Dear Mr. Arne Duncan
Dear Mr. Arne Duncan,
It has come to my attention that your latest defense of the Common Core movement was to deny its downfalls whilst casually casting the blame on "white suburban moms" who all of a sudden realized that their children weren't as bright as they thought they were. I don't for a single second believe your excuse that the line was the result of "clumsy phrasing" that you "regret". I believe your comment represents your true feelings of the people you represent while at the same time demonstrating your inability to critically reflect on your own program. You yourself said that no one enjoys hearing tough news but that "all parents need the truth." It is only fair that you get to hear the truth as well. So as a "white suburban mom", I would like to address you personally.
My husband and I come from two families of teachers. My mother and father were public school teachers. My sister is a public school teacher. My mother-in-law was a public school teacher. And my husband is a public school teacher. He is one of the very best- recognized at the district and state level nearly every year for his dedication to education and his exceptional abilities in the classroom. My husband and I owe everything we have to public education. We were raised on the salaries of public school teachers and both received an exceptional education from a public high school that you have since deemed a complete and utter failure. We are now raising our own sons on a single teacher's salary. We have always believed in the system- the system we were raised in and educated by. Until now.
You see, I am more than just a white suburban mom. Yes, I am white. Yes, I live in the suburbs- of Detroit to be exact. I even proudly drive a minivan. I think we can both agree that I was the target of your snide comment. But you missed your mark Mr. Duncan. Because I am not upset after realizing that my children aren't quite as bright as I thought they were. Quite the contrary. I am the mother of four year old identical twin boys whose IQ's have tested just shy of Albert Einstein's. I am the mother of the youngest set of identical twins ever accepted into MENSA. The truth is, my sons are far brighter than I will ever be able to comprehend. And the truth is, I still hate your Common Core.
Years ago, when Common Core was in its infancy, my husband was a strong supporter. The movement began as a way to remove the hundreds of overly specific standards and replace them with larger concepts that teachers could teach and students could learn more in depth. But that is not what Common Core is today. To begin with, the Common Core standards you bribed states to implement were developed not by teachers or experienced educators but by so called "educational experts" who work for the publishing companies who stand to make billions in profits from Common Core. While it is true that the Common Core standards are not a curriculum, I will call you out on a technicality there. Students must pass your Common Core assessments, therefore, the teachers must teach what is on the assessments and only what is on the assessments. Districts are being forced to buy ridiculously expensive curriculums designed specifically to help their students pass your tests- curriculums designed by the publishing companies who helped design your standards. Sounds fishy to me because indeed, your friends are making billions of dollars at the expense of our students. And let's not forget what your assessments mean. They are in no way a tool to help teachers understand the specific learning needs of their students. In fact, teachers have no access to the data from your assessments and are completely unable to use them to assist teaching and learning in the classroom. Instead, your tests exist solely to determine a teacher's value and worth. If you believe that a single assessment is able to determine a person's worth- an assessment for which children living in poverty, children for whom English is a second language, children with disabilities, even children who simply don't learn best with pencils and bubbles are ill prepared- then I challenge you to engage in a discussion about World War I shipwrecks with my four year old sons. I fear you will find yourself ill-equipped to match the knowledge of two preschoolers thus I will be able to deem you a useless failure of an educator and human being. Seems ridiculous? Why yes, it is.
Let's also not forget that fact that your standards claim to exist for the purpose of teaching 21st century skills for college and job market preparation. Except that districts nationwide are cutting vocational programs because they must use what little money they have to buy Common Core curriculum. And nowhere in that curriculum is there room for teachers to teach problem solving, creativity, collaboration, or critical thinking skills. Nowhere in that curriculum is there room for music or art. Nowhere in that curriculum is there room for classic literature or complete, in context, pieces of historical literature. While I will admit that not once in my adult life have I needed to know the exact details of The Great Gatsby or Pride and Prejudice, the act of delving into such classic texts taught me the valuable life skills of thinking critically, thinking deeply, and thinking analytically. In fact, those are the exact skills I have used to critically analyze your Common Core standards and come to the conclusion that they are pure rubbish. Or is it that you don't want our children to learn the skills necessary to reach that conclusion on their very own?
My sons are four years old. They are no strangers to learning about a topic in depth. They could rival any expert with their knowledge of the Titanic and her sister ships the Britannic and Olympic. They know more about Frank Lloyd Wright than you will ever know in your life. While driving through urban Detroit they excitedly shout out the styles of architecture that each church was built in and they can identify the architectural style of every single column they have ever seen. They also know how to read and how to add and subtract. They know all fifty states and their capitals. They know each element on the Periodic Table and they understand in depth the discoveries of the greatest scientists in history. They are learning to multiply, they are learning how Mars may be able to support life and they are learning the history behind World War I.
