As the School Year Begins
As the School Year Begins
by Denis Ian
Reprinted with permission.
Defeat by distraction. That’s the Common Core game plan.
studentsEvery new school year renews the resistance to the Common Core reform. And parents new to this experience find themselves slathered in information and fear. Once upon a time we were the tenderfoot class; now we should act as sweet sages.
Every day brings another avalanche of studies, statistics, findings, and stuff. More babble. More white noise. More jargon. More junk-speak. All on purpose.
The strategy is simple. Complicate the reform issue with fleshy gibberish and endless jabberwocky. Scare ordinary folks. Make the issues seem too, too deep and too, too heavy for folks already busy enough with all that parenthood demands.
The greatest fear of the reform mob is parents.
Parents own infinite passion when it comes to their children. And if lots and lots of parents glue themselves together, well, this reform morphs into mighty. That’s not the sort of muscle educrats, politicians, and local board members want to confront. Remember that — they fear you.
And parents new to this resistance should remember this: Don’t be seduced by every morsel of information that gets dressed in glitter-words. Don’t be intimidated by edu-blather or fat-words.
Stay simple and stay on the issues that matter: Resist federal control. Protect childhood. Refuse the testing trap. Reclaim your schools. Remember: No children, no reform. Your cooperation is your trump-card. If you don’t play, the game ends.
A caveat to the old-timers in this resistance: Embrace newcomers as you were once embraced. Soothe new and nervous parents with warm reassurances that they have saddled-up with a child-centric confederacy of warriors who protect children . . . theirs included. And then tutor them slowly . . . and warn them of nonsense-overload. The reformists are deceivers. Their strategy is to dazzle us with nonsense-junk. To unbalance us and to blur the simple truths.
They want our schools. They want our children. They want to politicize and profitize education . . . and have you foot the bill . . . and have your children pay the price.
No way!
Avoid the information over-load and listen to your heart. That drum in your chest always speaks the truth. Follow that beat.
Denis Ian is a retired New York secondary teacher. He taught social studies for nearly 34 years in a well-respected public school district. He was involved in numerous reforms and educational innovations during his career and is now devoted to the anti-Common Core movement.
