Twas the night of mid May,

The clouds were long shed,

The stars were all out,

The moon was half dead.

I’d just closed my eyes

In dark deepest dread.

I had a forewarning

Of what was ahead.

The river was foggy

So full of thick mist,

My eyes played tricks.

A hand grabbed my wrist

“What is it ” I cried

As my wrist was entwined.

“Come Hither”,  it hissed,

in a voice harsh and sublime.

“In your search of pure knowledge

Things are not as you know

Shapes shift,  spin  around.

Truth lies buried under snow

Down becomes up, and up, is then down”

“Plant only one seed

Something evil will grow”.

Something dark is afoot,

In spirit it has stalked,

If it wins out tomorrow,

Education is debauched….

Tomorrow at Two

It will take place in Bright Light.

What I feared from my heart,

In that deepest dark night.

The 147th House would vote,

Without any debate,

On something important

To all our children’s fate.

War would soon be declared

On all those teachers who were right.

They’d  all have to leave

Or stand up and fight.

A Bill with nice thoughts

Will be laid on the dock.

But in the dark wording it shields,

A most powerful shock.

Instead of making better,

It tears down all the schools,

Putting up cheap imitations

That mock  all the rules.

No more shall a teacher know

What her calling required?

She could only hope like her kids,

Her scores would help get her hired.

Instead of knowledge, proven and direct.

She’d be tested on simply how well she could bet.

Praxis One and Praxis Two

Those tests of the best.

Would now be retired.

By which test could “bid” best.

Instead of old classics,

New standards were wrought,

“Romeo and Juliette” now replaced

By “How To Properly Clean a Pot”.

Twas necessary to learn prose they said.

No matter if such a bore.

It left no brain cells still standing.

Well done, Common Core.

Delaware’s education is 35th best.

That Includes the Ivy Leagues,

And all those good schools out West

“Not Good Enough”!

The gauntlet was laid

We must tear it down quickly

Our consultant’s need paid.

We must start something new!

We don’t know what it is.

But without old constraints

We can create it like jizz.

Who will do this? Good question!

That we do not know.

But when it gets done,

Arne Duncun  will be here to show.

So we’ll  make it mysterious.

And hard to deduce.

Make the poor teachers sweat,

Think they’re all in the caboose.

We can brainwash them now,

Do it before they begin.

They will soon work for peanuts

Because that’s all we’ll send in.

We won’t let them pass

Till their eyes all have tears in,

We’ll switch things around

Like we do on kids with Pearson….

We’ll make them earn B’s

To get into our class.

Those who don’t earn them,

Can get in with a pass.

These new tough standards

Will make bad teaching stop.

Besides we will need them

In our Race To The  Top.

It says right here on line 53

“Must redo college standards”

Let us  buy them  new teacher ID’s

Which they can hang from their lanyards.

It says “redo”, not “raise levels” I see

Let us  make up our creed

Raise them higher or lower,

Or even sideways if we need.

So let’s scrap what we have,

Make new in our image.

Trash all classic standards,

We’ll make it a corporate scrimmage.

The tests we used to have,

Were so hard and so tough,

Lets’ sub them with easy ones,

Those scores will rise with fluff.

When the kids scream about testing

We’ll know we’ve done enough.

Let’s water the standards

But tell them they’re tough.

Do it with ed- gobblyspeak.

So those dummies in House

Without even a peek,

Vote YES like a mouse….

Since what you get out

Is What you put in,

We’ll have robots for teachers

Their union will end.

But we got to be careful,

We got to act fast,

If they catch what we’re doing,

This campaign can’t last.

Strike quickly, strike fast

Strike them hard like a flogger.

Can’t let them hear the truth,

Keep them far from that “blogger”.

Oh we’ll smile, we will praise,

We’ll do what we must.

What ever it takes

To turn those standards to dust.

Make Teachers in our image?

Yes, that’s what we’ll do.

We’ll count ourselves lucky

If they can count up to two.

The children? Don’t worry,

They’ll be fine as we speak.

