At the Core of Being Grateful

All across America, we will be sitting down to a big Thanksgiving meal and sharing what we are most grateful for in our lives.  Near the top of the list for me is being grateful to lead an independent school.  Having the opportunity to lead outstanding educators in knowing precisely what is needed to teach our children well.  Being independent allows us to teach to each child’s needs.  We have been preparing students for high schools in this manner for a very long time and doing it exceptionally well.

Our friends in the public schools have lost the opportunity to teach what they feel is important due to the Common Core Curriculum.  When we lose control over who we are, what we do, and how we do it, we are lost.  Adrift.  Wandering. 

I have collected three quotes about the Common Core from experts in education who are far smarter than me.  This is what they had to say;

“The curriculum is to schooling as blueprints are to builders, as maps are to travelers, as patterns are to clothing manufacturers, as models are to designers, complicated by the fact that what needs to be understood is dynamic, therefore impossible to model with a static curriculum.”  Marion Brady

“Some states adopted them without seeing a finished draft. The standards, unfortunately, were never field-tested. No one knew in advance whether they would improve achievement or depress it, whether they would widen or narrow the achievement gap among children of different races. It is hard to imagine a major corporation releasing a new product nationwide without first testing it among consumers to see if it is successful. But that is what happened with the Common Core standards.” Diane Ravitch

“However, for me there are two far bigger problems with the Standards themselves – errors that arguably caused the bulk of the current backlash. The writers of the Standards (especially in Math) did a terrible job of 1) justifying the Standards as appropriate to college and workplace readiness, and 2) explaining in detail what the Standards imply for educational practice. The documents simply fail at communicating the kinds of changes the Standards demand locally.” Grant Wiggins

While the debate rages on, I will sit down to our Thanksgiving meal grateful for Sumner Academy and knowing we are doing what is best for our children.

Our mission is to discover and cultivate each child’s unique abilities.