Comments from CrunchyMama: This White Suburban Mom is upset that Common Core, along with Race to the Top, is meaning more and more drudgery and more and more homework - and less and less CHILDHOOD! - for her children, particularly my younger who has had CCSS from Kindergarten onward. This White Suburban Mom is outraged that HER children (but not those of the wealthy, who can send THEIR kids to private schools who arent obliged to use CCSS!) are guinea pigs for an untested but nonetheless mandatory rollout of a curriculum that can only be said to have been made by educators by completely changing the definition of educator, and by minimizing the roles of ACTUAL classroom educators. This White Suburban Mom is furious that her neighborhood school and its staff and teachers are now to be judged on two weeks of testing, the results of which WILL be used to judge, to fire, and to fund schools - but NOT to actually inform or improve instruction, and that those tests are now the be-all and end-all of what is happening in those schools. This White suburban Mom is incensed that business interests and politics are taking precedence over actual education, and that leveraged philanthropy a la Bill Gate is resulting in undue non-educator influence on educational policy. And this White Suburban Mom has decades more teaching experience than Arne Duncan, not to mention not one but TWO more education degrees - that is to say, I have TWO education degrees - than the man who supposedly RUNS education in this country. Arne Duncan can take his remark about White Suburban Moms and put it in the same dark corner from whence comes any of his other expertise and wisdom. Me, I took the red pill, and I advise any other parents - urban, suburban, rural, moms, dads, Black, White, biracial, other, wealthy, poor - to do likewise. And for the record, I dont give a rats backside if my children are globally competitive. I want them to grow up to be complete, well-rounded, well-adjusted people who are able to make enough money to live on (and then some, if possible) and contribute to society in positive ways. I want them to be happy. And I think the odds are pretty good that they can do those things without unrealistic standards written by people who arent even teachers, and funded primarily by private interests who do NOT have my childrens best interests first and foremost. I think they would stand an even better chance with an actual EDUCATOR in the position Arne Duncan now occupies. Yeesh. Like globally competitive is the be-all and end-all of my life or those of my children.
Posted on: Sun, 17 Nov 2013 01:31:05 +0000
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