As many educators and parents have noted, Exxon’s CEO Rex Tillerson is a fervent advocate of the Common Core standards. He thinks our schools are turning out “defective products,” something that Exxon would never do.
Mercedes Schneider weighed in here. She says that the Fortune article demonstrated that Common Core is a corporate tool meant to produce compliant workers.
Mercedes writes:
CCSS is hugely controversial, if for no other reason than its rushed-and-hushed creation. And surely one must wonder about the motives behind Gates’ continued push of what is little more than a Gates latest-and-greatest pet project.
Had CCSS been developed and implemented with sense– one grade level at a time, openly, and prior to any formal state adoption– the “hugely controversial” component would have been quelled.
Mercedes wonders why the big corporate chieftains didn’t ask for evidence before they swallowed CCSS whole.
California parent Joan Davidson thinks that Exxon should clean up its own mess before telling the nation’s teachers how to do their job.
She writes:
hi- read with interest your blog re: Exxon Mobil and Leave our children alone.
Exxon Mobil needs to take care of the Torrance, CA plant that THREATENS HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF LOCAL RESIDENTS AND ESPECIALLY SCHOOLS AND that has had so many explosions it is now being investigated by the EPA–finally.
The plant exploded last February and if the blast had hit the illegal Hydrofluric Acid tank we would not be here today.
We just had a big community meeting about the real threat it poses. Of course, Exxon has raised its gas prices here as a prize for Ca
residents.
SO EXXON TAKE CARE OF YOUR BUSINESS BEFORE YOU TRY AND TAKE CARE OF EDUCATION!
THANKS
JOAN
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Hank Reichman, on the Academe Blog, also addresses Tillerson’s comment: http://academeblog.org/2016/01/05/education-where-the-customer-is-the-product/
Thanks for the link.
The responses to Tillerson have been great. Here’s one of the most articulate:
https://gadflyonthewallblog.wordpress.com/2016/01/06/my-daughter-is-not-a-widget/
In fact, it’s so well-written — one of the best things I’ve read yet in my endless and obsessive on-line education world perusals — that I’m moving it over to here in its entirety:
(however, I recommend you go to the above link as well, as the text has dozens of hyperlinks to various on-line sources backing up her claims in the text)
———————————————–
GADFLY ON THE WALL:
“My Daughter is Not a Widget”
– – – – – – – – – –
“I’m not sure public schools understand that we’re their customer—that we, the business community, are your customer. What they don’t understand is they are producing a product at the end of that high school graduation.
“Now is that product in a form that we, the customer, can use it?
“Or is it defective, and we’re not interested?
“American schools have got to step up the performance level — or they’re basically turning out defective products that have no future. Unfortunately, the defective products are human beings. So it’s really serious. It’s tragic. But that’s where we find ourselves today.”
– Rex Tillerson, ExxonMobil CEO
– – – – – – – – – –
“My daughter just turned seven during this holiday season.
“She loves to draw. She’ll take over the dinning room table and call it her office. Over the course of a single hour, she can render a complete story with full color images supporting a handwritten plot.
“These narratives usually star super heroes, cartoon characters and sometimes her mommy and daddy. In these flights of fantasy, I’ve traveled to worlds lit by distant suns, been a contestant on a Food Network cooking show, and even been a karate pupil to a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle sensei.
T”hat little girl is my pride and joy. I love her more than anything else in this world.
“Make no mistake – She is not anyone’s product.
“She is not a cog to fit into your machine.
“She is not merchandise, a commodity, a widget for you to judge valuable or not.
“She is not some THING for you to import or export.
“She is not a device, a gadget, a doodad, a doohickey or a dingus.
“She is not an implement, a utensil, a tool, or an artifact.
“Her value is not extrinsic. It is intrinsic.
“She is a person with a head full of ideas, a heart full of creativity and passion. She has likes and dislikes. She loves, she lives, she dreams.
“And somehow Tillerson, this engineer-turned-CEO, thinks she’s nothing more than a commercial resource to be consumed by Big Business. He thinks her entire worth as a human being can be reduced to her market value. It doesn’t matter what she desires for herself. It only matters if she fills a very narrow need set by corporate America.
“But what else should we expect from the man in charge of ExxonMobil? The corporation has a history of scandal, corruption and malfeasance going back decades.
