Be Ready #optout #refusethetest

Obama is planning to roll out high speed internet connection for our public school students within the next 5 years. 

This was my comment on FB after reading Stephen Krashen's post: Cut off from good nutrition, health care, libraries much more serious than cut off from the web.

 

While hungry children wrap food in napkins and hide it in their backpacks for later in the day. While children grab seconds on the school breakfast and leave other children with nothing. While children fill their weekend food bags and wish they had more. While all of this goes on, Obama will be sure they have internet connection.

By god our children will have internet connection to advance their testing skills.

But no libraries, nurses, counselors, good nutrition, health care. No. The answer is no. Tests. Feed them tests.

Poverty will continue to be ignored.

As Obama plans to get every classroom hooked up to a high speed connection he states, "Once all these classrooms are wired for superfast Internet, that means a big new market for private innovation -- America’s companies who created the computers and smartphones and tablets that we all use -"

That’s right.

A big new market for all of the corporations that are planning to create mind-numbing online national curriculum via the national common core standards.

A big new market for PARCC and SBAC who plan to roll out the new national tests tied to the common core by 2014-2015.

A big new market to allow data mining via “nonprofits” such as inBloom so that the student data can be used to tailor products to our students while controlling and managing the students and teachers so that they are perfectly tailored to meet the needs of the corporate regime.

A big new market to roll out the red carpet and welcome teacher as technician – because that is all that is needed when you have online learning under the new corporate regime and under the GREAT act (introduced in the house and senate) which allows teachers to be certified by pretty much – anyone. 

A big new market to roll out charter schools like Carpe Diem that hire approximately 4 teachers for 300 students.

A big new market to destroy our public schools, our teaching profession and our democracy.

And meanwhile, they feed the children tests. Poverty is ignored. Profit is the end goal.

As this big new market opens for “innovation,” there will be no innovation. Not for our children. Our children will not have an opportunity to innovate because they will be directed to take the tests and the online curriculum now possible everywhere via high speed internet. There will be no fine arts, recess, or play. There will be no libraries. No nurses, no librarians, good nutrition, or healthcare. There will be no heart. No humanity. Just numbers to create more profit. The money required to keep the technology, the common core curriculum, common core testing and data mining continually churning out numbers to create profit for the corporations will be immense.

The corporate regime is patient. They swat at us like flies. They expect that we will complain and they will offer to appease us in various ways, but they will not back down from their plan. They have not once caved or changed course in any shape or form. They offer "breaks" to appease us, but the path forward remains the same.

Therefore, we must revolt. The path is very clear. Be ready to refuse the tests. United Opt Out National will have opt out/refusal guides for every state very soon. Refuse the high stakes tests, the low stakes tests – any corporate test that does not inform instruction, any test that destroys childhood, and any test that is used to destroy the teaching profession and our public school communities. Remind your communities that teachers do indeed know how to assess.

Be ready. To act.