The story is told that two villagers came before a Sufi judge with their disagreement.  The first villager stated his case, and, when he finished, the judge exclaimed “You’re right!”  The second villager protested and carefully presented his side of the case.  Again, the judge proclaimed, “You’re right!”  The first plaintiff, surprised and frustrated, objected and said “We can’t BOTH be right!”  The Sufi judge nodded, smiled, and responded “You’re right!”
This is how I’ve found myself feeling while watching the nationwide battles over “Common Core” and the curriculum, implementation, and testing issues that go with it.
I’ve deliberately avoided discussing Common Core for precisely this reason.  The issues at hand – and there are many! – are so complex, that trying to ‘take a stand’ is not only difficult, it’s dangerously oversimplifying.
Like the Sufi judge, I have found myself agreeing with points of legitimate value on either ‘side’ of the argument.  Then I find myself shuddering uncontrollably from some of the reasoning on either side, for there are serious flaws everywhere, as well.
When one carefully bores through the rhetoric and political grandstanding of all parties, one can find real signs of hope in the important points of each side.  On the one hand, one can see a sincere, legitimate, and even exciting vision of the classrooms – and learning – of the future.  Such a vision may seem ‘progressive’, but it is attainable and it is necessary.
Our students are – always have been -capable of visionary kinds of specific and general learning and growth that prepare them for whatever future exists in their adulthoods of this 21^st century.  And striving for ‘consistency’ in these issues is simply not the same as the feared ‘government control’ issues that always pop up in knee-jerk fashion.
On the other hand, some of the issues of implementation are troublesome, at best, as is the apparent ongoing fallacy that learning can be measured completely, or even accurately, by ‘testing’.  There are assuredly things that need to be addressed here, or they will severely undercut any hope of progress.
These statements are way too general and over-simplified, of course, and more details and specifics will need to be addressed in another blog.
The point for now, then, is this: We must find some “common ground” in “common core” discussions.  Unfortunately for all of us, this has become a political football, in which the arguments on both sides have come to be more about one’s politics than what’s good for education.  Facts are hard to come by, various opinions are biased on either side, there is no reasonable ‘discussion’ and it is rapidly becoming a situation that has NO winning outcome.
Which actually brings us back to the Sufi judge, and his final thought “You’re right.  You can’t both be right”.  We must find and take the wisdom from each side of this mess of a discourse and proceed toward the best outcome for our students.  Indeed, I can guarantee this:  If we don’t find some common ground, it doesn’t matter now which side ‘wins’.  If EITHER side wins this debate, then we ALL lose, and the entire country – and its educational system – will suffer.