To Raise Awareness about high-stakes testing in California:
Students in grades 2-11 take the CST and 3rd and 7th take the CAT/6 every year and must pass the CAHSEE in order to graduate.
These tests do NOT measure a child's overall academic ability.
They pretend to be scientific. They are not.
These tests are filled with errors and are not standardized
The results are not valid; multiple measures are.
The classroom curriculum is structured to pass the tests.
High-stakes testing is taking the genuine desire to learn and fun out of school for children.
They lower classroom student expectations
They make schools into test prep centers
They emphasize rote memorization and regurgitation of disconnected bits of information.
They reduce academic rigor and dumb down genuine learning
They are making many children sick.
To Empower Parents and Teachers:
All parents will know that their child can opt out of CST and CAT/6 testing.
Parents and teachers will provide insight on deciding future educational policies.
Teachers will not be discouraged from voicing their opinions about high stakes testing.
Legislators
will value the expertise and concerns of parents and teachers. Parents,
teachers and students will show legislators the consequences of high
stakes testing .
=============
Make Use of Existing Letters
An elementary teacher sent Stephen Krashen's letter to a union official, asking for a conversation about it. There are lots of fine letters at www.susanohanian.org. Use them!
Subject: no child left unfed
Sent to the New York Times, August 23, 2009 Education Secretary Duncan feels that the first priority in improving education is more accountability and higher standards ("A $5 Billion Bet on Better Education," August 23). The first priority is reducing poverty. The US has the highest rate of child poverty of all industrialized countries.
Poverty has a huge impact. Studies confirm that hunger, poor diet and lack of reading material seriously affect academic performance. Gerald Bracey points out that US schools with fewer than 25% of children in poverty outscore all countries in the world in Math and Science. US children fall below the international average only when 75% or more of the students in a school are children of poverty.
There is room for improvement in education, but when all our children have the advantages that children from high-income families have, our schools will be considered the best in the world.
Susan Ohanian puts it this way: No Child Left Unfed.
Stephen Krashen
References: Bracey, G. 2009. Education Hell: Rhetoric vs. Reality. Educational Research Service Payne, K. and Biddle, B. 1999. Poor school funding, child poverty, and mathematics achievement. Educational Researcher 28 (6): 4-13.
==================
Put Your Message on Your Mail
Susan Ohanian had return mail address labels printed up with END NCLB. DO it NOW --plus her address and website. These labels go out on every piece of mail she sends and serve as an ongoing reminder to keep resisting. It's a small, inexpensive way to resist.
Talk One on One
In Utah, following up on his conversation with a member of the Utah state board of education, Lynn Stoddard has met with the president of the Utah Education Association, telling her of his concerns.
He reports having a good discussion. The president
agreed to carry the petition to end NCLB--with 35,000+ signatures to
NEA headquarters in Washington, D. C. when she meets with leaders there in September.
How about all union members asking leaders to take this petition to Washington?
Use Facebook and Twitter Nancy posted the link to the Stop National Standards on my Facebook
page and got several positive comments from former parents of students and
teachers. A couple posted the link to their Facebook page. And so news of the resistance grows.
Coalition for Better Education Plans Billboard Campaign Don Perl reports that CBE is starting their fall campaign to raise mone for billboards. These billboards, placed at busy spots between Colorado Springs and Pueblo, are aimed at "raising the conscience level of parents of their rights" to opt their children out of high stakes standardized testing. We can participate in this worthy act of resistance by sending a small contribution: The Coalition for Better Education 2424 22nd Avenue Greeley, Colorado 80631 IDEA for Activism:
In the novel Every Man Dies Alone, Hans Fallada describes the real-life exploits of Otto and Elise Hampel, who scattered postcards advocating civil disobedience throughout war-time Nazi-controlled Berlin. What a great model for our resistance!
What do you think the cards should say? I rather like the idea of cards appearing across the country--all having the same message.
What do you think? Should some cards be just cards and others be postcards so person finding one can mail it to someone else? My worry with making them mailable is cost. We could include a message, "Pass on the message. Mail this card to someone." And let them pay the postage.
How about volunteering to be on a card committee--and let's get this campaign rolling. See how fa this works? This item started out as an idea, and a couple of paragraphs later, it's already a campaign. susano@gmavt.net
Go to The People Page and see what your colleagues across the country are doing.
======================================
Guest Commentary in the Ogden Standard Lynn
Stoddard warns: "Now you have a choice. Do nothing and get national
standards for student uniformity imposed on your schools. OR . . . ."
