Earlier this year in one of Christina School’s teacher/parent open houses, where the parent is given the child’s schedule and follows that child’s schedule room by room, block by block, a single parent anxiously anticipated seeing the child’s English teacher. This parent had been an avid reader and throughly enjoyed her English classes growing up which turned her onto literature and writing.
After all the adults had wriggled themselves into the kids seats by sucking in their loose bellies, the teacher began with “this year I will be following the Common Core Curriculum.”
She continued she had been educated in it over the summer in a number of seminars. “I don’t really agree with it but I really have no choice. I was told that this is what we are going to learn, this has achieved results, and that results, bottom line, are what we are after.”
Each day, she told us, she was to distribute the corporate-created handout and the class would then read it together, go over it for meaning and technique, and then write paragraphs at the end of each class.
Near the end of the session this parent raised her hand.
“Yes?”
“Will they be reading any literature, and if so, which historical period is it that they will be reading?”
“Umm, that’s a great question” was the response. “I hope as it gets close to the end of the year, to sometime pull out a book for extra credit if we get ourselves through the curriculum, but right now, the curriculum is so well organized that we have to follow it exactly until we get to the end. Hopefully, then, we can do something interesting. I read some good books over the summer and I would love to analyze that with the class.”
“Was it 50 Shades of Gray?”
“Ohh, I did read that. i, umm, loved that book.”
Well that was last fall…..
This January the grades came out. And I happened to be talking to this mother’s daughter…. “Oh, wow, you really dropped in English. That was your best grade last year? What’s different?
“It’s SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO boring.!” “Last year we were performing Romeo and Juliette, and actually writing Sonnets, poetry, Haiku’s and reading and discussing some really great stories. ”
“What is this year like?”
“We get this paper and it is sooo boring. Just like reading those things on the DST, where they have one paragraph and you have to answer questions about that paragraph.”
“What are these paragraphs about? Aren’t the topics even interesting? Like Literature? ”
“They are soooooo stupid. Here is today’s… i was sooooo bored I forgot to turn it in…. ”
===============
“Inventory” was almost here. Miguel had to count all the product on his shelves. He didn’t have time. In the morning deliveries came and had to be stocked and rotated. Once he opened his doors, he had to handle customers, and never was a time that no one was in the building. Then in the evening, he had to stay to make sure his evening shift was running smoothly. His assistant came in at five, and Miguel would wait to make sure all staff was present and accounted for, that no manpower shortages would occur, and that all equipment was working properly, before he could leave. He started every day at 5 am…”
DISCUSS THOROUGHLY
ANALYZE CORRECTLY
WRITE THE NEXT SENTENCE
VOCABULARY
inventory
deliveries
customers
assistant
accounted
manpower
shortages
properly
WHAT IS THE KEY POINT OF THIS PARAGRAPH
WHAT IS THE AUTHOR TRYING TO SAY
WRITE A 5 PARAGRAPH TEXT ON HOW YOU WOULD SOLVE MIGUEL’S PROBLEMS.
===============
From Shakespeare to this….. This is Common Core, ladies and gentlemen. This approaches the most basic, lowest common denominator level of educating students to the barest minimum. Whereas you may look into this story for additional insight and perspective as one would be prone to look to literature for the same, and if you did, you would be marked wrong.
Because the answers expected here, are not profound. Common Core is asking students who have never run a grocery store or even been employed, to fill in the last sentence of something that is entirely alien to them. None have ever taken management 101. At most, their only experience with time-management was balance two homework assignments in the same evening. The correct answer to the question asking for the key point of this paragraph, (drumroll please), is….. “Miguel doesn’t have time to do inventory”. Duh? If you had said, “Miguel needs more help”, “Miguel needs to hire more people”, “Miguel should fake inventory,” you would be wrong with a big red X. There is nothing open to interpretation here. Common Core is always right.
You are beginning to see the problem here. Common Core went to employers to find out what was missing in the education pieces in what they were receiving. My guess one of them was a manager.. To “him”, this is a big dilemma: no time to do inventory because of all ones regular duties. To “him”, overcoming this problem was the biggest challenge in his early career. I’m sure he means well when he puts this problem down for all to consider. To “him”, the subtleness of Marc Anthony’s speech in Julius Caesar is completely lost. After all, it is irrelevant to his world, which consists of putting product on a shelf and selling it to neighborhood customers.
Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar is the reason today I fight so hard for democracy, and understand why democracy and autocratic competence are always in opposition… It was when i was in this little child’s grade that I read that and then stood in front of my class as did everyone else, and recite….“Friends, Romans, Countrymen. Lend my your ears.” (I always wanted to hand out plastic Mr. Potato ears to the entire class and have us all throw them at the first person who got up to recite….)
We are creating a nation of shelf stockers who will never think past “first let me put up this can, then next, I’ll put up that can, and then I’ll put up another can.” Right now I can hear Steve Martin saying “that person hates cans!”
America needs shelf stockers. But I think society is made better when those shelf stockers do what they have to do to make a living, and then go home and write their novel….
Just as Budweiser got watered down to broaden its appeal to non beer drinkers who would balk at a Dogfish IPA 90. Just as television dumbed down it’s comedy so even the most stupid would still tune in just to see tits and ass; just as newspapers write on a 8th grade level to sell more papers to those who can understand what they are discussing, …. the success we currently see on Common Core taught class tests, is simply there because no un-watered-down knowledge is required. The tests are created so simple that everyone will pass. If of course, they are given the “right” code and “know” the “prompts” for the “correct” answer to each question that will be asked…..
We are not educating America. We are turning off America from really learning….
“But you do so well on taking the tests,” I said!
“Oh, the final exams are only 10% of the grade. The classwork is the other 90%. And I’m pretty good on tests. I can tell which is the right answer by reading how they ask and how they offer the answer, even if I have no idea of what they are talking about. ”
Wow. I had no idea it was this bad.
So, guys. what are we going to do about it?
kavips 
27 comments
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January 30, 2013 at 10:47 am
Mike O.
What I want to point out is that Common Core doesn’t require those kind of shelf-stocking passages in English class. Schools are free to teach Shakespeare in English class under Common Core. The informational text does need to be taught somewhere, but it does not need to be taught in English class. And even so, the informational text doesn’t have to be so brain-dead.
Somewhere, a board, district administrator, or principal was so thick-headed they just bought a dumbed-down set of something labeled “Aligned with Common Core” because it was easier, and didn’t really understand the requirements.
But even though I desparately want to point all that out, what I see is that we cannot stop boards, administrators, or bloggers from misunderstanding and mis-communicating the standards. Therefore I put the blame on the standards themselves for not being clear enough. The Common Core standards need to be rewritten and re-launched to REQUIRE that you teach literature in English class, and maybe even require more.
But if the Common Core can’t be communicated properly to their audience, then the Common Core has to go.
January 30, 2013 at 2:20 pm
John Young
Mike so so many are “thick headed” on this, including preeminent educational historians. So, at what point do you concede the other side has a point?
January 30, 2013 at 3:24 pm
kavips
Reply to both…. Somewhere and I can’t remember where to cite it, I came across this quote…..( Yay! Found the link! It was on a John Young post; bottom of first page.)
Timothy Shanahan, who chairs the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said school administrators apparently have flunked reading comprehension when it comes to the standards. “Schools are doing some goofy things — principals or superintendents are not reading,” Shanahan, who was among the experts who advised Coleman on the standards, said...
January 30, 2013 at 3:36 pm
John Young
I’m not saying Mike is wrong at all, what I am saying is that the whole thing, CCSS, is being implemented by 46 state by X number of districts which equals THOUSANDS of schools and THOUSANDS of administrators and MILLIONS of teachers, show me the playbook for the rollout.
Oh, you don’t have one? Funny.
January 30, 2013 at 3:39 pm
Mike O.
kavips, on Daily Kos (where you cross-posted this) several commenters called you out on this, specifically citing the sections in the Common Core where Shakespeare examples are provided (and other lit). The drivel you cited is not required by Common Core but was selected by local administrators.
The fault is with the local lunkheads who buy such idiotic packaged learning material, despite the fact that Common Core does not require such brain-dead material and certainly not for English class. And a rap on the knuckles for the teachers who present it anyway without checking the Common Core guidelines. There is no reason English teachers can’t devise an exciting, creative literature-based curriculum fully within Common Core guidelines.
Designing good curriculums will have to be holistic, however. The informational reading material will have to be added somewhere in other classes. It will take an engaged non-lunkhead administration to do that.