“Since the 1980s the company has been suppressing its own incredibly accurate data on climate change because that science would adversely affect the bottom line of a business that earns its money burning fossil fuels.
“Moreover, the company funds climate change denial groups. A study by the US Union of Concerned Scientists reports that ExxonMobil funded 29 climate change denial groups in 2004 alone. Since 1990, the report says, the company has spent more than $19 million funding groups that promote their views through publications and Web sites that are not peer reviewed by the scientific community. Need we even mention the corporation’s long history with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)?
“Tillerson and Exxon have also been major boosters of the fracking industry pushing for deregulation as health concerns mount. Most recently, the organization was ordered to pay a $100,000 Environmental Protection Agency civil penalty for an illegal discharge of fluids from a Marcellus Shale natural gas well site in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania.
“It’s all about profit at Exxon. The corporation’s cost cutting measures also resulted in the largest oil spill in US waters to date. Environmental impacts are still being felt in Alaska’s Prince William Sound from the 11 million gallons of oil the Exxon Valdez supertanker unintentionally poured into the ocean, coasts and forests in 1989. Subsequent spills have occurred in Brooklyn (2007), the Yellowstone River (2011), Baton Rouge (2012), and Arkansas (2013). But why should that matter? The corporation was listed as the second most profitable in the world on the Fortune 500 in 2014.
“Yet Tillerson is somehow worried about American workers being up to snuff? Why? The corporation outsources a steadily increasing share of its jobs overseas. Those that it does keep in the continental US have been subject to massive downsizing efforts. As employees have decreased, corporate profits have increased.
“And Tillerson expects anyone to think he’s concerned about the well-being of the American worker!? Give me a break!
—————-
EXXON : PROFITS vs. EMPLOYMENT – 2005 – 2008
2005 — $ 36.1 billion — 83,700 employees
2006 — $ 39.5 billion — 82,100 employees
2007 — $ 40.6 billion — 80,800 employees
2008 — $ 45.2 billion — 79,900 employees
————-
“I suppose it’s not that surprising though that someone who makes $40 million a year, himself, would expect a paycheck to be the ultimate display of personal significance. After all, he probably thinks his exorbitant salary proves that he’s very important.
“Albert Einstein never made that kind of money. Heck! Neither did William Shakespeare, Dr. Martin Luther King, Marie Curie, or Abraham Lincoln. So by Tillerson’s ethos, all of these people were defective products unfit for the corporate world. Or at the very least our estimation of them is flawed.
“After all, what need have we of Shakespeare’s poetry in the exercise of buying and selling? Perhaps the greatest author ever to write in the English language might find merit in the advertising department.
“Likewise, Dr. King’s ethic of equality might be useful in human resources. Marie Curie? She’d find gainful employment in research and development but any patents she generated would undoubtedly be held in the corporate interest.
“And Mr. Lincoln? Perhaps he could be useful as a low level administrator but, no, such iconoclasm as he possessed would probably not be a good fit. He’d end up freeing the wage slaves or other such unprofitable nonsense.
“Is this really the American Dream? Find an occupation producing monetary wealth, or else lose all claims to value? If so, how loud must history be laughing at us?
“The post-Impressionist artist Van Gogh created 900 paintings and 1,100 drawings and sketches. Many of these works now adorn museums around the globe and have forever changed the way we see the world. But during his lifetime, he sold only one painting. So by Tillerman’s logic, he was a defective product, a failure.
“This is the sickness of the profiteer – to be forever appraising worth but unable to see true value. It is the disease eating away at the soul of our country. It’s the same mindset that justifies anything in the name of short-term gain – credit default swaps, the housing bubble, charter schools and Common Core.
“After all, Tillerson’s notorious quote above comes from an infamous article in Fortune magazine in which the CEO threatened the former governor of Pennsylvania that he’d pull ExxonMobil out of the state if the legislature didn’t adopt some form of Common Core. And so the state gave in to the whim of one man with no experience, knowledge or wisdom about how children learn. And students in more than 500 public school districts are thus constrained by this legal economic blackmail.
“I am but a simple man. I don’t bring in a six-figure salary. I’m a teacher in that same public school system. I’m also the father of an elementary student. I am a man of no monetary means and thus little merit.