Stephen
Krashen, Don Perl, Philip Kovacs, Yvonne Siu-Runyan, and Susan Ohanian
wrote comments of support on the newspaper website, supporting Lynn
Stoddard's education vision. ===============================
California Teacher Takes Criticism of Race to the Top to the Union
I requested an emergency meeting of my local teachers’
association executive board, of which I am an elected member, to discuss Race
to the Top. At this meeting I explained the 4 program goals of this
project and what I thought they would mean to students and teachers. Our
California Teachers Association staff members were very lackadaisical.
These staff members are saying that CTA is not concerned, so why should we
be? Not concerned? I find this outrageous. Here is CTA
President David Sanchez's mention of Arne Duncan's announcement as presented at
CTA's Summer Institute in LA:
"There will be other issues that will need our attention in the coming
year. The reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act is expected to
start in January. CTA will again lead efforts to erase, rewrite and then
reauthorize this punitive law. President Obama and Education Secretary
Arne Duncan have promised to work with educators on this reauthorization, but
we also know they support merit pay and charter school proposals that we will
be watching very carefully. Paying and evaluating teachers based on a
single test score does not improve student learning and does not help attract
and retain quality teachers in lower performing schools. And we will not
stand for it. Secretary Duncan is also a little confused about California's law for
tracking student and teacher data. You may have read something about this
as Secretary Duncan has been threatening to prevent California from qualifying for some federal
education grants. What Secretary Duncan doesn't understand is that California law doesn't
prohibit linking student and teacher data. In fact, it already is linked
at the local level. California
law also doesn't prohibit the use of student assessments in evaluating
teachers, but if and how that is done is bargained at a local level. The
CTA Board of Directors has already appointed a member and staff workgroup to
guide our efforts throughout the reauthorization. CTA will also be making
sure NEA holds strong and does what's right around NCLB."
I am a California Teachers Association elected representative and am a voting
member at the 4 state councils, so I wrote my CTA Board member and asked what
response CTA will be making regarding the Race to the Top on their public
comments web site. I have not heard anything from him.
I am trying to get people to understand the severity of the Obama
administration's philosophy of education, but as you can see I am hitting some
roadblocks.
Dear EfHG Crusaders [Education for Human Greatness],
Today I will pick up my copy of the
petition from the Utah State Office of Education and deliver it to the
office of the UEA, the Utah Education Association. I have requested a
meeting with the president of UEA when she gets back from Oregon next
week and after she has had a chance to study the comments of signers of
the petition.
In the meeting I will attempt to show the calamity
that is about to fall upon us with national standards for uniformity. I
will also show a way to prevent this tragedy from occurring by asking
teachers to rise up in favor of having high standards for nurturing
student individuality. I will use my Op Ed piece, "Educating for
Individuality" that is scheduled for publication in a local
newspaper this weekend.
I will also show a way to restore
public school teaching as an honored profession by adopting the
"Educating for Greatness" framework for transforming our obsolete
school system so we can develop valuable contributors to society. (Also
attached) The "identity" priority of the framework is the chief reason
for having high standards for student individuality.
In the meeting with the President of UEA I will suggest having a
meeting with the total UEA Board of Directors. I welcome suggestions
and prayers from all of you in regard to my efforts next week to
convince the teacher's union to actively fight standards for student
uniformity and instead, have high standards for student individuality.
Respectfully,
Lynn Stoddard
=====================================
Evidence Shows Common Core Standards Advocates Are Blowing Hot Air
Noted scholar Stephen Krashen has posted evidence on the NCTE ning about the Common Core Standards. He rebuts false claims of the
corporate interests claiming we need national standards because public
schools are failing. Join
this conversation. There is strength in numbers. If even 100 people
joined this conversation, NCTE leaders would have to listen. There are two critical NCTE nings. This one and the one started by Don Perl, role of NCTE as activist.Join both! Right
now, NCTE, like all other unions and professional organizations, has
taken on role of apologist and collaborationist. YOU can change this.
Act now. ============================
It's Time to Make Them Afraid of Us, Again . . . . We're just peaceful, well informed
American Citizens who have given up trying to "work within the
system". The system doesn't work for us anymore does it? And we need to
know the individuals that sign the paychecks for our government so we
can target them for some "reform."
We voted! We asked, we demanded, we begged. We tried talking, walking, writing and more.
It's Time to Make Them Afraid of Us, Again. They have forgotten just how many of us there are. Time to remind them.
