A confession: an anthology that I edited in 1990 is on the Common Core recommended reading list. It is titled “The American Reader.” It has songs, poems, and speeches (thus, a mixture of “literature” and “informational text.” The CC reading list does not mention my name as the editor. I didn’t discover this until I began to receive royalty checks for this book, published 25 years ago.
Regardless, I will continue to criticize the Common Core. I don’t think a group of self-appointed educrats should tell the nation’s teachers what percentage of their time should be devoted to literature or nonfiction
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Agree, but do you take issue most with “self appointed” or the idea of dictating “percentage of time?” Or do you have misgivings about the literature you identified years ago? I think you should enjoy those royalty checks guilt-free, and Happy Birthday!
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Dianna,
I have a long list of reasons to reject the CCSS. Percentage of time for fiction-nonfiction is only one.
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Oh I agree wholeheartedly! But what did you do wrong that needs “confessing”?
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Dienne, I confess I get a royalty check thanks to CCSS. But it has no bearing on my objections to its imposition and its mandates or the fact that it cannot be revised.
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I wouldn’t worry about taking money for that. Heaven knows they’ve taken enough of our money. I trust you will put it to good use, even if that use is treating you and Mary to a nice birthday dinner.
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Dienne:
What you said!
Diane and Mary: eat hearty and party!
😎
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My Common Core confession is much more damning, which is that I appreciate the change CCSS is driving toward. Luckily for me, no one gives much of a darn about my confessions!
I come from a state where the state-level DOE exercises little control over local curriculum. However true it is that many of the levers of change CCSS pulls upon (e.g. proscriptive reading list) are misguided, I think CCSS elevates standards. Our state made the deal with the devil to get a waiver, and now the public feels bamboozled by CCSS. The pump is primed to hate them before they look at them.
Having followed your work from Left Back onward, your post gives me some pause.
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What state are you from, Dianna? Sounds just like what happening here in NH!
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pculliton – BINGO the Granite State 😉 What are your thoughts about CCSS implementation here? In ed/higher ed I feel some pressure to disavow them -esp when my intellectual heroes do, but I’ve talked to many teachers in Manchester classrooms who think they’re a vast improvement over GLEs.
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It’s a good thing to confess everything you have done or said in the last forty years that is contrary to your current thinking. Lord knows, someone will drag it out as evidence of your perfidy. As for myself, I am glad to see that you have actually been thinking for the past forty years and that that journey has led you to where you stand today. 🙂
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I concur with 2old2teach.
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You’re right again!
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It’s your birthday. It’s time to start the year off cleaning the skeletons out of the closet. We all have some. Mine is that in high school I once represented the pro-Nixon side of a debate when he was running against Kennedy! We can’t all be right all the time, but we can evolve and, hopefully, grow.
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I guess I’m missing the “confession” here. So a book of literary excerpts that you edited 25 years ago (which is great sampling of American literature, I must say), has been appropriated some Common Core reading list (lacking proper citation even)? What was your “sin” here? I’m confused.
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Lucky for you that they left your name out of it ! Just take the money.
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Some day maybe I too will regret “publishing” my own DAMthology (of Deform”) and ask David Coleman for forgiveness (on my knees, of course): “Bless me Father Coleman, for I have sinned. I wrote 40 pages of “Poetribe” against Common Core and ‘reform” and am mighty sorry. Oh, and I also used Gates’ name in vain: GatesDAMmit”
Fat chance.
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And for your penance say three Hail Arnes and two Our Colemans.
For your act of contrition please repeat after me,
O my Gates, I am heartily sorry for
having offended your Common Core,
and I detest all my poetry, because of Your just
punishments, but most of all because
they offend You, my Gates, who are
all-good and deserving of all my devotion.
I firmly resolve, with the help of
Your grace, to write no more and to
avoid the near occasion of poetry.
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Wonderful poem, NY Teacher!
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HBD – DSR!
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Hail Arne
Full of Gates
The Core is with thee
Mes-sed art thou among Reformers
And mes-sed is the fruit of thy room, RTTT
Our Coleman
Who aren’t an educator
Hollow be they claim
Thy King-dom come,
Thy will be dumb,
In NY as it is in Washington
Spare us this Core our daily bore,
and forgive us our testpasses,
as we forgive those who testpass in charters ;
and lead us not into DAM nation,
but deliver us from Common Core. Amen
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Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding!
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My daughter’s AP Lang class used that book as one of many resources this year (including complete novels, etc). And it’s one of the books she chose to keep for her growing personal library rather than sell. But you should also know that her teacher included an 8 week unit on “What is the purpose of education?” as part of the class, including a chapter from your book, (Reign of Error), Dewey’s entire book (Experience and Education), and other sources (movies, books, blogs–including yours, articles, news coverage) on both sides of the spectrum.
Because her school is private (we live in post-apocalyptic Indianapolis, where “school choice” –lotteries, waiting lists, closures –has eliminated our family from most of our possible choices), her teacher admittedly has greater freedom to teach what she sees as best. But it’s obvious that she gets it, and doesn’t support one set of goals for private schools while accepting another for public.