It doesn’t help when our smartest bloggers repeat the misinformation that Common Core requires such bad material.
But even though the Common Core doesn’t require gutting English classes, if that is the effect than Common Core is an enemy of education. The unanticipated side effects may be worse than the benefits.
January 30, 2013 at 3:43 pm
Mike O.
John, this might be time for boards to step in and review the materials they are purchasing, and see if they are being overzealous or misinformed about Common Core standards.
January 30, 2013 at 3:54 pm
kavips
As everyone knows, when you pass down a directive, and it goes to a committee to decide the how’s of its implementation, you get different interpretations depending upon the makeup of those committees…..
What happened based on reading comments off a national blog, is that chemistry teachers wanted to teach chemistry, not how to read chemistry. Give that to the English Department they say. Same with math, same with bio, economics.
Now you have English teachers, with a minimal science background, answering questions about science to student’s questions, because, students are curious. I dare anyone to read Darwin’s Origin of the Species and discuss only the language of what it means, and not branch off into a discussion over what was being said, and it’s implications to God’s role in the universe. Students are curious. This will sidetrack the class, because, well, it is interesting and its ramifications apply directly to their world..
Darwin should be covered in Bio, but then again, Bio teachers aren’t the best interpreters of Victorian English, now are they?
Whereas I would be in agreement with the idea that reading Darwin’s Origin of the Species should be mandatory for all educated students…but I would have to deal with the confession that I’ve never read it cover to cover and yet,… I’m proficient in evolutionary theory) I can see no agreement on where it should be inserted into a curriculum.
Likewise Tocqueville? Never read it. It certainly wasn’t on our society’s must-read lists while growing up.
I think all parents, teachers, and those familiar with education know, that a certain set of skills that are very basic need to be taught by rote. Addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, reading, writing… and then steer the child to the area his interests lie. If you want an educated society, you have to make society “want” to become educated….
How did you learn science? Confession. I learned from science fiction. I then went looking for those answers in science to the questions those stories seeded in my mind.
January 30, 2013 at 4:11 pm
kavips
I haven’t had time yet to look at the national blog. Just don’t be immediately persuaded that because some people take a different point of view over there, that they are right. That is Washington DC. People get paid to disrupt opposing thoughts, even ones solidly backed by evidence. It is not like Delaware where one knows the sincerity of the participants.
I’ll take a look there in a couple of days.
January 30, 2013 at 8:18 pm
John Young
Mike,
you think boards should govern their districts? You are a micro-manager! We should just swallow the CCSS and buy, buy, buy the textbooks with the fresh stickers on them. CCSS is a first class boondoggle and product of federal overreach at its worst.
January 30, 2013 at 8:50 pm
John Young
January 31, 2013 at 8:13 am
kavips
Alas, I was hoping for more from the comments on the National site you mentioned above. .. The Shakespeare everyone was quoting to say that Core included it, was from the main page of the Common Core website that says of the English…. “Includes Shakespeare and other works of American Literature”. All the comments are pointing to that line, and responding… “see, it is not the programs fault, It includes Shakespeare.
Someone listed an advertisement to use a lesson plan where Ovid was compared to Romeo and Juliet, which states it was applicable to common core…
Alas again. That was it. Now the only proof I have is that from kindergarten to 12th, at least one mention of Shakespeare is included….
The Washington Post was the source listing the texts of math and economics were going to be substituted for works of literature. I’m taking them on their word.
But on principle, I do agree with the premise of common core, and that came from reading the wide range of comments. Due to generational differences many of the works those moms and dads cited, I had never read. Likewise they didn’t read what I had… Upon reading the statement made by the Governors association, what they were lamenting was that young adults were entering the workforce having read only popular fiction, obviously done in the effort to make the reading generationally interesting.
Today’s parents can talk to each other about a shared learning experience. But the generation we are teaching can’t. Their curriculum varies from district to district….
I’m reminded of the Biblical story of the tower of Babel. The lesson there was there once was a civilization that got so advanced, they couldn’t talk to each other… I’m beginning to see through the products of today’s educational system, that may have actually happened!
The idea that there should be a single standard to which all get measured, meaning there will be a shared core of knowledge that will center to every child’s learning, appeals to me as being a necessary endeavor.
The final product I have found as it exists right now, is insufficient….
