go standard over there. You will be Group A.” 3. All the people named “Bob.”
So, a group brought together by a common cause and working substantively toward common goals (ending education deform) would not be a granfalloon.
Karass then?
yes, a karass, a group of people with a cosmic linkage. I like it!
Jesus once said, “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s”. Which Bokonon paraphrased, “Pay no attention to Caesar. Caesar doesn’t have the slightest idea what’s really going on.”
Bokonon could have been speaking of our leaders’ understanding of teaching and learning.
It is high time we indulged in some serious karassment.
LOL!
Kiss my karass.
Actually, I could kiss all the people who show up on this blog to fight against Ed Deform. May the gods bless them every one.
and this saying of Bokonon’s, so appropriate:
“History! Read it and weep!”
Well said, Klmk! I feel the same way. I LOVE the people on this blog. So many wise, thoughtful, compassionate, dedicated, intense souls!
When I happened upon this thread yesterday, I was in thick of writing a review of literature for one of doctoral courses. I thought, “Wow, thanks, Diane! It is nice to take a literary interlude and read the words of Kurt Vonnegut as a parallel to this ed reform debacle.” I knew it would be a thread filled with spirited responses. Diane never disappoints, and our fellow responders also never fail. This post by Diane was a gift to my soul in the midst of the day.
Keep feeding our souls, Diane.