Arne Duncan Makes Moms MAD
Over the weekend in between speaking events in Western Kansas a group of us were discussing how the Common Core advocates are often labeled as “fringe” and part of the “tea party” when the opposition is far broader than that. The consensus was surely they won’t go after moms will they?Arne Duncan went there. Oh boy did he go there. We were obviously unaware of his remarks to a group of state school chiefs on Friday.
It’s fascinating to me that some of the pushback is coming from, sort of, white suburban moms who — all of a sudden — their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were and their school isn’t quite as good as they thought they were, and that’s pretty scary. You’ve bet your house and where you live and everything on, “My child’s going to be prepared.” That can be a punch in the gut.
I thought that Secretary Duncan was smarter than that, but evidently he is not.
As far as the pushback is just coming from white suburban moms, yes that is a segment of the opposition, but not the only segment. I obviously don’t fit that demographic.
Also the statement that “their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were and their school isn’t quite as good as they thought they were…” assumes that bad test scores are really due to the