editor’s note Common Core Teacher Conference
O
pinions and comments have grown contentious on the Common Core, with many on the pro side tossing darts to those on the anti side and vice versa. Here at the magazine, we see the angst that the Common Core has wrought on our Facebook page, where we interact daily with readers on a wide range of subjects related to our kids. We are moms ourselves here, and we talk all day long about life and things that are interesting to us. We share posting responsibilities, and on one rainy Saturday recently, I shared a well-researched post (albeit anti-Common Core) by Joy Pullman, the 2013-14 recipient of a Robert Novak journalism fellowhip for in-depth reporting on Common Core. I met Ms. Pullman last year at a Common Core hearing held here — she’d been invited to speak and she came from out of town with her baby in tow. Several of you took digs at me for posting Pullman’s piece because it was anti-Common Core, but posting it got us TALKING. And that’s what we need to do. Neither Pullman nor I are against teachers! We are not against higher standards! We want excellent educations for all children. But what does THAT mean? And why couldn’t parents have been asked that question before the national standards swept sneakily into our classrooms? I have four kids and they are completely different kinds of learners. My youngest is an out-of-the-box creative boy who excels with hands-on learning. In public school today there’s little time for that kind of learning which is why we’re eyeing homeschooling. Let me tell you what drove the final nail into my public schooleducated opinion.
10 november 2014
I am not a number! My husband and I attended a parentteacher conference for our boy. He’s a busy guy, excelling at soccer, ice hockey and music, and he has a hard time fitting in extra study hours without falling asleep at the table. The more prudent among you may tsk tsk, but shock, shock: there are more things in life than — dare I say it? DATA! We said quick hellos to his four-member teacher team before sitting down and being efficiently treated to a sideshow of data showing my son’s TCAP scores from last year compared to his “practice” TCAP scores from this fall. We saw data arranged on individual sheets from each of his classes, too, showing a color line for the district, a color line for our school and a color line for my son’s achievement. They spoke of percentages and recommendations. They used words like “gaps” and “on watch” and “RTI,” and in the middle of their talking, I thought how stressed they seemed. These good people, trying, caring, getting it done, needing their jobs, married to all of this data whether they liked it or not, and oh the endless shuffling of papers. Where, I wondered, are the living and breathing children in all of this? Where is their learning? Their individualisms? I wanted to talk about my son. Is he participating eagerly? Did he delight them at all, in any way, with his sharp wit and mind that I know and adore? I longed for any positive morsel they could give, but all I received was, “He was so happy because he knew all of his prepositions.” The commentary was on my boy’s percentages — not his mind or his aptitude or his person. The numbers, initials and lines on the data sheets made our heads spin. I am all for improved standards, but I think we should look at the different ways children learn before cementing a one-size-fits-all model and bowing down to all-things DATA. People used to scoff that humans are not just numbers. They did it because it’s true. Numbers are not what make us tick. That would be the heart.
Susan Swindell Day Editor-in-Chief / susan@daycommedia.com