Ponder those two sentences for a moment. Then ponder them again.

–pm.

I have a friend in New Mexico who teaches at a CK school that her younger daughter attends (she homeschooled her older daughter using CK materials). The CK school has an interesting approach. You can be in the fourth grade for reading and fifth for math. Thus you are learning everything in the Core Knowledge Sequence, but in a way that suits your needs. I like that approach. Granted, it could be logistically difficult in a large urban school.

Diana Senechal

One of the major reasons I’m homeschooling is because I’ve got a child whose needs are very different from the majority of her agemates. If I were required to follow the California state standards for her grade like my neighborhood school is, that would result in instruction that is completely wrong for her.

Private schools are not required to follow any standardized curriculum and they by and large provide a sound education that typically does a better job imparting the fundamentals than their highly regulated government-run counterparts.

Our typical son now attends a Jesuit high school.

The Jesuits have a 400 year history of excellence in the liberal arts disciplines.

They’re the last men standing.

Or is it possible that there are some fundamentals of a sound education that are the birthright of every child? It’s easy to argue that other people’s judgement should not decide what your child should learn. But the opposite is also true. In its absence, you’re leaving to fate and other people to decide what gets left out.

Where would you rather eat- a chain restaurant with a fixed menu dictated from some headquarters in another state or a mom-n-pop restaurant where the chef is empowered to take advantage of the best locally available ingredients?

Actually, I would welcome DFFR or others if they really wanted to listen and learn. But then they would need to learn the difference between National Standards and a National Curriculum. (I would love to see Core Knowledge’s approach to curriculum, and an understanding of why it works, to be spread widely, and I support National Standards, but a national curriculum? I doubt people at the Ed Trust are even aware of the issues involved in that debate.)

Here’s what bothers me about their preoccupation with process. I want my union, for instance, to aggressively fight against a lot of policies. But I would not want a gag rule. For instance, I have absolutely no problem with DFER, Klein, Rhee, or advocates for a national curriculum getting a chance to make their case to Obama. In education, we MUST believe in debate. But when Obama listens to Linda Darling Hammond, notice how angry a lot of “reformers” are. Some of their outbursts sound like a tract from the Know Nothings in the 19th century. “Experts?!?” We don’t need no stinkin education experts with all their evidence, we just need “accountability,” and we need to make sure Obama doesn’t listen to all those smart people who messed up education.

If Obama rejects the advice of educators, that’s life. You win some, lose some, and some get rained out. I’ll still support him.

The rhythm’s off, but it’s true.