We’ll teach them with tests,

So their knowledge will peak.

Then when it does,

We’ll know that we have won.

Common Core is in place.

Our work is now done.

Our friends in this Biz

Will now pay for our way.

When we meet our next challenger

Thinking he has something to say.

The Battle is ending

The war’s almost won.

We just need some dumb  asses

To vote  in S.B 51…..”

The specter was silent

It paused for a while

“Who are you? I said

I saw a faint smile.

It turned slowly towards me

And gave me a stare.

I could feel the electricity

From the bottom of each hair.

“Tell me” I inquired,

just one more time.

But the vision was fading

Into many fine lines

All that was left were the eyes,

And they gave me a shiver

It then grew transparent,

It was the Christina river.

So my friends, if you’re up,

If you read this in the morn.

It wasn’t a dream,

You must sound off your horn.

You must call down to Dover,

Let them know how you feel.

Hell copy and paste this.

Let them know this is for real.

We are being bamboozled

By clever and wit.

Our children won’t learn

Anything, not one little bit.

Teaching requires

Something you can’t test.

Requires a human you respect

Pushing to do your best.

We are moving away,

From what has worked well.

We are tearing down Rome

And burning it to hell.

This bill is too rash

Though it sounds pretty good.

It needs not to be rushed,

But debated as it should.

If anything is to change

It depends now on all of you.

Without your quick  input,

Like in the Senate, it will pass too.

It’s tearing down what is good

And replacing it with “what-ever”

Gotta be bad for the kids,

No matter hard they endeavor.

This bill needs work.

Though it’s ideas are nice.

It will mess things up royally

Without changes concise.

A simple amendment

Is all it would take.

To undo all the damage

And terrible things soon at stake.

A little snip of a scissors will do

Component V and Evaluations…

Just separate the two.

Because the way this is written

If you teach and you fail.

It’s the blacks and the poor,

Who lose and wind up in jail.

Their great teachers got fired,

Because they worked in the city.

The teachers in rich schools.

Got good scores, just sitting pretty.

This is the damage this Bill will soon do.

For under this plan

If your kids don’t test well,

Your career is so through

Doesn’t matter if their poor,

Or if their homes are all broken.

When it comes down to corporate,

All excuses are token

“it’s your fault” they’ll say

“It can’t be the test.

You’re lazy and useless

You didn’t do your best”.

Meanwhile in Newark,

Where teaching’s a breeze.

Just wave a magic wand,

And there is no pay-freeze.

Scores roll in higher

Because the curriculum is dumbed down.

Kids do all the work.

You smile looking down.

So reader, what do you think…

As is, what will this bill do?

If you were a new teacher,

if it was you starting anew.

Would you go to the city?

Where opportunity lies?

Teach out your heart?

And stifle your cries?

Or would you choose

The easy way out.

A lifelong career

With no second doubt.

It is so important

That this bill get changed

Otherwise our system

Will split from the strain.

Decouple the evaluations

From component Five.

Let’s do what we can

To keep education alive.

This bill needs work

On quite a few levels

That will only happen,

If this vote gets disheveled.

If you love your kids,

And kids of all ages,

You need to call

Make them retract their pledges.

They don’t know what’s in this bill.

Because they were told it’s ok.

Only the parents who vote

Can still save the day.

This is you I’m telling

Just so you know.

You need to go here,

And call all that you know.

Send them this poem,

It will get their attention,

Then give them the pitch,

Tell them they’ll go to detention.

What they’re about to do,

Is destroy our great state.

By Dismantling educational.quality

And by then it is too late.

This bill is on rush,

That i can tell you.

Vacation is coming.

But hopefully they’ll hear you.

Say “This Bill Cannot Pass”

Exactly as it is written.

“Change it, change it now

Before you get smitten”.

I hope these few words

Don’t fall on deaf ears.

I don’t want to see children

Through veils of thick tears….

It is you, it is me,

Who must carry this fight.

It is we who are parents.

We have the most right!.

.