============================= . Colorado activist Don Perl has started a discussion on the NCTE ning, the role of NCTE as activist Join in! We need to get a vigorous discussion going. . . with lots of participants.
Too
often, we preach to the choir. Here's our chance to get the attention
of the NCTE leaders who are helping out with national standards.
See you over at the NCTE nings. ==========================================================
A Good Read
A wonderful summary of the toxic outcomes of NCLB and highstakes testing in general can be found in When Childhood Collides with NCLB,
by Susan Ohanian (2008). Ohanian uses one column of each page to write
an epic, free-verse poem about the disaster of NCLB. She uses the other
column for quotes. Some quotes from the likes of the Business
Roundtable And Achieve, Inc., support NCLB and testing, some repudiate.
In the end, though, her book makes NCLB look stupid and dangerous,
which it is.
Carole Edelsky (Professor Emerita, Arizona State University) wrote to Representative Joe Baca, thanking him for sponsoring the Save Our Schools Bill, sending copies to her Congressional representatives.
===========
Alert Students Veteran
educator Marion Brady has prepared a Power Point to alert students to
the way they are being cheated by an emphasis on standardized testing.
Put On the Heat One
action you can take is putting some heat on the Executive Committees,
Boards of Directors, and leaders of professional organizations to which
you belong. Here is contact information:
Subscribed to Substance , the only education newspaper of resistance?
Written a letter?
Refuted a newspaper article? Editorial? Op ed?
Blogged?
Twittered?
Phoned a member of Congress?
Talked to a member of the local Board of Education?
Talked to a member of the state board of education?
Written or talked to your governor? (Remember, they signed on to the Content Standards)
Contacted the professional organizations and unions about their caving in to Duncan threats?
Helped a colleague see she is not alone in this struggle?
Enlisted the help of parents?
Help teachers and parents break the silence. No act of speaking out is insignificant.
Send news to susano@gmavt.net
. ============
Freedom in Education Meeting
Fresno,
CA is the place to be on Aug. 29. 5th grade teacher Joe Lucido is
organizing grassroots resistance to standards & testing.
monicalucido@comcast.net
(559) 225-1888; (559)-978-5082
WHAT: Freedom in Education meeting DATE: Aug. 29 PLACE: Fresno State University, Kremen School of Education TIME: 11 am--6 p.m. FOOD: Lunch and Dinner provided
The airport is Fresno Air Terminal and the nearest hotel to Fresno STate is Piccadilly Inn. Here is the hotel information:
4961 North Cedar Ave
Fresno, CA 93726
(559) 224-4200
(800) 468-3587
Kremen School of Education
Atrium Rm. 54 (downstairs)
See map URL here (the building right off of Shaw Ave. on the map) :
Groups Supporting This Event: Coalition for Better Education, Educators and Parents Against Test
Abuse, California Coalition For Assessment Reform in Education,
Trinational U.S., Susan Ohanian.org, AERO, Californians for Justice,
Parent Empowerment Network, Schools Matter, Parents for United
Responsible Education, The Orion Society, Time Out From Testing, and
Education for Human Greatness.
DO YOUR PART: Spread the word. TWITTER this event and put it on Facebook. And ATTEND.
========================
From Vermont, Amber suggests: Go to online forums wherever there's an active conversation, create free accounts, and post links to http://StopNationalStandards, with a brief description of what we're up to.
Adding
to Amber's suggestion: Register at newspapers and make a comment
support resistance to national standards. e sure to put in the url
http://www.stopnationalstandards.org. Thanks2Teachers twittered: "We are not without standards...."
http://bit.ly
Go forth and do likewise! ============
An Open Letter about Common Core State Standards from NCTE President Kylene Beers--with comments
July 28, 2009
Dear NCTE Members:
I have traveled throughout the United States this summer working with teachers across content areas and grade levels, in large urban areas and small rural communities. In almost every place, teachers have asked what NCTE’s response is to the Common Core State Standards for language arts. At times, some teachers have misunderstood what NCTE’s role has been in the development of these standards. Other teachers have taken the time to write to me, with concern, about what the Council’s response will be to these national standards.
I offer this letter to members to clarify what the Council's role has been in the development of the Common Core State Standards with the hope that you will feel assured about the direction of the Council, the commitment of the Executive Committee to upholding long-standing Council values, and the promise of this president to always keep the needs of teachers and students first.
