At first, I thought Ken Goodman might have been one of those conspiracy theorist/ anti-government whack jobs; but upon further reflection, some of those dots he is attempting to connect do fit together. It is clear that publishers have a lot of voice in Washington; they have a larger voice than do teachers. If a genuinely good program of reading instruction is invented, the federal government could create a statistical standardized test that shows the program is not cutting the mustard. They can use their data to show that the reading programs of big publishing companies will fill in the gaps and create standards that are favorable to the publishing companies’ philosophies on reading. Why? The experts, teachers and professors, lack a loud enough voice and/or money to line to pockets of policy makers. It is how the game is played. Publishing companies know how to play the game, and ultimately the students lose, the teachers lose credibility and respect.
Continue to follow the dots and a pattern emerges illustrating a disturbing future in education. It is the policymakers of our country that will tie one arm behind teachers backs and place tape over their mouth to muffle their calls for common sense. And ultimately when their policies fail, we will get all the blame; the buck will stop with us. And the policymaker will be absolved and pass legislation to increase accountability for teachers and lessen the accountability for policymakers because they will control the standards, the purse strings, and have the strongest voice and influence. Oh, wait. That already happened. (Expletive)
To change this course, we as teachers must find our voice and stand together in our pedagogical and philosophical stances firmly and not waver.
