Jonathan Lovell reminds us that one of the central tenets of “education reform” today is “creative disruption.” This is a popular concept in the corporate world but totally inappropriate for children and schools, who need stability and predictability.
Lovell understands that Common Core is intended to be a massive disruption, and that some politicians eagerly await dismal results on the tests as a prelude to destroying public education.
He writes:
“The problem faced by teachers and a few heroic administrators today, however, is not so much to understand the thinking behind the Common Core as it is to figure out how to prevent the damage that the “predictable failure rate” on the spring 2015 Common Core assessments will do to the students in their classrooms and schools. It’s in response to this important and urgent “What can we do?” question that I provide the following thoughts.”
His thoughts take him back to theLewis Carroll story of the Jabberwock.
“What struck me almost immediately was that the “shocking” effect of this image owed a good deal to the Jabberwock’s unexpectedly human apparel and extremely human central teeth. It gradually dawned on me that what Dodgson and Tenniel had set out to represent as the source of all that threatened to destroy Alice’s childhood world was the voraciousness and lumbering acquisitiveness of 19th century industrial capitalism (see here for a recent study confirming these suspicions), all decked out in vest, spats, and a handlebar mustache!
“The fact that this part serpent, part dragon, part insect, part man seemed to emerge, inexorably, from a Darwinian-like primeval ooze, gave the image added power. I could understand why the publishers might not have wanted this image to greet the young readers of “Lewis Carroll’s” second Alice book!…”
“So what are we as teachers and administrators to make of this encounter? How might Dodgson and Tenniel’s understanding provide us with ways to confront today’s “monsters” of educational reform, who threaten to “disrupt” our cherished system of public education to its very core?
“I would suggest we engage in a little “creative disruption” ourselves. We could begin with what our Finnish colleagues in education have already done: rename the seeming juggernaut of international educational reform as GERM, for Global Education Reform Movement…..”
“It was a child who had the courage and temerity to say “The emperor has no clothes!””
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Thanks Diane. These observations and other more recent posts can be found on “Jonathan lovell’s blog.”
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Literary allusions and interpretations are nice. But I think it would be far more effective if teachers and adminstrators would finally stop drinking and passing our the Common Core Kool-Aid, and actually learn about Common Core and the experiences of the teachers and communities that have taken it on full-bore. They next need to speak out publicly, even walking out if necessary, to make the parents, school boards, and press realize what’s happening.
Until people have reality shoved at them, which means the teachers screwing up the courage to learn the reality and say “Hell, no!” We will have a very hard time stopping this train. I believe the parents and communities will protect the teachers from retaliation once the facts are known.
As Raymond Callahan pointed out in his history of how business management took over public education nearly a century ago, had the teachers in New York City simply walked out
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… when faced with the insult of having their profession subjugated to managerfs, America’s public education would not have been gutted.
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Everyday I want to walk out because of the constant abuse from administration to teach students how to perform the “verbs” of the standards (really ‘perform the verbs’ – determine, provide, cite???). But, I owe it to my students to give them the best education possible although I risk getting “formally reprimanded” daily. Also, I have a responsibility to my family to provide a place to live and food to eat. Finally, I have a responsibility to the loan servicing companies to pay back my student loans. I am fulfilled in my work and I keep in mind that my walking out of a high-needs low-income school is not the solution. I don’t know what the solution is but I know that I have to look at my own face in the mirror everyday.
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It is interesting that most of the people that want to “reform” public education are products of it themselves.I would assume then that they consider themselves “poorly” educated and how then can they be capable of “reforming” it? It’s a curious paradox! http://wsautter.com/
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“Wonderful World” (Don’t Know Much) — Apologies to Sam Cooke
Don’t know much about ELA
Don’t know what the ed experts say
Don’t know much about the teaching trade
Don’t know much about second grade
But I do know Common Core is true
And I know that if you used it too
What a wonderful world this would be
Don’t know much about special needs
Don’t know much psychology
Don’t know much about Piaget
Don’t know what the researchers say
But I do know tests and VAMs are true
And if Common Core could be with you
What a wonderful world this would be
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I see a Saturday Night Live skit in the works.
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Sam Cooke a favorite, and this a real gift. Thanks.
Beware the Jabberwock, dear poet.
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or, in this case, the Jabbertalk.
“Jabbertalk”
The billionaires and the usual names
Did lie and dissemble in the press:
All flimsy were Reformer claims,
And the Charter rats did nest.
‘Beware the Jabbertalk, my son!
The laws that bite, the Cores that catch!
Beware the Coleman bird, and shun
The felonious Charters, natch!’
He took the parents’ word in hand:
Long time the testing foe he sought —
So rested he by the VAM VAM tree,
And stood a while in thought.
And, as in doveish thought he stood,
The Jabbertalk, with test and VAM,
Came rifling through the teaching wood,
And burbled as it came!
One two! One two! And through and through
The Opt-out blade went snicker-snack!
He left test dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
‘And hast thou slain the Jabbertalk?
Come to my school, my beamish boy!
Oh frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!’
He chortled in his joy.
The billionaires and the usual names
Did lie and dissemble in the press:
All flimsy were Reformer claims,
And the charter rats did nest.
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As a former hostage negotiator, there are many mundane things that no longer frighten me, but, I concur with you Laura, I have seen the Jabberwock, it is to be feared. maybe the Jabberwock here is Krampus come early.
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