I got a Tweet from Christopher Emdin, Professor at Columbia University Teachers College linking me to his recent article on the Huffington Post entitled 5 Reasons Why Public School Teachers are Occupying Wall Street.  His reasons, which I will list below, resonated with me with regard to the way in which corporate boards, through organizations such as Achieve are taking over public education by creating a single curriculum that will be defined by the Common Core State Standards.  Such standards already exist in mathematics and English/language arts, and science education standards are currently underdevelopment.

Although the organizers of the standards movement will tell you that teachers are involved in the process, they do not sit on the boards that make the policy decisions, and they are not part of the process that led to the standards movement in the first place.  Their voices are rarely heard, and when teachers do speak out, they put themselves at risk.

In this context, I think you will find Dr. Emdin’s article on why teachers are involved in the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York City encouraging and important.  You can read his article here, but here are the 5 reasons he gives for teachers participation:

1. Teachers are fearful about the future of their students.
2. Teachers are taking a stand against irresponsible investments and the closing of public schools.
3. Teachers want the world to see the hidden problems that challenge urban public schools.
4. Teachers want to show their connection to other pressing social issues.
5. Teachers see Occupy Wall Street as a teaching opportunity.

The corporate movement to establish one set of standards in each content area is far from the realities of the classrooms, as Dr. Emdin points out in his article.  The standards movement is a stale substitution for curriculum, whereas the realities of day-to-day teaching involve teachers helping “to open students’ eyes to the possibilities that there is a more beautiful and equitable future than the present.”  To say this in a corporate board meeting discussing the merits of the Common Core State Standards would be heard with deaf ears.