Not surprisingly, yesterdays #supportthecore media blitz was based largelyon scripted talking points and hand holding http://t.co/0NBpvD4ZYv
— Anna S. Sothvny (@SOTHVNY) August 13, 2014
It had all these wonderful suggestions. First it told you how to join Twitter, if you hadn't yet done so. Then it gave you formulas for writing tweets, like I #SupportTheCore because it helps my students think for themselves, or whatever. Because no one wants kids growing up depending on Gates-backed astroturf groups to know what to say, or how to say it.
And yet, the teachers of E4E, the supposed role models, are doing just that. How do you set an example for free thinking when you need help doing it yourself, even when your target is 140 characters? Even more frustrating is who their allies appear to be.
Of course, E4E took the page down, because the truth hurts. But I saw it. I can only assume to them, "excellence" entails following directions rather than thinking. And, I guess to them, those of us who model thinking aren't excellent at all.
@AFTteach @lechianese #supportthecore because AFT took Gates' money. The kids better support it, or Mulgrew will "punch them in the face".
— Mary Porter (@mport84chemtchr) August 12, 2014
It's disconcerting, to say the least, that our unions have taken Gates money just as E4E has. As you saw in both the NEA and AFT conventions, leaders of both support Common Core, though at least NEA isn't punching anyone in the face yet.
Later today, NYC results will be released. A slight improvement is predicted, and this is to be attributed to more Common Core instruction. But the fact that the results are determined in advance, as they were last year, ought to clue any thinking person into the fact that the game is rigged. Gates poured millions and millions into it, and couldn't be bothered with research or testing before dumping it on our children.
Parents of young children are horrified by CC results, and don't accept Arne Duncan's idiotic remark blaming their children for the abysmal results of his Gates-sponsored social experiment. Actually, parents were supposed to throw their arms up in horror, and decide their public schools suck. As a result, they would have demanded charter schools and made Eva Moskowitz even richer than she already is.
Remember that when people spout nonsense about the implementation. The only problem with the implementation was that thousands of parents independently determined the tests were the problem, rather than their kids or their schools. When the Gates program didn't resonate as predicted, when people independently rejected it, that was a problem.
The response, rather than scrapping the miserable program, was to plod on with it, make excuses, and hope no one would notice it was the same untested, unproven crap. Uber-advocates Gates, Obama, Cuomo, and King send their kids to private schools where they won't be subject to this nonsense. There's no excuse for them pushing programs for our kids they deem unfit for theirs.
Remember that when hearing from Gates-funded shills who can't even come up with 140 characters to push this nonsense. And remember, when our union leader needed an idea to push it, the best he could muster was punching us in the face and pushing us into the dirt.
We can do better.
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