“But I say this: the Tillersons of this world are wrong.
“Our children are worth more than these tiny bean counter brains realize.
“The purpose of education is not to provide more resources for their pointless game of Monopoly.
“My daughter has a life, and her education is a tool to enrich that life. It is her vehicle of understanding the world around her. It is a process to invigorate her sense of wonder. It is a method of understanding how things work and where she fits in the universe.
“Yes, she will one day need to seek employment. But what she chooses as her occupation will be up to her. SHE will decide where she fits in, Mr. Tillerson, not you. SHE will decide what is valuable in her life. SHE will decide if she wants to spend her hours in the pursuit of profits or less tangible enterprises.
“As such, she needs literature – not standardized tests. She needs mysteries to solve – not Common Core. She needs equitable resources – not charter schools. She needs teachers with advanced degrees and dedication to their jobs – not Teach for America temps.
“Don’t you dare try to justify all that with some narrow economic view of monetary value.
“Some things have no price. My daughter is one of them.”
———————-
If somebody gives awards for ed policy writing, I would suggest that somebody nominate this.
Jack, yes, I read Steven Singer’s excellent article. In fact, I was thinking of posting it, myself, but you beat me to it.
It says everything that needs to be said.
Not ONLY education.
Most of these oil companies knew back in the 70s from the research their OWN scientists had conducted that climate change was caused byburning the oil which they processed. Still they spent millions in challenging these findings.
If they do not care enough about the planet their OWN children will inherit
what makes anyone think that they care anything about public schools except that money has become their bottom line, not the welfare of even their own children.
Please when considering the race for t he white house keep in mind the person who has fought for decades against the corporate giants who are running this country.
AND
please, please do not sit home and not vote. EDUCATE yourself on the people running and then get out the vote for the things which affect ALL our children and our children’s children, and our children’s children’s childrean
It hasn’t snowed on the ground yet in Ohio. Trouble is, Americans assume if you are rich you are smart, and if you are not smart, you are not rich.
Gordon, thank you for your most important comments. People, make sure that you vote, help in voter registration drives (especially with our newly aged-in voters–these kids are fed up, & have been wisely taking it to the streets, but an even better way is taking it to the ballot box. In the meantime, everyone–& I mean EVERYONE–contribute to & work for Bernie, “the person who has fought for decades against the corporate giants who are running this country.”
Bernie 2016!
“….something that Exxon would never do.”
What, like the Exxon Valdiz (spelling guessed)
Exxon Valdez, but exactly yes.
Was Exxon in charge of a “defective product” when it failed to supervise the master and crew of the Exxon Valdez properly? When it failed to provide a properly functioning collision avoidance radar? When it over-worked the crew? And when it tried mightily to get out of paying the full cost of its malfeasance (and largely succeeded)?
Why yes, yes it was.
Exxon has absolutely no room to talk about “defective products.”
Particularly when speaking about our children.
Oil companies are just hyperventilating cause it is less than $40 a barrel. Let’s perfect battery technology and put these blowhards out of business. I’d rather plug in than fill up.
“Mercedes wonders why the big corporate chieftains didn’t ask for evidence before they swallowed CCSS whole.” It appears Luminosity with pay 2 million to settle the FTC deceptive advertising charge. Why hasn’t anyone challenged the unsubstantiated claims that the CC makes. Where is the evidence to back up any of their claims especially since the 2015 NAEP scores declined?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2015/10/28/what-the-national-drop-in-2015-naep-test-scores-really-means/
Correction: That should be Lumosity above.
Lumosity promises brain training –i.e. IQ boosting. It’s based on the idea that mental exercises can make us smarter. Foolishly, most schools these days promise the same thing. They say, we can and we will make kids’ brains work better while avoiding the old-fashioned and “discredited” process of transmitting bodies of knowledge. That’s so 19th Century! The new tests, SBAC and PARCC, promise to test the vaunted “critical thinking skills” not any particular knowledge, so they merely reflect the dominant thinking amongst American educators (and the American public which has only heard disparaging things about learning facts, lectures, “regurgitating” knowledge. This disparagement, hatched in Teachers College, has trickled down to the masses). Lumosity’s popularity is a symptom of a baleful myth held by most Americans, including teachers: that schools should evolve beyond teaching knowledge toward teaching pure brain training. I’m glad Lumosity is being labeled a fraud, but I hope people start realizing that its fraudulent principles undergird most of what passes as “best practices” in education today. As much as we wish it to be so, we cannot increase IQ through mental workouts. What we can and should do, however humble and old-fashioned it may seem, is teach knowledge and thereby optimize the mental hardware we were born with, and dispel ignorance (ignorance is being manufactured by the current education orthodoxy).
