What an accomplishment. At times, Arnie Duncan leaves me speechless:

Arne Duncan, the federal education secretary, declined to comment on what was happening in New York. But in November, Mr. Duncan attributed some of the unrest nationally to “white suburban moms” who discovered that “all of a sudden, their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were and their school isn’t quite as good as they thought.” (He quickly apologized.)

The worst!

push back.

A jerk, yes...Duncan has done great harm, unreal when you look at it.

and yes, he's done great harm.

But they've known... or ought to have known... that there was widespread, thoughtful, reasoned, persuasive opposition among teachers, parents , unions and academics since CCSS' inception.

The header reminds me of another infamous NYT doozie:

>>>An illustration of that racial attitude is found in a headline in The New York Times in 1901 that read, “Chinese Shoot Straight.” This story revealed that, contrary to popular belief, Chinese soldiers actually had enough intelligence to align the sights of a rifle well enough to shoot straight on the battlefield. The existence of this level of intelligence in East Asians was such a surprise to western newspaper readers that it became headline news.>>>>>

http://www.skachate.com/docs/index-587770.html

Pretending that opposition to the core came only or even primarily from the fringe right was just that: pretense. And part of the pitch.

They are killing our profession and destroying the schools.

And none of these so-called experts has actual classroom experience.