This spring, the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) convened a work group to draft a common core of state standards in math and language arts for grades K–12. These college and workforce readiness standards were written by a group whose names were released to the public on July 1 by the National Governors Association, a partner in the initiative. While drafting the standards document, this work group received feedback from individuals. Though one member of NCTE, Carol Jago, agreed to serve as a member of the feedback group, she did not represent NCTE in that capacity.
In late June, the Chiefs invited NCTE to offer a response to the draft of the standards. Upon receiving that request, the Executive Committee met (via phone and Web conferencing) and decided that providing input on the draft was more advisable than not. It's obvious that we will have national twelfth-grade exit standards. As of now, 46 states have agreed to adopt them. Refusing to offer input means having no chance of influencing this document. I'm not naïve enough to think that all suggestions for revisions we make will be followed. At this point, though, the Executive Committee is dedicated to providing the input needed so that this document will be as aligned as possible with NCTE positions on key issues--positions enacted through democratic processes by NCTE members.
So, the Executive Committee has convened a blue-ribbon panel of NCTE members to review the standards with NCTE policies and positions in mind. Last week, this group received a copy of the ELA common core standards draft, and it is currently beginning its review. Unlike the feedback group that provided advice to the CCSSO from each individual’s perspective, this NCTE review team will review the standards through the lens of NCTE policy.
I have no idea what the Chiefs will do with the report they will receive from NCTE during the second week of August. What I do know is that if we refuse to be a part of this process, then any chance NCTE has of making the document better is lost. Perhaps the Chiefs will disregard any suggestions for revisions that are made. But perhaps not. That chance is why the Executive Committee chose to accept the offer to provide a review.
At this point, it would be premature for me to speculate on what will happen next. I know that after the standards document is completed (early September) and released to the public, then the Chiefs will begin work on grade-level benchmarks. The Chiefs have invited NCTE to be a part of that process, but the Executive Committee has not yet addressed this request. It seemed hasty at best, ill advised at worst, to agree to do that before studying the end-of-grade-12 standards document carefully. That is what is happening now with the review team.
I want each NCTE member to be assured that the Executive Committee is committed to upholding NCTE policies and positions. If it becomes apparent that the standards document stands in opposition to those policies and positions, then NCTE will not hesitate to point out the discrepancies. But to speak against the document before it has been reviewed could undercut our ability to offer a credible and cogent critique later in the standards setting process. Additionally, NCTE will continue to support the position that while standards—a policy document—might be created by policy groups, assessments of student learning and curriculum/pedagogical choices that lead to achievement of standards are best left to teachers.
My goal for the Council is that policymakers turn to us first when they address policies and practices in English language arts. So, yes, I was disappointed that the Chiefs did not consult NCTE when they began their work on the standards document. However, once they did turn to us, I was happy that the Executive Committee agreed to provide input. At this point, we are cautiously cooperative. If that cooperative stance proves ineffective, then we will be respectfully vocal with our concerns.
Kylene Beers
President, National Council of Teachers of English
The following responses are from the NCTE comment site. You can add yours.
Anonymous Establishing national common core standards (and the tests which will inevitably follow) is crap.
Margarget Phinney Response I agree with the comments of others that the concept of national standards is unnecessary and harmful. In China individuals' prospects for opportunities are dashed when they can't quite pass a particular, single national test. My biggest concern is that soon "the Chiefs will begin to work on grade-level benchmarks." "Grade level" is "average": it ignores individual differences in pace and nature of development. "Grade level benchmarks" are a travesty because they put children in a bell curve, forcing the failure of half the population. . . .
Susan Ohanian Response Kylene Beers writes, It's obvious that we will have national twelfth-grade exit standards. Obvious to whom? Obvious because of what?
It wouldn't be obvious if we didn't lie down, roll over, and play dead. Silence is definitely the enemy here.
I'm grateful for Kylene's letter, but I think as professionals we are entirely too polite. It is way past time for professionals to stand up and declare, "No!" We need to do it for the children; we need to do it for the very existence of teaching as a profession.
Stephen Krashen Response It is good to know that NCTE does not yet have a position on the standards movement.
Will NCTE's input assume that national standards and tests are necessary and only comment on the substance of the standards? Are we limited to providing input on the draft or can we question the idea of investing so much time and money on standards and tests?
I am a member of several organizations supporting or planning to support the standards movement because they think it is inevitable. If these organizations were to question the standards, maybe they would not be inevitable.
Children in the US are staggering under the load of tests. Schools have turned into test-prep factories. It is astonishing that a major priority of the administration is new standards and tests.
I argue that new standards and tests are unnecessary and unhelpful in a very short paper called NUT: No Unnecessary Testing. Write me for a copy: skrashen@yahoo.com.
