A snapshot of US education in the 1950s

Many teachers are concerned about the Common Core State Standards. Compounding their anxieties, Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education, has noted that the CCSS establishes national standards for the country, as though they had never existed before.

However, we have had national standards for a long time. Since World War II, textbook publishers have competed with each other for the school textbook market. As a result, many texts from different publishers were barely distinguishable from one another. That is still the case - ask any teacher who has reviewed textbooks to find the best fit for her or his class. Many books seem identical in approach and philosophy and design. Because Texas, New York, and California purchase a greater volume of school books, these three states, by default, have set the standards at least since the mid-1950s for what is taught. Nothing has changed since then.

I remember the Dick and Jane reading series in elementary school - the same book was used in the public elementary I attended in Fayetteville, N.C., in 1954-55 and in the Department of Defense elementary school in Bad Kissingen, Germany, in 1955-56. When the Army transferred my father from Fort Ord, Calif., in 1960 to Albany, Ga., the math book I used in junior high was the same in both schools, which were 3,000 miles apart. When the Army again transferred him in 1962 from Albany to Fort Lewis, Washington, I recall that my Latin textbook in the junior high in Lakewood, Wash. was the same as the one I used at Albany Junior High.

There was no "Common Core" when I attended elementary, junior and high school, but the books I used were common throughout the country. De facto national standards were already in place.

Duane Pitts is a retired English teacher now living in Moses Lake. He taught English for 42 years - eight years in Valdosta, Ga; two years in Colfax; and 32 years in Odessa. As a retiree, he serving as a facilitator by helping teachers and principals learn about the new state teacher-principal evaluation project.