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.

Call  334-288-0577
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme@blogspotcom.

If you enjoy our work, please help support our work in the community. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116

A WORD TO THE WISE. Proverbs 29: 20

Proverbs 29: 20     Do you see a man hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him.

Proverbs 29: 20.  At some point, someone is going to confront you and ask for your reaction to something that you know little or nothing about.  The demand may be from a reporter shoving a microphone in your face, or a pushy bystander holding a camera-phone, or a peer with hand on hip saying, “Well, So-and-so said that they heard that you said......”

However the query comes, your interrogator will demand that you give an immediate answer.

The Bible calls it a hasty answer, and reflects upon the mentality of those people develop the  habit of giving hasty answers.  Proverbs 29:20 calls such people worse-than-stupid.

The endless cycle of news and the endless supply of supposedly-expert testimony-givers creates pressure to post/text/tweet/blog/give an answer as hastily as possible.  Everyone else has something to say, so you also feel compelled to say------ something. 

The problem is that you cannot speak intelligently when you don’t have the intelligence (in the military sense of “information”) to speak from.  Therefore, to answer hastily is always to answer un-intelligently.  Unintelligent=foolish=stupid.  Once you’ve said/tweeted/posted/ blogged something stupid------ it follows you forever.

The same people who pressured you to give a hasty answer will crucify you for giving a stupid answer.

If you don’t believe me, ask the University of North Alabama football player who got kicked off the team for a hasty (and racist) tweet posted when the President’s speech pre-empted a football game.

Ask Ambassador Susan Rice, who missed out on the nomination for Secretary of State because of a hastily prepared interview about an attack at an embassy.

Ask the kid who will get suspended today for a fight that started when he told her that he would kick his butt after she told him that she heard that he was scared of him and she just wanted to know if he was really scared and all she did was tell him what he said.

If you don’t know the necessary facts, the only intelligent answer is, “I don’t know------ yet.”

“Better to be silent and thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.” --- Abraham Lincoln

---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.

Call  334-288-0577
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves
To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme@blogspotcom.

If you enjoy this blog, please help support our work in the community. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116