Next September they will turn five and be of age for entering kindergarten. There, they will learn to fill in bubbles. Kindergarten teachers the country over are spending hours, days, and weeks on this skill in hopes that their little charges can properly bubble in the answers to your tests. In kindergarten my sons will learn that they have no control over their learning. They will learn that they must learn the exact same things that every kindergarten child in America must learn, regardless of their individual needs. And for our sons specifically, they will learn that learning is painfully boring. They will learn that conformity and conventionality are more important than their individuality and individual learning needs because your Common Core standards and assessments do not take into account the individual stories that each child brings with him or her to school. They do not account for the child who hasn't eaten in four days. The child who is more worried about dodging bullets at home than about completing homework. The child who suffered a stroke in utero and struggles to grasp the pencil he needs to use to fill in your bubbles. And the children, like mine, who are years and years beyond their grade level and desperately deserve the chance to learn at the frantic pace that their brain functions. Instead of learning that school is the gateway to the world- the place where they can learn everything and anything they want- kindergarten will teach my sons that school is nothing more than high stakes standardized testing. And the stakes don't even involve them.
So please Mr. Duncan, listen carefully. I know that is a lot to ask from you, being that I am just a white suburban mom. But here is the hard truth. Because of your Common Core, my husband and I have made the preliminary decision NOT to send our sons to public school or to any of the charter schools that also exist solely for the financial gain of businessmen. It is not because I fear your assessments will open my eyes to the fact that my dear little ones are not as bright as I want to think they are. On the contrary, it is because my precious little boys are wise beyond their years and have surpassed even you, our United States Secretary of the Department of Education, in understanding what education truly is.
No, my sons will not fill in a single one of your bubbles. Instead, my sons will continue to learn the way young children should learn. They will play. They will play for hours and hours on end. When they play with their Legos they will build ships, which will lead to questions about density and buoyancy which will lead to in depth research on the scientific principals of physics. My sons will roll in the dirt and get mud caked on their little faces and in the process they will discover how spiders differ from ants and worms differ from fungi and how trees grow and how the length of the day determines when photosynthesis shuts down for the winter. And when I hose them off at night, they will learn about water and the mountains it flows down, the rivers it flows through, and the lakes and oceans it flows into. Because my sons LOVE to ask questions. They are curious and inquisitive and hungry for knowledge. And when they learn something new, as they do 100 times a day, they will go back to their toys. They will go back to their Legos and wooden blocks and crayons and they will use those tools to make sense of what they just learned. They will play it out until their new knowledge fits comfortably into their previous understandings of how the world works. But they will not hold a pencil for eight hours a day. They will not judge their teacher's worth by attempting to answer purposefully confusing questions that they can't make sense of. Because I, a stupid self-inflated white suburban mother of two of the brightest, most academically capable little boys you should ever have the pleasure of meeting, HATE your Common Core. And that Mr. Duncan, is the hard truth that YOU need to hear.
Sincerely,
Offended
It has come to my attention that your latest defense of the Common Core movement was to deny its downfalls whilst casually casting the blame on "white suburban moms" who all of a sudden realized that their children weren't as bright as they thought they were. I don't for a single second believe your excuse that the line was the result of "clumsy phrasing" that you "regret". I believe your comment represents your true feelings of the people you represent while at the same time demonstrating your inability to critically reflect on your own program. You yourself said that no one enjoys hearing tough news but that "all parents need the truth." It is only fair that you get to hear the truth as well. So as a "white suburban mom", I would like to address you personally.
My husband and I come from two families of teachers. My mother and father were public school teachers. My sister is a public school teacher. My mother-in-law was a public school teacher. And my husband is a public school teacher. He is one of the very best- recognized at the district and state level nearly every year for his dedication to education and his exceptional abilities in the classroom. My husband and I owe everything we have to public education. We were raised on the salaries of public school teachers and both received an exceptional education from a public high school that you have since deemed a complete and utter failure. We are now raising our own sons on a single teacher's salary. We have always believed in the system- the system we were raised in and educated by. Until now.
You see, I am more than just a white suburban mom. Yes, I am white. Yes, I live in the suburbs- of Detroit to be exact. I even proudly drive a minivan. I think we can both agree that I was the target of your snide comment. But you missed your mark Mr. Duncan. Because I am not upset after realizing that my children aren't quite as bright as I thought they were. Quite the contrary. I am the mother of four year old identical twin boys whose IQ's have tested just shy of Albert Einstein's. I am the mother of the youngest set of identical twins ever accepted into MENSA. The truth is, my sons are far brighter than I will ever be able to comprehend. And the truth is, I still hate your Common Core.
Years ago, when Common Core was in its infancy, my husband was a strong supporter. The movement began as a way to remove the hundreds of overly specific standards and replace them with larger concepts that teachers could teach and students could learn more in depth. But that is not what Common Core is today. To begin with, the Common Core standards you bribed states to implement were developed not by teachers or experienced educators but by so called "educational experts" who work for the publishing companies who stand to make billions in profits from Common Core. While it is true that the Common Core standards are not a curriculum, I will call you out on a technicality there. Students must pass your Common Core assessments, therefore, the teachers must teach what is on the assessments and only what is on the assessments. Districts are being forced to buy ridiculously expensive curriculums designed specifically to help their students pass your tests- curriculums designed by the publishing companies who helped design your standards. Sounds fishy to me because indeed, your friends are making billions of dollars at the expense of our students. And let's not forget what your assessments mean. They are in no way a tool to help teachers understand the specific learning needs of their students. In fact, teachers have no access to the data from your assessments and are completely unable to use them to assist teaching and learning in the classroom. Instead, your tests exist solely to determine a teacher's value and worth. If you believe that a single assessment is able to determine a person's worth- an assessment for which children living in poverty, children for whom English is a second language, children with disabilities, even children who simply don't learn best with pencils and bubbles are ill prepared- then I challenge you to engage in a discussion about World War I shipwrecks with my four year old sons. I fear you will find yourself ill-equipped to match the knowledge of two preschoolers thus I will be able to deem you a useless failure of an educator and human being. Seems ridiculous? Why yes, it is.
