Diane Ravitch posted about this speech last year:
In a speech last year, David Coleman, the new president of the College Board, who was one of the chief creators of the Common Core, worried about students’ focusing on opinion over analysis in their writing. “As you grow up in this world, you realize people really don’t give a s— about what you feel or what you think,” he said. “It is rare in a working environment that someone says, ‘Johnson, I need a market analysis by Friday, but before that I need a compelling account of your childhood.’”I guess, in David Coleman's world, a market analysis wouldn't be what the author thinks. Would it be what the author doesn't think? Probably not: "analysis" requires thinking last I checked. Maybe it's what someone else thinks - like the boss...
And, of course, it's perfectly reasonable to ask 13-year-olds to have a fully formed perspective on the world without connecting it to their own lives. Piaget is so overrated.
I always so enjoy when these guys pontificate from an alleged position of superior experience. Like working with children isn't as "real" as it gets. Like a few hours teaching reading in between classes at Yale and a career running a edu-preneur firm gives one such superior knowledge of what the "real world" is like. Like it's so "real" to work for the "non-profit" College Board, which makes money hand-over-fist while paying its executives outrageously high salaries on the backs of students who are compelled to take their tests.
I am so very sick and tired of these guys. What is it going to take to finally make them go away once and for all?