Mr. Secretary, What Conversation Do You Wish To Have?

I've spent a few hours today polling a few people.
Am I a white suburban Mom? 
Do I think my children are brighter than they are?
Were their schools actually lousier than I thought?

All critical questions Arne Duncan is voicing in his "conversation" on Common Core and "world class schooling." I can't say Dr. Duncan because he didn't pursue that level of education, but I can say Secretary Duncan, who did seem to choose his words with less than careful thought.
Of course I'm no stranger to that as well. Still.
Still I've been thinking about this.

Yes I am white. 

Technically I'm suburban, if Oxnard,CA is suburban-is it?

Yes, I do generally think my children are "very bright." Brighter than they "really are?" Er...
Well after attending Caltech my oldest liked to tell me that I saw her as unique in the land- when she saw herself as in the lower half of her school. So, yes, I suppose on a technicality I see the sky as the limit for their capacity. Yes, I see them as my everything. Funny thing though, I see every child I teach that way as well.

Their schools were, until college, schools in poverty areas.
I saw those schools in a positive light-I worked there.
I believe in those schools.

I refer you to this backpedaling CNN if you have no idea what I'm discussing.

I, personally, found this remark by a Secretary of Education to be-well, sorry, technically racist, insulting to women as mothers as well, and thus also clearly sexist, and finally remarkably condescending and, in fact, to smack of elitism.
First suburban mothers are white, black, brown, tan, off white, golden, peachy, all the colors skin has. To  use a pejorative like "white suburban Moms," well let's substitute "black inner city moms"-would that be appropriate? It gets me in that icky place.
Real icky.

Then there is the notion that white suburban Moms are the ones raising the little kiddoes. Also awkward and denigrating to their status as job holders, professionals and super ick to the fathers.
Like my husband who was as involved with these kids and their education as it gets.
Can he also be fooled into the great lie that they are less bright than we thought?
Are white suburban Dad's-technically Italian so he says "olive" also needing a good dose of the castor oil Common Core?

Then there are the other layers.

I think generally calling other people's children "not as bright as you thought" goes in the special all to itself league. Somewhat there with being a guest in someone's home who has children and informing them you hate kids.
Then there is the insult to their ability to judge their child AND their school. Boy just say stupid and get it over with.
Plus it sort of endorses the idea of white flight when you read the comment fully.

All in all, not the best way to "have the conversation." Awkward...shoot that's way beyond awkward.


I, for one, want to know what conversation we are having. Exactly.

 Is it the one about poverty-how testing increased white flight, is it about inequity in schools, or what poverty schools face on a routine basis-things like the expectation that scores will be the same NO MATTER WHAT the experience and situation of the child?

That conversation?

Is it the conversation about Common Core and how it was imposed, what is looks like in primary education, how it will be assessed and what it fundamentally changes? Who funded it?

That conversation?

Is this the conversation about those with children in private schools seeking to privatize public schools through undue influence and outright purchase by corporate cronies?

That conversation?

Is this the conversation about  my children? What was it I learned sending them to the public schools I worked in and seeing the detrimental effect NCLB wrought on those schools over time in test based instruction and narrowing of curriculum, de-skilling of teachers?

That conversation?

Is this the conversation about your tenure as Ed. Secretary, from denigrating Master's Degrees, that oops in Louisiana,  to the assault on teacher's professionalism, and your aligning with those that labeled us "bad" especially when we worked in deep poverty?

That conversation?

Is this the conversation about the role shame, division, school-rating, have played within the educational decisions made in America the last 12 or so years?


That conversation?

Is this the conversation about who is defining 21st Century schools? And why?


That conversation?

Is this the conversation about why such awful things as those you stated would ever slip from your lips? I think the reason is quite a bit more complex than you just had a word-smithing problem. Tell us about some of the things in back of those assumptions we just gleaned insight into.

Have THAT conversation.
 Or admit that for a really long time you've not been conversing with teachers at all.

I want to have THAT conversation.