Stephen Krashen
Anonymous Common Core State Standards are bullshit. ======================
Several
activists have suggested this strategy for increasing volume on this
site. We need to increase volume in order to get Google and other
search term recognition when people search for information on the
Common Core standards.
I'm writing to everyone I know who is interested in best practices for literacy education!
Arne Duncan, Obama's secretary of education, is pushing for national standards, accompanied by national tests. I saw this kind of system in China, with it's accompanying devastation of the lives of individuals. Such system ignores individual learning styles, the variable pace of learning, and varied background knowledge and experiences. Those behind the movement are developing grade level benchmarks, and grade level means teaching to the average. We need to have our voices heard if we feel that "once size fits all" and teaching to the average are not good ideas. There is a website being developed that will act as a clearing house for information and ideas on how to have our voices heard. It is:
If
you have a pithy and cogent remark to make about the Race to the Top,
Beth Yeh (below) is listed as a contact person. Your time might be
better spent looking at Resisters' letters and then writing to:
============================= Posted on EDDRA, July 26, 2009 Permission granted for anybody to post any version they want anywhere.
by Susan Ohanian
I've read the Common Core Standards draft for Language Arts, which are
being pushed by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, and I'm appalled
that ALL
students would be dragged through literary theory, narrative writing,
etc. These Standardistos indicated they are going to get the h.s.
regimen set and then push the principles to lower grades with these
grandiose principles. There will be many bodies left along the way to
this "everybody college-ready" goal. And kids won't know there are
wonderful (and worthy) books that they would enjoy, books that could
convince them to become lifelong readers. Instead, they will be dragged
through "complex" works and never pick up another book in their lives
after they escape from school.
I say if college want students to write term papers, let them train
the students to engage in such pursuits.
WHY do we insist that everybody be "college ready" when U. S. Bureau of
Labor statistics indicate that the great number of jobs do not require
college or much technical training? Being deprived of a high school
diploma will shut students off from
such jobs as: auto mechanic, barber, bus driver, draftsman, baker,
broadcast technician, cardiology
technologist, communications dispatcher, electroneurodiagnos tic
technologist, fingerprint classifier, forklift operator, graphics
designer, heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration mechanic, hotel
desk clerk, land surveyor, legal secretary, medical transcriptionist,
numerical control machinist, optometric technician, paramedic, plumber,
robotics technician, sheet metal worker, shorthand reporter/court
reporter, solar energy system installer, small appliance repairer,
surgical technician, tool and die maker, translator/interpre ter,
veterinary technician, ward clerk (medical), webpage designer, etc. etc.
I don't think any of these people need to be able to do the kind of
reading/writing delineated in the draft standards. But these are very
necessary jobs for our communities.
I taught in an alternative high school--part of the public school
system but the kids were kids excluded from the regular campus. Among
their writing requirements were: a letter to the editor expressing a
point of view about a community issue, a consumer letter of complaint,
a letter to a political representative, and so on. The effect was
phenomenal when students saw things happen because of their
carefully-crafted letters.. I made the same assignments when I taught
engineering students at RPI, with the same amazed results as they
received cases of soup, vacuum cleaners hoses, etc. as a result of
their consumer letters.
Last year I read the frustrated exam of a Vermont teen who, although he
has an IEP, was forced to sit through the NECAP. Here's part of his
response to the writing test. He did not delete any part of the expletives.
"You f_ _ _ _ing a_ _holes I have been taking these f_ _ _ _ing
tests since first grade and I am f_ _ _ing sick of it. I know I can't
spell you know I can't spell. I have more important things to do than
this bulls_ _ _test." Six pages of expletives and rage and pain and
mourning for lost learning.
A proctor turned in his test, he was suspended, and therefore he missed
the test to qualify as a lumberjack given the next day--and forfeited
the $500 test fee.
One size does NOT fit everybody. Why are we so determined to ruin the
lives of so many students?
================================
from California and Vermont, July 18, 2009
A Seat at the Table: Capitulation to the National Standards Movement?
by Stephen Krashen and Susan Ohanian
Sent to The Council Chronicle (NCTE) and Reading Today (IRA)
. As on July 26 "in press" at Reading Today, no word from NCTE.
To the Editor:
According to an article that appeared in Education Week on June 15,
NCTE and IRA both want a "seat at the table" to create national
standards along the lines proposed by Education Secretary Arne Duncan.
