Shocking is the word we’d use to describe the comments by Dr. David Pook at the end of last night’s debate on Common Core in New Hampshire.
According to this archived report posted today by Examiner.com, a statement was made by Pook citing his “White Privilege” as the reason for helping to write the Common Core Standards.
You can also listen to his remarks at 1:52:00 in the video from the debate on Common Core.
Common Core Debate on May 19, 2014 at St. Anselm College, NH Institute of Politics, Manchester, NH
We encourage EVERYONE to watch the debate in its entirety. However we’d like to add our commentary after viewing the debate from start to finish.
First we have to wonder where Governor Hassan is on the Common Core Standards being implemented in NH. Is she hiding from this education policy change? Where is New Hampshire’s Education Commissioner, Virginia Barry? Why are they not out discussing Common Core publicly and talking to parents who have been voicing their frustration over Common Core?
We have to admit, it was good to see three Common Core advocates from New Hampshire discuss their reasons for supporting Common Core. We’d like to applaud their participation.
The debate offers viewers the opportunity to listen to both the pro-and con- of Common Core. Bravo to Cornerstone for hosting this informative event. However we found it especially interesting that Dr. Pook, a teacher who has white-guilt, make a statement that implied he participated in developing dumbed down academic standards to help underprivileged children.
Dr. Pook is a teacher in an elite private school that caters to privileged children. He is not working in an inner city school that is now bogged down in implementing dumbed down, developmentally inappropriate, and untested standards.
He has the freedom to teach in a way that many of our teachers are now being denied because of the high-stakes testing and the flawed pedagogy being forced upon public school teachers.
Teachers across America are leaving the profession because of this top-down oppressive reform that has teachers rightfully saying that this is an attack on their profession.
Dr. Pook doesn’t have to work under the oppressive conditions that he advocates for public school teachers. He doesn’t have to teach to standards that teachers, licensed child psychologists and parents now see as developmentally inappropriate for their children.
At 39:00 one of the panelists, Ann Marie Banfield from Cornerstone calls attention to this obvious hypocrisy. Dr. Pook goes on to say at 42:00 that in his elite private school, “the Common Core Standards are being taught at Derryfield.”
This doesn’t make sense since one parent in the audience called Derryfield recently to inquire about the school and to see if they followed the Common Core Standards. Here is what she reported to us:
I spoke with Claire Fauth, Admissions Office Coordinator. They do not follow Common Core. They have their own curriculum. They are well aware of It, however do not follow it. Their commitment is to focus and prepare students. They are not beholden to any government standards or mandates. They do very little standardized testing, 3 one hour tests for middle school. That is basically used as a benchmark for students and to identify areas that they need to focus on individually. It is not NECAPS or NWEA or Smarter Balanced. She could not remember name..she said it was not Iowa… but one that most private schools used. For upper levels it is standard college ready tests, PSATs, SATs.
We have Derryfield telling parents who are trying to escape Common Core in their public schools that they do not follow Common Core. We then have a teacher from Derryfield saying the Common Core Standards are being taught.
WARNING to parents who have the financial means, you might want to look at other schools. Derryfield seems to be selling one thing but doing another thing in their classrooms.
The entire debate is worth watching and it’s important to note that parents across New Hampshire know this is bad for their kids. They know they don’t want it in their neighborhood schools but once again, the proponents don’t seem to want to listen.