Digital Badging & Hickenlooper: The Emperor Has No Clothes

I am spending my Halloween morning reading through all the docs related to a digital badge grant application here in Colorado (however this is moving nationwide so I recommend everyone take a look).

Beware the "Commission" - as they will be referred to in the near future. Our corporate governor Hickenlooper has signed an executive order for creating the Business-Experiential Learning Commission. The Commission will launch the Digital Badges initiative statewide, more or less creating a complete overhaul of our public education system and community colleges by tying data to the needs and future profits of the corporate community using our statewide longitudinal database to funnel your child's data.

The data will be used to document your child's skills (including "soft" skills) and the data will guide the curriculum of the public schools based on the market's demands. Note that the term "competencies" is used as you review the executive order - this goes back to the competency-based learning - therefore competency-based badges. Also note that there is not a SINGLE EDUCATOR appointed to the Commission.

I'd be lying if I didn't say this has completely overwhelmed me. I knew digital badging was coming. But to see it all in writing and to know what we must fight and where we are headed is just brutal at times.

But then Michael Peña, one of my fellow admins at United Opt Out​ said to me: The more we push, the more they push back.  The more they push back, the more extreme they have to get. They'll fail under the weight of that, Peggy. Have faith. Keep fanning the fire. Just when you think you can't possibly fight anymore, they give you something more extreme so you get up, breathe, get angry, and fight again.

I needed that reminder. Remember our role as activists. As they attempt to consume our schools and our children the absurdities at first unseen - will become publicly known. It is our job to expose them, mock them, find their weaknesses and tear them wide open. Have faith.

I will blog more on this Commission at a later date. I figured this one doc was enough of a fright to launch your Halloween. Don't let it scare you. Laugh in its face. Speak the truth about what is really happening here - a complete corporate takeover at all levels using data to direct and control the future lives of our children - keeping the profit with the privileged and creating a workforce  that is standardized, easy to manage, and paid little. We will expose this. And Hickenlooper will be the emperor who has no clothes.