January 31, 2013 at 9:04 am
Mike O.
kavips, it would be a real service if you could publish the title of the Common Core materials your inventory example comes from, and the district that was responsible for purchasing it.
January 31, 2013 at 9:06 am
kavips
Just some background notes.
When questioned indirectly to find out if this horrible example was the teacher’s fault, I got the feeling it was an emphatic “no”!.
“She is so awesome, She tries to make us like class, but it is sooooooo boring.” i did hear she dyed her hair green for the Eagles early on in the season, and got written up for it, endearing her immensely to all her students. She’s a mom herself and is very concerned with education.. I doubt the problem is her.
I believe the problem is “corporate”. The material she “has” to use is dumbed down. The handout looked like it came out of a packet to be used for each student the whole year. It was printed on some nice paper stock. I doubt it was created at home….
I do believe the teacher is being put in a tenable position. I believe as a pioneer her group was told, “you have to do it exactly this way.”
Before anyone gets to angry at any individual, from all the comments I received, I have now found the problem to be systemic, not the fault of bumblers or inadequately put-together human beings…
Let’s walk through it. Education is failing, that is a given, most particularly in our inner cities. We see it in graduation rates. From the top comes the impetus that we have to do something. A committee of governors puts together goals. General goals. That gets pushed down upon the state’s educational apparatus…
At the top of that state apparatus, they begin by saying ” how are we going to do this?” That is when school publishing corporations begin knocking on their doors…”here is our plan,”.. “this plan is ours and it is the best.”– “No one has better results than our plan here.” A group analyzes the selection offered and chooses one. now just like a bill in Congress or an 80 page informational package at ones job site, no one has time to read the entire thing. They skim it.
So, just as a car salesman “forgets” to tell you of all the recalls his newest model has received since it’s creation, the problems within Common Core which come I truly believe from “filler” that gets added to quickly expand the program to its required size, begin to show up only when various teachers read the next week’s lessons to plan their upcoming week….
Imagine putting a ceiling fan together from the instructions which someone far away translated into English from Chinese… The fan was cheap and so you bought it without realizing you had to assemble it yourself, and somewhere after the halfway point of the entire assembly, you discover that “Pg 2b” that should have been in there between 2 and 3,…was missing… That appears to be what we are finding with Common Core as we go forward.
So, what does a district do? Does it say… “deal with it, you have the magic” or, do you, (think of yourself now) who has no time to check out the veracity of whether the issue is in every packet to every teacher, or just that one?… You who has no time to dig into the material from beginning to end to find whether there is a truly a problem or not?… You who are not sure if you are just being hoodwinked by someone who is resistant to change? … You, who have so many far more critical issues that must and have to be quickly decided; … issues involving money, human resources, next year’s budget, this year’s inventories, as well as being called upon to respond to every newspaper story hitting your district on education, You, with all these tasks hitting you at once, which definitely will grossly affect ALL students negatively if not taken care of right away,… must now answer this question. of ..”what do I do?”
My answer, failure that I am… “Just follow the directions exactly…..” if it later becomes a problem, we will see it and act upon it accordingly….”
And that is the problem embedded within Common Core…..
Shall we scrap it? Then we repeat every mistake I just mentioned all over again, with a version of the same program, just tweaked differently with a different name….
I got a lot of feedback from educators who were soooo tired of changing the entire educational program with every new hire entering the Department of Education, national, state, or district….
The mental fatigue was very pronounced. All entreated: “just keep one thing and let us work our magic within it”….
Since this one thing is to instil a common core of knowledge into every American, so each and every one of us can do the basics across the spectrum of education, just like all of us around the world use a number system based on 10… Can you imagine if we didn’t? If we had a number system of 4 over here, and a number system of 7 over there? And 3’s, 6’s, and 9’s scattered in between?
That, is why we need a common core. A lot of effort has been expended. Instead of scrapping it, we need to work within it. Every state, every district right now is a laboratory. We are all trying to find the one, best way….
The issue I had with common core was based on the small piece of it that entered… my universe. It was crap, and I responded to it.
I hope that next year, that lesson gets pulled and MacBeth gets inserted.
That big picture, after reading the breadth of comments, some from educators scattered across this nation, some from the people instrumental with developing Common Core, and some from very concerned parents who have worried countless hours over their child’s educational deficiencies, all who wonder how the system they grew up under so well, could have gotten so broken….. is my take-away from all of this….
