KNEE JERKING & COMMON CORE

Knee-jerking can be dangerous, especially for educators. 

Knee-jerking.  You know, a reflexive/ “knee jerk” response.  Like when President Obama pats his dog on the head and Republicans issue a statement denouncing the socialist movement to give animals the same rights as humans.

Knee-jerking.

We're all guilty of it, especially in our politics.  Most of the time it's slightly stupid.  Sometimes it's seriously funny.  But, it can be profoundly dangerous, especially when you don't realize that someone is manipulating your knee-jerks to make you march zombie-like in a direction you wouldn't choose if you were thinking instead of just reacting.

I'm thinking about the debate in Alabama over repealing Common Core Standards.

A couple years ago, when we started the process (the quite poorly executed process) of explaining Common Core Standards in Alabama, most classroom educators knee-jerked against it.

It was just more crap to memorize. We’d have to dump all those AHSGE desktop files and classroom posters and create a whole new set of documents to mindlessly copy and paste into lesson plans and student notebooks. 

We knee-jerked against Common Core without really examining it.

Then it became the rule, so we accepted it, but few classroom teachers (none I know personally) were actually excited about it.

Now, the Republican-dominated Alabama legislature is trying to repeal Common Core in Alabama, and educators are up in arms.

Why?

Now, I’m not a Republican.  I think that the current crop of Republican state legislatures is deliberately trying to destroy public education in America.

But, why are so many of educators suddenly passionate about protecting a set of rules for which they felt zero passion a few weeks ago?

Knee-jerking.
And I felt it, too.  That involuntary flinch forward into spontaneous activism  because THEY are against something related to education.  THEY being Alabama Republicans, the ancient enemies of all institutions with the word “public” in their designation----- public schools, public lands, public parks, public restrooms, ...

I am not opposed to the Common Core Standards. 

Or, as the debate is current framed, I am not in favor of the Republican plan to repeal Common Core Standards. 

(Notice the subtle difference there.  Are we considering the merit of the standards or are we reacting to a move by our political opponents?)

But what has effectively happened is that the Republican opposition to Common Core has achieved in 2 weeks, what 2 years of powerpoint presentations from the Alabama Board of Education had failed to accomplish:   Educators across the state now overwhelmingly support/buy-in to the new Common Cores Standards.

I’m not telling you to stop calling your legislator.  I’m not telling you what to say when you call him/her. 

All I’m asking you to do is ask yourself 2 questions:

(1) Did you arrive at your current position on this issue  by way of reason or by way of a series of knee-jerks?

(2) And if you knee-jerked to this point, who is it who’s been tapping your knee?

Educators are the smartest group of professionals in this country.  We’re so smart that people pay us to make other people smart.  So, if we let ourselves get knee-jerked around the socio-political landscape, then what hope is there for rest of America.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama.

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