Thinking About Schools: The Right to Bear Standards

Thinking About Schools: The Right to Bear Standards:

The Right to Bear Standards

Standards don't hurt kids.  People with standards hurt kids. 

With the furor over the Common Core State Standards, you'd think they were in the 2nd Amendment debate:  The right to bear standards vs. standards control.  Like millions of others, I owned a rifle as a kid.  And, like millions of educators, I've used learning (and teaching) standards since I started teaching kids (a long time ago). The Earth is still spinning on its axis.  

Should everyone have access to either?  Probably not.  Should anyone be able to access either without some certification and screening?  Probably not.  There's a reason the military carries weapons but the Peace Corps volunteers do not (hmm, does the analogy apply to McTeaching?)

Standards are not the problem.  Politicians, philanthropists, and over zealous (is that redundant) administrators with concealed standards and concealed intentions and are the problem.  

Practically every criticism at the microphone of the angry forums begins with, "I am not opposed to the standards but..." and the speaker continues stating... "... but they need some serious editing."  "...but they drive excessive (profit making) testing and require expensive and insecure (profit making) data systems."  "...but they result in tightly defined curriculum, scripted instruction, and scoring teachers." "...but Thinking About Schools: The Right to Bear Standards: