When I achieved National Board Certification I declared that I found my voice. For the last six years, I have used my voice with some proficiency to advocate for teaching excellence. Saturday afternoon I found myself representing Arizona educators on NBC’s Education Nation. My task of course was to use my voice, speak about education issues in Arizona on television for everyone to critique. Might I know the topic? Sure, any topic in education. Excellent. No pressure. Zero worry.
The time came and I walked on stage. The first, second, third, fourth questions came as my memory serves like rapid fire. Much to the dismay of my interviewer, I simply wouldn’t tell the world that we, Arizona, were not ready for Common Core. Why? Here’s why:
First, I believe in Common Core. I am beyond ecstatic that gone are the days of the idea that “I do, We do, You do” will accomplish every instructional challenge and meet the needs of every student. I do not shutter at the mention of PARCC. Instead, I thank a higher power that we are moving beyond choosing A, B, C or D. And, most thrilling is that students will not achieve at the same levels as in previous years. Hooray! They shouldn’t achieve at the same levels as before because we are asking students to do more, frankly we are having students think.
If I had another round on NBC’s Education Nation, I would like to pose the questions. The first one would be how has society allowed education to become about choosing C? How has society allowed achievement to equate to learning? How has society allowed teaching to be reduced to reading a script? And last but not least, how has society allowed our students to wait so long for Common Core?
What questions might you ask?