January 31, 2013 at 3:37 pm
Mike O.
The Shakespeare everyone was quoting to say that Core included it, was from the main page of the Common Core website that says of the English…. “Includes Shakespeare and other works of American Literature”. All the comments are pointing to that line, and responding… “see, it is not the programs fault, It includes Shakespeare.
Here’s the real list: it’s a list of ELA “examplars” just for grades 11-12. Exemplars are just examples and not a prescriptive reading list. Nothing is banned. This is from the notorious Appendix B. Read the full appendix to see examplars for every grade. I think you will find Shakespeare and many of the books you and I read in our schooldays.
January 31, 2013 at 11:01 pm
kavips
Thank you.
February 1, 2013 at 1:15 am
John Young
Even though nothing is excluded, what is the curricular thrust across the fruited plain: district by district?
February 1, 2013 at 9:26 am
Mike O.
@John – wouldn’t you be in a position to know. at least for your district?
@kavips – it is frustrating that none of the Common Core horror stories can be resolved to a particular vendor and set of materials, or to a particular district or school. You would think that we could begin to identify the offending materials to review then and find out who is responsible for buying them.
February 1, 2013 at 10:48 am
kavips
Mike, the ability to do so, is hampered by the suspicion sewn by those within the educational system who are pushing this ALEC corporate takeover of education. If anyone comes forward in a whistle-blowing capacity, with the relationships between educators and administrators being what they are right now, it is unlikely anyone will come forward.
Which is one of the reasons I was pushing for an overwhelming response to the survey,
I’ve been an institutionalist before. I’ve been told I sucked before. But if I could rationalize that telling as being biased as one way or another, it rolls off like water off a duck. The rational of “of course you are going to say that; duh, look at who you are”. means I dismiss it. But when faced with overwhelming reality that one is on an incorrect path, as was symbolically shown to Romney and the Republican party this past November, then I have second thoughts… Those second thoughts are where all progress lies.
If this survey is overwhelmingly filled out, as were the polls overwhelmingly used this past election, it is the magnitude that the vote of non confidence is overwhelming, which is what suddenly erases the defense of ” I’m an expert; I know what is best” of the losing side.
I don’t think the info you seek will be released until we have cooperation between the administrators who know who is releasing junk into classrooms but are bound to support that corporate sponsor, and the teachers who know who is releasing the junk, but are frightened they will get fired.
February 1, 2013 at 11:29 am
Mike O.
As a parent I have no such concerns about whistle-blowing. I guarantee you if I ever see such a thing as “Miguel’s inventory,” I will figure out who created it, who bought it, and who brought it into my child’s life and why. Good thing I haven’t seen anything like it yet.
February 2, 2013 at 9:49 am
patrick uzzell
I am glad there is a website that it looking at the common core from a democratic perspective.
February 2, 2013 at 10:41 am
kavips
I cannot impress upon how much hinges on this teacher’s survey. One has only to look at JC Penny’s today to see how a deaf ear at the top, creates a black hole within just one year, into which all falls.
Whether it is corporate sponsored education, or the Pt. Pleasant Bridge across the Ohio, what may look good in theory may also have critical parts missing.
A full response on the survey by every single teacher will be key on which hinges whether this bridge to our future will stand the test of time, or become a pile of scrap endanger many when it falls..
May 19, 2013 at 1:00 pm
Exposing Common Core To The Public | kavips
[…] is a homework assignment given to one Delawarean student. I published this before, but since many are now tuning in for the first time, here it is again…. The original story […]
July 7, 2014 at 12:35 am
All About Common Core, Charters, and Public Education | kavips
[…] How Common Core is Depressing America’s Intellect! NOT Making It Brighter! […]
August 12, 2015 at 9:44 pm
darth8ter
This treatment of common core is rife with inaccuraices. Any school district can mandate terrible teaching. That comes with having control of schools and curriculum. The previous model of instruction that was suggested was usually rote memorization designed to boost test scores. As ridiculous as your story is, try to sit through a class as a junior and repeat what the teacher says en masse. Boring, and not a lot of “real” learning took place. I have had to serve up paced, insanely boring curriculum as well. It was under the old standards.