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Maruegger, what a great teacher! She is teaching literature, social science, and critical thinking.
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Looks like a great collection. There are many great books on the CCSS appendix list. That does not mean, however, that tests will actually ask about any of them. Can you imagine — “Self-Reliance” on the SBAC?! I think not!
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Self-reliance, goes with grit, may be tested on next NAEP. Happy Birthday. Enjoy it.
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So they have a great piece of work that you edited on the list. A plus for students. You deserve the royalty, no matter who is promoting your book. We forgive you!
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If the state wants oversight on education, so be it. However, assessment can only be done at the local level to make it real. And each child’s pathway to success must be made locally
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Quite correct, Cap, quite correct!
The teaching and learning process is best controlled at the local level, and by local I mean classroom level.
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I enjoy many books on that CCSS list.
But lots of enjoyable worthwhile literature is left off the list too – that is the problem. And some I would question even being included at all.
My second grade standards suggest my second graders read the Cinderella books from different cultures. We are all familiar with the story where a prince comes and chases and saves a beautiful girl. And every culture has a similar ideal. The cultural information is interesting but . . .
My reality is that girls need to be strong and empower themselves whether they ever get chased by a prince or even if they are attracted to another princess. And maybe the Prince has things to do? Who knows. These stories a a myth for most families I know.
So that is common core in action and the problem with suggesting or limiting text.
Cinderella becomes the text.
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So many kids will be exposed to Cinderella outside of school–why wouldn’t we share other tales during school hours?
Yes, it’s intended to show that multiple cultures expressed the prince rescues girl story, but why not stimulate a range of interests w varied folk literature?
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Many years ago a professor at the University of Chicago wrote HIS list, the syntopican or some such title.
All of us have our favorite reading materials. That does not mean that our list is the end all of the great books. For the government to foist a set list of books is to stricture the other great books. AND the community in which one teaches must be taken into account.
A rather short time ago on NPR a teacher was noted who had lost her job. She had taught in an inner city school and the kids hated books, at least the books which were imposed on them, many I suppose were probably great or at least good literature – but not for them at their level of understanding.
She, herself, bought books which were commensurate with their experiences and soon the students were reading all kinds of literature.
The school board reprimanded her, made her collect the books which she had bought for them and if memory is correct, fired her.
So much for “top down” autocratic impositions.
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Common Core is much more than simply an education standard.
It is centralized planning not unlike that imposed in the former Soviet Union with no regard for the relevant science (think Lysenkoism) and little to no input from those tasked with implementing the plan.
It is fundamentally undemocratic and doomed to fail.
It is actually very surprising that any conservative would support it.
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First book on my list is: “A Small Treatise on the Great Virtues” by Andre Comte Sponville.
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Bravo Diane, they are trying to buy you, now if you can just get to Randi, who cares more about her sex life than the Trans Pacific Partnership screwing us all….
In her new book, Indian author, Arundahti Roy, says:
“Armed with their billions, these NGOs (Non Governmental Organizations)
have waded into the world, turning potential revolutionaries into salaried activists, funding artists, intellectuals, and film makers, gently luring them away from radical confrontation, ushering them in the direction of multiculturalism, gender equity, community development- the discourse couched in the language of identity politics and human rights.”
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I’ll confess that I have been using this wonderful anthology in my history classroom at Monroe-Woodbury since 1999-2000. Thank you Diane for editing it and for speaking at MWHS this past spring. You are an inspiration!
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It’s interesting that someone who has spent so much time campaigning against Common Core, writing about Common Core, etc., never took the time until now to notice what the Common Core actually says.
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WT, I wonder to whom you refer? I read the Common Core standards before they were published and again after they were published. Or were you addressing someone else?
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If you had ever read the list before now, how could you not notice a book of your own?
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The American Reader is an excellent source, but please note the publication date of 1990. One of the problems with the CC reading list is that the majority of the selections are older, ignoring some of the more current writings being published. Some of the choices were out of print or articles from larger works. I know publishing companies did some juggling to get items reconfigured and available to the schools.
My other complaint is that the selections are often matched to the wrong age groups – either by content and/or readability. No matter how stupendous the item, if you force it upon children before they are ready, the effort is wasted. ( a “no fine wine before it’s time” sort of situation). For example, how many seventh graders will appreciate The Autobiography of Frederick Douglas” which was formerly assigned to High School Juniors?
Here again – we are in a one size fits all situation. There are books that English majors will “inhale”, books that appeal to the scientific mind, books for future historians, books that the nonreader will enjoy, books that the avid reader will love, etc. While there might be some overlap, it is ridiculous to think that each list will be identical.
That is why school libraries exist – to allow free choice.
So when they redo CCSS, throw out that reading list and give some broad guidelines so teachers can choose their own personal favorites that match the needs of their individual students.
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My school used it before the Common Core. It is excellent.
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I’d love a citation to a sentence in which the Common Core State Standards document tells teachers what percent of their time to devote to literature and nonfiction. Even better, I’d love to see that sentence in the context of the paragraph in which it appears.
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The percentage split between fiction-informational text is in the CC standards.
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