I will not be speaking at the Southeast TESOL
Association Meeting to be held in Myrtle Beach next week, because of a
disagreement about my keynote topic. I
learned only recently that the conference theme was supporting the common core,
that it was "dedicated
entirely to providing teachers with strategies for working with common core and
all of the states in attendance have adopted it."
I therefore changed my topic to "The case
against the common core." This was rejected by the SETESOL Executive
Committee. I was told that "this topic cannot be presented to this group of attendees. "
I cannot in good conscience speak at a
conference dedicated to the common core without presenting what I know about
it. I offered to present on my original
topic as an extra talk, but this was rejected because of lack of space and
time.
It is their loss. Very sad when educators will not be intellectually honest enough to challenge their assumptions.
ReplyDeleteThis is outrageous Stephen – as I have RT (@TESOLacademic) such a shame when the neo-liberal agenda prevents even a debate. I look forward to meeting in December. Huw Jarvis
ReplyDeleteWhat a shame. I can only hope this area can open its eyes in the future!!
ReplyDelete