Let's also not forget that fact that your standards claim to exist for the purpose of teaching 21st century skills for college and job market preparation. Except that districts nationwide are cutting vocational programs because they must use what little money they have to buy Common Core curriculum. And nowhere in that curriculum is there room for teachers to teach problem solving, creativity, collaboration, or critical thinking skills. Nowhere in that curriculum is there room for music or art. Nowhere in that curriculum is there room for classic literature or complete, in context, pieces of historical literature. While I will admit that not once in my adult life have I needed to know the exact details of The Great Gatsby or Pride and Prejudice, the act of delving into such classic texts taught me the valuable life skills of thinking critically, thinking deeply, and thinking analytically. In fact, those are the exact skills I have used to critically analyze your Common Core standards and come to the conclusion that they are pure rubbish. Or is it that you don't want our children to learn the skills necessary to reach that conclusion on their very own?
My sons are four years old. They are no strangers to learning about a topic in depth. They could rival any expert with their knowledge of the Titanic and her sister ships the Britannic and Olympic. They know more about Frank Lloyd Wright than you will ever know in your life. While driving through urban Detroit they excitedly shout out the styles of architecture that each church was built in and they can identify the architectural style of every single column they have ever seen. They also know how to read and how to add and subtract. They know all fifty states and their capitals. They know each element on the Periodic Table and they understand in depth the discoveries of the greatest scientists in history. They are learning to multiply, they are learning how Mars may be able to support life and they are learning the history behind World War I.
Next September they will turn five and be of age for entering kindergarten. There, they will learn to fill in bubbles. Kindergarten teachers the country over are spending hours, days, and weeks on this skill in hopes that their little charges can properly bubble in the answers to your tests. In kindergarten my sons will learn that they have no control over their learning. They will learn that they must learn the exact same things that every kindergarten child in America must learn, regardless of their individual needs. And for our sons specifically, they will learn that learning is painfully boring. They will learn that conformity and conventionality are more important than their individuality and individual learning needs because your Common Core standards and assessments do not take into account the individual stories that each child brings with him or her to school. They do not account for the child who hasn't eaten in four days. The child who is more worried about dodging bullets at home than about completing homework. The child who suffered a stroke in utero and struggles to grasp the pencil he needs to use to fill in your bubbles. And the children, like mine, who are years and years beyond their grade level and desperately deserve the chance to learn at the frantic pace that their brain functions. Instead of learning that school is the gateway to the world- the place where they can learn everything and anything they want- kindergarten will teach my sons that school is nothing more than high stakes standardized testing. And the stakes don't even involve them.
So please Mr. Duncan, listen carefully. I know that is a lot to ask from you, being that I am just a white suburban mom. But here is the hard truth. Because of your Common Core, my husband and I have made the preliminary decision NOT to send our sons to public school or to any of the charter schools that also exist solely for the financial gain of businessmen. It is not because I fear your assessments will open my eyes to the fact that my dear little ones are not as bright as I want to think they are. On the contrary, it is because my precious little boys are wise beyond their years and have surpassed even you, our United States Secretary of the Department of Education, in understanding what education truly is.
No, my sons will not fill in a single one of your bubbles. Instead, my sons will continue to learn the way young children should learn. They will play. They will play for hours and hours on end. When they play with their Legos they will build ships, which will lead to questions about density and buoyancy which will lead to in depth research on the scientific principals of physics. My sons will roll in the dirt and get mud caked on their little faces and in the process they will discover how spiders differ from ants and worms differ from fungi and how trees grow and how the length of the day determines when photosynthesis shuts down for the winter. And when I hose them off at night, they will learn about water and the mountains it flows down, the rivers it flows through, and the lakes and oceans it flows into. Because my sons LOVE to ask questions. They are curious and inquisitive and hungry for knowledge. And when they learn something new, as they do 100 times a day, they will go back to their toys. They will go back to their Legos and wooden blocks and crayons and they will use those tools to make sense of what they just learned. They will play it out until their new knowledge fits comfortably into their previous understandings of how the world works. But they will not hold a pencil for eight hours a day. They will not judge their teacher's worth by attempting to answer purposefully confusing questions that they can't make sense of. Because I, a stupid self-inflated white suburban mother of two of the brightest, most academically capable little boys you should ever have the pleasure of meeting, HATE your Common Core. And that Mr. Duncan, is the hard truth that YOU need to hear.
Sincerely,
Offended
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