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My Day with the Media
by Susan Ohanian
I've had a whirlwind day and a half talking with the media about my opposition to the Common Core standards. It all started with a line in today's Washington Post, which no longer seems available at their website. I'm glad I posted it immediately on my site. Otherwise I might think I was hallucinating.
Further proof that the story once existed at the Washington Post is the fact that I got a phonecall at 6:30 this morning from CBS Radio News, asking me to explain my comment in the Washington Post against the Common Core. Later a call with the same question came from Katie Couric's producer. They'd also read my comment in the Washington Post.
It's a mystery. If you hit on the url I posted with the article, a different article comes up now.
Is there some plot to eliminate from the media all negative comments about the Common Core? Or am I just being paranoid again?
I told the reporters the good news is that we managed to get rid of Plato for 6th graders and Wordsworth's Prelude. And truly, we should declare victory over this. Alas, Faulkner's 15 narrators live on for hapless 11th graders.
One reporter asked me what I have against Wordsworth, and I explained that when the Prelude was inflicted on me in college I figured I had only myself to blame. After all, I'd chosen to be an English major.
I just think it's both ludicrous and detrimental for corporate politicos to be telling teachers which vowel sounds kindergartners need to know. And it's a crime that educators are keeping their lips sealed about all this.
This what I told the Washington Post, CBS Radio, Katie Couric's producer, and USA Today. I told Couric's producer to get in touch with the Alliance for Childhood, the one organization willing to speak out and take a stand for the needs of children.
I'm distraught that I couldn't tell them to call NCTE. Imagine not being able to refer the media to the professional organization to which you gave your allegiance for decades.
My pride in that organization is gone. I'll refrain from saying what's left. See My NCTE.
CBS Radio phoned at 6:30 a.m., telling me I'd be on every hour across the nation. Good thing I'm an early riser. Some people would have been ticked off royally. Well, as a matter of fact, I did get ticked off royally, but not because of the early hour.
I wanted to tell the guy he's a horse's ass, but I restrained myself. Here is a small part of our conversation:
Me: I'm glad they dumped Plato for 6th graders.
CBS Radio: What's wrong with Plato?
Me: Most of us didn't encounter him until college.
CBS Radio: Maybe that's the problem.
Me: Problem?
CBS Radio: College is too late. Kids need to encounter the great books earlier.
Then he lectured me about how kids in the US are far behind kids in the rest of the world, losing our place in the Global Economy, and so on. There's no talking to someone like that.
Apparently part of our conversation did make it on the airwaves (a friend in Chicago told me he heard it). I couldn't find a CBS station on my dial and couldn't get the Internet connection to work. And besides that, I was busy answering the phone.
The Katie Couric producer talked for a while and I think I made her nervous. Suddenly she said they couldn't get a camera crew to such an isolated place in time. Vermont as the end of the universe.
She was unable to make the connection with the Alliance for Childhood I suggested. So the net result was not one single voice speaking against the Common Core on the nightly news. .
Oh well.
As we play this battle out in the media, I wonder if it's worth the effort. I feel that I wasted the day.
And what happened to that Washington Post story that got me so much attention today?
— Susan Ohanian
2010-03-10
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