It seems ironic that the storm system that brought a destructive EF-4 tornado to Washington, Ill., yesterday affected the NFL game between the Bears and the Ravens, and CBS decided to have Phil Simms interview the Ravens’ owner during the delay. Entire neighborhoods were leveled, houses were cracked like toothpicks, and debris was scattered for miles and miles just south of Soldier Field, yet all we see is the weather radar and all we hear is how the Ravens’ players are just chilling in the locker room. Don’t get me wrong: Phil Simms is one of the best and most knowledgeable color commentators on TV, but this wasn’t the time to talk football.
And today, as I turned my focus back on my work in Baltimore, a group of about 30 protesters marched outside the Maryland State Education Building, carrying protest signs that seemed to object to the Common Core. Some of the protesters were young children. One young man, who could not possibly have been older than 6, was carrying a sign that read, “I am NOT Common.”
But my heart was back in Illinois and, frankly, nowhere near the Common Core. Protesting today seemed like protesting on Dec 16, 2012, or on Sept 12, 2001, and I just wanted to tell this boy that he, clearly, didn’t understand the meaning of the word ‘common.’ I wanted to tell him to shut up, at least for a while, because the devastation that raked Illinois from one end to the other has affected families, students, teachers, people who have devoted their entire lives to the education of our young generation, and how dare he suggest he is seen as low-class. But he’s only 6. My anger is thus directed at his parents.
Washington Community High School, whose teachers have corresponded with me about as much as those at any other high school, suffered some damage and school has been cancelled for Tuesday and Wednesday. They’ll get it ship-shape soon enough, though I still don’t know if the kids, who have worked their butts off, will be able to get Shrek the Musical on stage this weekend. I don’t know how much practice the football team will get in before this weekend’s semifinal round game in the Class 5A playoffs, for which they also have put in a great effort (the team is undefeated). But I do know that the town will rise from the splinters and debris. It will come back from the destruction and loss.
Most of the kids are resilient, but one tweeted, “Can I just go to bed, wake up and this all be one big dream?” They have a semifinal football game coming up Saturday, and I would say, wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, get out to Springfield, at Sacred Heart-Griffin High School, and applaud the Washington Panthers. You don’t have to want them to win the game, since that outcome will be decided in a more traditional manner. I just want to tell them all that it wasn’t a dream—that would mean there was no loss. I want to tell them how they have dealt with the tragedy has brought honor to this growing town.
I suppose we’ll resume the discussion of the Common Core, since that’s what media outlets are talking about and teachers are certainly talking about it. But if you want a real snapshot of school history, focus on the football game this weekend, the tweets from the brave students at this school, and on Shrek. See where their hearts are, where they put their efforts. These are the real stories from our schools, and these stories tell us how completely irrelevant it is to waste so much precious time arguing about who wrote the Common Core, who paid for it, or who spent billions of dollars to promote it.
Regenia Rawlinson writes in her book, A Mind Shaped by Poverty: 10 Things Educators Should Know, that “some negative experiences build resilience.” That is, loss is a part of life and can make us stronger. Kids who grow up in poverty experience an endless scarcity in that they don’t have too much to begin with—too many good grades at school (because they have learned that effort doesn’t pay off and good grades are only for a certain percentage of students), too many quilts to keep them warm at night, or even too much love at home. The kids in Washington lost a lot yesterday. Some have lost all their material possessions. We as a people need to get the discussion back on track to helping those in need, both in temporary need like the kids in Washington, and in perpetual need, like kids growing up in poverty.
Whether we use the standards in the Common Core or the standards that existed in our states before the Common Core was developed matters about as much as who wins a football game. It’s not completely irrelevant to the lives of a few people, but to the rest of us, to be honest, we just want to help and are annoyed by the distraction. We can’t help if 6-year-olds take a day off school to say they’re against us, especially if they use words, written by adults, in a context that doesn’t apply.
Instead, try to be more like this one Washington Community High School student, who tweeted about the Panthers, a k a the Orange Crush, “EVERYONE needs to be in that student section if they can, don’t care what town your from. Orange Crush is accepting all.” Kids are telling us they want cheerleaders, not debaters, and I, for one, am through with the whole billionaire-vs-teacher debate about who came up with the Common Core. It may have been relevant two years ago, but especially after I have seen the great resilience of actual kids from actual schools where actual teachers do the teaching, all I want to do now is fix it so that it helps them find their unique path in life, which they will face in their own time, no matter what the obstacles, and with great courage.
Protesters, you microcosm of time wasters everywhere, this action today was insensitive to the needs of the American students you claim to represent. Your noise has wasted enough of our time, as kids could have lost so much more yesterday while you stood on a street corner in downtown Baltimore shouting at the wind that came from the storm system that has caused so much suffering. Too many precious minutes have already been lost. For now, stay home. This blog will observe a day of silence tomorrow in honor of the good people of Washington.
