Dear Dave

Mr. Coleman,

     Will you get a chance to see this? I certainly hope so. Despite your argument (is that what it's being called now, that thing that was once an opinion, a theme, a supposition, a point of view...all those other things we called it until you appeared believing you know better?) that no one gives a shit how learners think or feel or whatever...True educators are unlikely to demonstrate such lack of care and concern.

     Understood, you were talking about writing instruction and writing skills. But your attitude is emblematic of the problem with the offensive launched with your standards, and the tests that have accompanied them. It presumes the imperative that we must serve the market first, and the person falls to the wayside-valued only for the worth the market can squeeze out of them.

     I don't agree. This is many years old, but it reminds me of what is important. This is exactly how it came to me at the end of a school year long past. I almost cried when I found it as I was hoeing out some old stuff, and I'm so glad I didn't just mentally label the box "old stuff" and chuck the whole thing...I know, you probably don't care, and it's sappy, but I feel for the damage being done to kids every day by what is being called "reform".

How does it make you feel?

I give a shit, Dave, EVERY DAY...and it makes a difference. Clearly, someone at some point gave one about you and what you think, or I would not have ever been confronted with you and your falsely apologetic smug attitude in that statement you made. We do not need the inhumanity of market mandates or the poor returns of corporate driven policy.

Time for all chips on the table. The job of education in the U.S.is to maximize the freedom and potential of it's citizens, which maximizes the security of the nation. If you oppose that, and side with "the market" you are a threat to national security, and a threat to the future of the country as well as the futures of my three daughters.


Play smart, please. In the words of one of the greatest thinkers of our time:




"You are either with us, or against us."



Who are you with, Dave?