On the whole “students are products” thing, it’s interesting to hear the thoughts and arguments from someone defending this notion. Below is a commentary from someone calling himself / herself “The original IAC” in the COMMENTS from a charter school article at the CHICAGO READER here (back in October 2013) :
http://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2013/10/23/mayor-rahm-has-successfully-pitted-charters-against-public-schools
In the COMMENTS section, another poster named “hammerhead” asks “The original IAC” a corporate reformer crank and regular poster there, to defend his pre-Tillerson “students are products” argument:
————-
hammerhead:
“IAC—You should try getting your own column somewhere. It’s bad form to get so carried away.
“On another note–have you considered floating your ‘schoolchildren = products’ creed by parents? I wonder how that would go over? I suspect it’ll be more favorably received in another 20 years or so, after the market-based approach has had sufficient time to drain the life out of education.”
———————-
“The original IAC” responds, sounding like Johnny Carson’s TV citizen editorial specialist Floyd R. Turbo. (There’s a Baby Boomer reference for ya.) For an idea or reminder as to what I’m referring, here’s an example.
Without a trace of irony, IAC shows off his own education when he professes that “it should be widely settled that government should play a strong role” in making sure “that our children are being strongly educated in the primary and secondary school systems.” Otherwise, “we would all be living (if we were living) in something close to The Stone Age. … So we provide our tax dollars to educate everyone and require that they get educated to a certain point. This allows society to advance and the everyone to live not primitive lives.”
I don’t know. Maybe English isn’t this guy’s first language.
Using the above YouTube video as a reference point, imagine Floyd R. Turbo reading this.
——————————–
The original IAC:
“You bet students are products. Are you actually stating they aren’t?
“This is a word that I’ve seen others complain about in this context as well. I don’t understand it.
“Why do you think we have a public school system in this country?
“Why do you think we require all children attend school?
“Do you think it’s just for the individual student’s benefit?
“It certainly is to their benefit, without question. And that’s very important. But it is to everyone else’s benefit as well. In fact, it is vital that children get educated. If we did not have an education system in this country we would all be living (if we were living) in something close to The Stone Age.
“So we provide our tax dollars to educate everyone and require that they get educated to a certain point. This allows society to advance and the everyone to live not primitive lives. If possible, meaningful and productive lives. It’s not just people getting an education so that they can personally succeed. It is everybody succeeding because they benefit from the education that the whole society receives.
“And in the case of this specific country, we need as educated a populace as possible to remain competitive with the rest of the world. This encourages employers to create more jobs here because there are more qualified workers here.
“For that to happen, we have to make sure that our children are being strongly educated in the primary and secondary school systems (as well as higher education). It should be widely settled that government should play a strong role in producing as much of an educated populace as possible for the benefit of the whole country.
“And the students are the products that causes these vital benefits.
“Sheesh!
“I can’t believe we are even debating this. As I’ve said before, the students (and their parents) are also customers as well as taxpayers and citizens. The education that the students receive are also products. These things are not mutually exclusive and the same person plays different roles with different aspects of the educational process.
“But I would have hoped we could at least all agree that one of the important goals for the educational system is to produce an educated populace for the benefit of the whole society.”
—————————————-
Perhaps I wasn’t “strongly educated” enough to appreciate IAC’s brilliant commentary. I should just be content that my family members and I were taught well enough “to not live primitive lives.”
A comment from “Katie Osgood” responding to the diatribe from “the original IAC” makes another good point:
——————–
KATIE OSGOOD:
“@Original IAC
“Thank you for pointing out the very real increases in mental health problems as a result of corporate education reform.”
Jack, The Floyd R Turbo clip shows the country mouse version of 2015’s NYCity deal maker candidate. One difference is Carson was spoofing; the blustering candidate is not.
