Last week, one of our guidance counselors came in to one of my 9th grade classes to talk to the students about the importance of maintaining their grades, securing letters of recommendation from teachers, exploring career opportunities which would interest them, and making sure they meet their deadlines regarding tests, college applications, as well as financial aid.
The conversation between students discussing careers turned to teaching, at which one student said she always wanted to be a teacher. One of the other student visibly expressed her opinion, and then asked her why she would want to do that...also asking her if she heard of the Common Core. At that point, other students became involved in the conversation and the consensus became apparently clear...their literal hatred and scorn for Common Core, even mocking it as anti-American and the stealing of public education money by those seeking to get rich at the expense of tax payers and public schools.
Mr Gates...I wish you could have been there to hear what high school freshman that are young teenagers think of the "standards" that you have pushed onto America's public schools...
And Ms Elia...it would have been wonderful for you to be there...this conversation in class was student-initiated....student-driven...and student-resolved...a slap in the face to the privatization movement that your Soviet "commisariat" would most certainly have frowned upon.
If the ninth graders get it, so do their parents....and so do many, many more New Yorkers.
And last but not least, Mr Cuomo...you take time out of your busy schedule to preach Success Academy and charter politics...at the behest of your corporate masters...I wish you could have been there too.
Please come to Queens, New York, to discuss your Common Core standards, the three of you...and bring the news cameras...
I know you won't, because the students would make a mockery of the three of you in a public forum.
The newspaper article might read, "Ninth Grade Public High School Students explain why they do not support Common Core to Gates, Cuomo, and Elia".
I get similar reactions from students when I have asked them about their feelings for the Common Core or the EngageNY modules they've been doing for the past two+ years (which, given how Common Core fuehrer David Coleman feels about non-"evidence based" feelings, was a very un-Common Core teaching thing to do, but oh, well...)
How do your students feel about Common Core?
Do some feel that they're getting a well-rounded education writing argumentative essays in every class, spending three weeks on one short story or answering text-based minutiae over and over and over for days on end?
How bout the disgusting principal in today's Post, dumping teachers' desks into the street. Nice. Bitch!!!!
ReplyDeleteNYC Principal's are trained to treat teachers with disdain and condescension. That is the norm. This Principal is by no means the exception.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the Common Core, I had one student say to me "Mr., you know these Commin Core tests are a setup, right?" I actually found myself almost defending the tests in a ridiculous attempt to keep her motivated. But, Kudos to her. She reached that conclusion on her own based on pretty clear evidence.
The Common Core was "financed" by Bill Gates with estimates ranging from $200,000,000 to $2,000,000,000, and the numbers keep growing.
ReplyDeleteFrom the resistance that has grown, and continues to take on more and more support with each passing week against the Common Core nightmare, the money he has spent thus far is going to be a drop in the bucket for Mr Gates. Our "self-anointed secretary of education" had stated that we would not know for ten years if this is going to be a success.
Mr Gates may choose to wait ten years to see if his Frankenstein experiment is a success or failure, but one other thing is certain...if he decides to ride out the patchwork on this atrocity for that long, it may end up costing him many times more than he has already spent...perhaps as much as $20-40 billion!
He should be arrested immediately as an enemy of the United States, stripped of his wealth, and face prosecution for undermining our democratic processes, weakening our public education, destroying the lives of at least a generation of our students, usurping powers "reserved and accountable" by elected officials, and potentially destroying our nation from within.
We need elected officials who will place their left hand on the Bible, raise their right hand, and promise their allegiance not to the billionaires who bankroll them, but to our Constitution, our flag, and the citizens of the United States.
Our founding fathers are watching us, and standing with us.
My ten year old has been getting two hours of math homework over the weekend. It's about to come to a screeching halt.
ReplyDeleteA friend of mine used to say that shit rolls downhill. Teachers are being rated on how well students perform on tests, so of course, kids are going to get more and more work piled on them.
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