Apparently, both organizations agree that spending billions
developing national standards and national tests is a good idea, and
are upset only because they have not been invited to join the party.
Apparently, both NCTE and IRA agree that our major priority in
education is more precise and uniform measurement, that all children
should know where they are "on every step of their educational
trajectory" (Arne Duncan) in all subjects.
Apparently they agree that this assembly-line rigid approach is in
tune with the way children learn.
Apparently, some of the leaders of the two major literacy
organizations have not spent much time with children, and are
unfamiliar with the vast research literature that says this approach
is all wrong.
— Stephen Krashen & Susan Ohanian
from Colorado, July 11, 2009
Former police officer and a Ph.D. in educational psychology teaching at Front Range Community College, Laurel Manuel wrote an article for the Greeley Tribune, July 11, 2009, explaining the Educator Roundtable Petition, the grassroots effort to end NCLB. Remember, The Obama/Duncan plan for changing NCLB
is to institute National Standards and Testing and tie teacher
evaluations to student scores on standardized tests.
from Florida Retired educator Bill Archer wrote this letter to the News Journal:
Adopting
National Standards for public education will turn public schools into
training centers from which individual graduates can boast of having
achieved nothing more than uniform "fact bytes". And there is little
else that will distinguish these individuals from one another as
graduates of a National Standards driven system. Those advocating such
a system of public education will succeed in producing a system that
serves their own needs. What are the dimensions of this national
standards system they envision, and hope to substitute for America's
traditional public education?
That
question needs to be answered with great specificity before adopting a
program of National Standards is allowed to happen. The probable
consequences of adoption are so comprehensively stultifying that I am
shocked at the present low level of professional educator challenge. It
borders on professional negligence.
Where
is the great show of outrage from professional educators whose
profession is being eroded by the forces of a political and corporate
cabal that stands to earn unimaginably large profits if it can
transform the public education system into an instrument for its
private use? Where is the outrage from teachers who see the "sky's the
limit" potential for individuals in traditional public education being
transformed into a tracking vehicle for social sculpting that will be
used to squash individuality?
The
logical future for those "graduating" from a National Standards-driven
system will be to enter into follow-on programs according to their
level of mastery of those standards. Some fortunate ones, those in
higher socio-economic situations, will be eligible for continuing
education in colleges. Others, those who are living in impoverished and
deprived situations, those whom research has shown to consistently do
poorly on tests, will be relegated to training programs for various
kinds of employment to include public services and trades, military
opportunities and other "tracked" possibilities. Gone will be the days
of equal opportunity that education once offered. In its place will be
the government mandated options for those according to how they did
on those National Standards.
Why
teachers are not vehemently confronting the takeover of their
profession and citizens are not actively protesting against this
determined cabal can have one basic reason. They have little or no
awareness of the potential disaster adopting National Standards will
create in the social fabric of our nation. The state will become the
gatekeeper for individual social and professional progression
nationwide if it is allowed to set the standard of educational success
nationwide. Have teachers and citizens forgotten that public education
is the engine of democracy and the opportunity equalizer? In the void
of their memory loss the cabal has substituted a myth about failed
public education and promised education reform through
"corporatization" and National Standards. If the myth is believed then
the teachers will be the scapegoats of a grand deception and all
citizens will begin to experience the restraints of a new political
atmosphere called Facism.
from Washington, July 1, 2009 Parent Empowerment Network made custom buttons for National Standards resistance in Vermont.
from Vermont, the entire month of July
NOTE: Susan Ohanian wore this sandwich board in
the 4th of July parade in Warren, VT and continues to display it in a solitary vigil on Fridays in the popular
Church Street Marketplace in Burlington.
Feds Hijacking Local Schools
The Feds impose timetables, labeling young children winners and losers.
Vermont knows a better way: Treat 8-year-olds like 8-year-olds, celebrating their individual diversity and variety and uniqueness.
The Feds define schoolchildren as future workers in a global economy.
Vermont knows a better way: Keep schools local. Put schools
at the center of the community and encourage students to explore
forests, ponds, farms, artists' studios, industrial sites, museums.
The Feds insist all students must take the same pre-college curriculum.
Vermont knows a better way: Encourage students to work with
their hands as well as their heads so they learn that communities need
farmers, carpenters, lumberjacks, and musicians along with engineers
and chemists.
The Feds demand a national timetable: National Standards and a National Test.
Vermont knows a better way: We must ask, "Who's in charge?"
and we must refuse to turn over the control of our schools to the Feds.
We must insist on Vermont schools by and for Vermonters.