I assume that you mean Trump to be “2015’s NYCity deal maker candidate.”
The CEO of Exxon Mobile has no business alleging that the public schools turn out “defective products”. Instead, everyone else should be pointing fingers at him and his corporation for their environmental record.
“Its environmental record has been a target of critics from outside organizations such as the environmental lobby group Greenpeace as well as some institutional investors who disagree with its stance on global warming.[53] The Political Economy Research Institute ranks ExxonMobil sixth among corporations emitting airborne pollutants in the United States. The ranking is based on the quantity (15.5 million pounds in 2005) and toxicity of the emissions.[54] In 2005, ExxonMobil had committed less than 1 percent of their profits towards researching alternative energy,[55] less than other leading oil companies.[56]”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExxonMobil#Environmental_record
What Rex doesn’t know is schools do not create widget. Every child’s problem is different from others. He doesn’t know what he doesn’t know. Paul J. Smith, Ed.D. pjsmith44@yahoo.com
Who writes these things?
“it has thrust executives into the uncomfortable intersection of business and politics.”
Because as every American knows, “executives” never, ever interfere in any way in “politics”
How many lobbyists does Exxon have on the payroll right now, do you think?
God almighty, they probably talk to your congressional representative FAR more than any of you do. I bet the CEO of Exxon can get a US President on the phone, and has.
The CEO’s are upset not because they got involved in “politics” but because they had to actually engage with the public to sell this giant program they imposed on every public school in the country instead of meeting quietly with lawmakers and completely excluding the public as they ordinarily do. It isn’t “politics” they object to- they’re sophisticated players in that game- it’s “the public”.
Where does the idea come from that US CEO’s don’t have ENOUGH influence in US policy?
Does that have ANY basis in reality? They’re this silenced political minority and no one in DC listens to them? That’s just ludicrous. Reading that piece all I thought was “wow- they played a huge role in this- much larger than people who actually send their children to the public schools they’re busy ‘reforming’ “.
I know no one will dare ask the CEO’s, but what role do US employers have in training their own workers? None? They can invest nothing in training their own people and expect public schools to turn out “effective products” right out of high school? Workplace training is entirely up to the public? That doesn’t seem right. That was never my understanding of the private sector role in workforce training.
Maybe they could invest some of those massive profits back into “skilling up” their employees rather than padding their own lavish compensation packages. Let’s debate that idea.
Given the reportage of this blog and what Rex Tillerson says of students being “defective products”, would it be ironic to find out if the Valdez captain came from a charter school?
Rex Tillerson is not only a psychopath but he is an arrogant and ignorant fool. Tillerson wrongly alleged that the job of the U.S. public schools is to turn out workers for corporations like Exxon Mobile.
Small businesses make up:
99.7 percent of U.S. employer firms,
64 percent of net new private-sector
jobs,
49.2 percent of private-sector
employment,
42.9 percent of private-sector payroll,
46 percent of private-sector output,
43 percent of high-tech employment,
98 percent of firms exporting goods,
and
33 percent of exporting value.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, SUSB, CPS;
International Trade Administration; Bureau
of Labor Statistics, BED; Advocacy-funded
research, Small Business GDP.
Small Business Shares:
Home-based business 52.0
Franchise 2.0
Sole proprietor 73.2
Corporation 19.5
Employer business 21.5
Nonemployer (business
without employees) 78.5
How many small businesses are there?
In 2010 there were 27.9 million small
businesses, and 18,500 firms with 500
employees or more. Over three-quarters
of small businesses were nonemployers;
this number has trended up over the
past decade, while employers have been
relatively flat (figure 1).
Click to access FAQ_Sept_2012.pdf
The public schools have a job to educate children who grow up to be independent thinkers with critical thinking and problem solving skills that will allow them to survive, succeed and thrive in any job they choose even if it is a home based business where there is no autocratic CEO to boss them around. Training obedient children all taught from a scripted common core controlled by HUGE corporations will only keep and then churn out inhuman drones who will follow orders as if they were programmed robots that only know how to take bubble tests that label them as failures or winners. The spirits and souls of these children will be crushed before they reach high school where the high stakes tests become even more crushing and destructive.
Very effective way of addressing Tillerson clones on their own turf and exposing how ludicrous their pontificating is.