The Common Core doesn’t place limitations on curriculum. It encourages teachers to bring in multiple perspectives and debate deep issues with both content and language. There are also speaking and listening standards too, which means that students shouldn’t be able to sail through class without actually saying anything. As far as critiquing schools for getting rid of “literature,” that is not true either. Others have argued that the focus on the “classics” leaves students that are not college-bound out of luck when it comes to useful, real-world skills. Unless you are going to deliver a soliloquy on your fist day of work.
How can you apply this one very limited story to every experience of Common Core? I might as well say that I was abused by my teacher, so every teacher in the country is abusive. Or that this blog represents the entirety of bloggers, complete with scanty evidence, shoddy logic and obvious an obvious political bias that probably has nothing to do with education. Most of the “experts” I hear ranting about the Common Core are not teachers or other educational personnel. They are pundits and politicos. Who cares what experts think anyway?
The truth of this Common Core red herring is that it gives blowhards something to squawk about. As a teacher, moving from the high-stakes Bubble Hell that was NCLB to Common Core is a major relief. It is much more like college-level reading and writing. This district is run by clowns and deserves to be lampooned. Why don’t you try to find a district that is implementing Common Core in a successful way to balance your writing? Or stop making broad generalizations from anecdotal evidence. Perhaps Common Core would serve you well.
August 12, 2015 at 11:52 pm
kavips
Thank you for engaging. You are entitled to your own opinion. I should take the liberty to inform you that your opinion is very much in the minority and that your facts are wrong…
Common Core is the worst thing that has happened to Education. It is so bad that legislature across America ab the behest of student’s parents, are divorcing themselves from it and coming up with their own standards which are all much better. If Common Core was so good as you say… why would the entire world other than those receiving pay to promote it, be so hotly against it?
As with anything one can generalize and say… blah, blah, is good. We need it.. And to someone who has no experience with blah, blah, it may sound palatable or even possibly enticing.
But I know of no one who enjoys eating their own poop. Do you? One can say it’s like chocolate brownies that you roll up in your hand, and possibly entice someone to absently pick it up and bite into it.. but you can’t get them to do it a second time…
Common Core is exactly the same way. You can stand above it and look down at it from on high and say… It resembles grandma’s brownies I used to eat.. You can write descriptive paragraphs and bend words and extol how great you remember Grandma’s brownies were… There is one telling clue that you are lying. You don’t eat them.
People who do, throw up in disgust and that is why your words ring hollow. Anyone can write, but so many people have looked at Common Core closely and have thrown up in disgust since this was originally written (January 30th, 2013) that for you to come now two and a half years later and stand over the toilet looking down and saying that those calling Common Core are bullshitters full of drivel and inane approbations, makes you a big clown.
Sorry. I call it as it is..
Anyways.. Thanks for the laugh… Enjoy your poop….
December 14, 2015 at 7:27 pm
Tessa
As a high school English teacher, this article and comments had me laughing. Thank you. This teacher is a disgrace to my profession, and in no way represents real teaching. Using this story as an example for why Common Core is bad is hilarious. It’s not rocket science. I love Common Core because it’s given me direction in my planning. I now bring in informational texts to support the novels I teach. I’m deliberate about students working in groups and designing presentations. I ask that for every opinion, text be cited to support. We still read novels and short stories, dabble in creative writing, have debates, research, read Shakespeare every year, and write essays to develop ideas. It’s great and I love every moment. And surprisingly, my students (diverse in culture and socio-economic background) score very well on state assessments.
Just a quick question. Did you ever express your concerns in a calm manner to the teacher? Administrators? Attend a board meeting? Did you consider running for a school board position so you could try and enact change? Or are you strictly behind a safe computer screen?
July 28, 2016 at 11:54 am
cyndi
Tessa, the teacher spoken of in the article was probably mandated to use a canned curriculum that she, herself, wasn’t pleased with. It sounds like the administration decided to go with something all teachers could follow. Our school almost did that, but I went to another school in the district for a day of observation, then reported my findings to my department staff. I interviewed teachers and students, took notes throughout the day, and brought samples back. Our department decided that we didn’t like the lack of autonomy with said curriculum, but it might be a direction we take in the near future. I would probably be frustrated and apathetic too, if I had to throw away all my wonderfully devised curriculum for some canned stuff pushed by administration. Please don’t accuse the teacher of being a disgrace, as this may become a reality for most of us in the near future.