Lloyd, isn’t that the whole point of the Common Core, the current methods that go along with it, and all the testing? To turn out obedient, unthinking worker bees who will unquestioningly follow orders?
Well, that, and provide a business opportunity for corporations who market the tests, the curriculum materials, the software and hardware needed, and the for-profit charter schools.
Oh, and denigrate teachers in order to break the teachers unions and downgrade the educational requirements for teaching so that cheaper, less-trained teachers can be hired.
Everything but educating our children to become critical thinkers and problem solvers, who will succeed in whatever endeavor they choose, who can aspire to a fulfilling life, and who will also become well-educated and thoughtful citizens and voters, while we’re at it. (Well, I guess we can’t have that, either.)
{{Sigh}}
From the article: ” In 2007, Mississippi judged 90% of its fourth graders “proficient” on the state’s reading test, yet only 19% measured up on a standardized national exam given every two years. In Georgia, 82% of eighth-graders met the state’s minimums in math, while just 25% passed the national test. A yawning “honesty gap,” as it came to be known, prevailed in most states.”
“honesty gap”. Pot calling kettle black, eh!?!
So a student takes two vocabulary tests (just to make it simple). One has words on it that s/he has been using in school as well as reading at home. The other one is designed to test the limits of that student’s knowledge and presents words to which s/he may or may not have been exposed. The first test shows the student to be highly proficient; the second labels the student as having only a basic understanding. Now is the time to immediately jump to the conclusion that someone is fudging the facts! Right?
202t,
Not sure what you are getting at. I was trying to point out the fallacy of using unattributed data points from different sources to make a supposedly “objective” statement. The author of the article is doing what he is complaining about.
“Honesty gap”!?! From the article in talking about the opposition to CCSS: “Never mind that none of those assertions were true.” Just like much of what is written in the article. Pot calling kettle black, eh!?!
I was using a simplified version of why it is silly to compare scores from two different test as if they are in sync with each other. People seem to be comparing all sorts of numbers with a kind of magical assumption that they can because they are all numbers! Bottom line: I am agreeing with you. 🙂
“Mercedes Schneider weighed in here. She says that the Fortune article demonstrated that Common Core is a corporate tool meant to produce compliant workers.”
This is the true “common core”…and it’s rotten.
I wrote this as a reply in one of your other posts, Diane. Apologies for the redundancy, but if it reaches just one more person, I’ll be happy. It’s that important a point. It’s no coincidence that Mercedes, myself, and many many other educators are seeing and expressing the same thought:
As a special ed teacher working with kids who had severe emotional problems, motivation was key and, sometimes, not so easy to create. I was very fortunate to find out about and attend multiple workshops, funded by the Clinton administration, focusing on a memoir based writing system.
It was, far and away, the best instructional writing system that I’ve ever learned and had the pleasure to work with.
David Coleman, chief architect of the CCSS, stated that personal narratives (which is the genre that a memoir falls under) are useless because, “…nobody gives a sh$t what you think or feel”. Wow! What a contrast. The concept behind the system I learned was that it’s IMPORTANT what a student thinks and/or feels. This motivates the student to WANT to write. To keep a small personal notebook in which to jot ideas (they really dug that part). And then to get those ideas onto paper in sentence/paragraph form. Followed by editing and revision. It was a very clever and comprehensive system that served as a springboard to writing in other genres as the student’s writing skills and confidence grew.
Two years after having completed the workshop and utilized it with great results, we were told to ax it and focus, instead, on narrative texts and summations of informational/non-fiction texts. My students interest waned and, as a result, so did their writing skills (editing and revision, especially). A shift from children learning to value their intuitions and opinions to having to extract and spit out information from a dry text. It was, basically, putting the cart before the horse.
How incredibly naive of Mr. Coleman to think that writing occurs in a vacuum that only travels from point A to point B. Typical of someone who knows nothing about education in the classroom.
A systematic dismantling of a proven successful educational delivery plan. One that taught children to value themselves and, as a result, learn how to effectively write. It would almost make one think that the perpetrators of this massive shift do not want our public ed students to think for and value themselves, but to, rather, just learn compliance and how to read and follow the directions. No leaders. Just followers.
Wonder where the leaders are going to come from…?