"Employing" my "Schooling Onion" and "Shaking my Fist" @ Ed Reform

Does this meme hit the nail on the head? Would your "schooling onion" look different? Why?

I've interviewed for several secondary teaching positions this summer. Virtually every interview has required me to answer questions about "control," "rigor," the Common Core State Standards, and curriculum. I've responded by making a fist.

Not an intentionally threatening fist, mind you. I make my fist as a visualization of my philosophy on teaching. I tell the committees that I worry that we are being forced to see testing at the core (my fist)  of education, with standards and curriculum tethered to the test and students, who should be at the center of the teaching experience but are forced by teachers and others who favor this approach to conform to the inner circles. (I use my other hand to form these other layers around my fist.)

Instead, I say, we need to consider the standards and curriculum, sure, but to do everything we can to keep students at the center of education. Teachers need to be informed by curriculum and standards, of course, but the tests need to be the last of their concerns as they work to differentiate enriching experiences for their kids. I'll pat my fist: "Students need to remain at the center of learning, the center of curriculum. Education must be standards-informed; not standards based. Testing has its place, but not at the center of curriculum or learning."

I remain without a K12 teaching position going into fall of 2015, despite a doctorate in Education and experiences teaching or mentoring students at every level from 6th grade on up to doctoral studies.

Maybe that's because of my work experience and having left two university positions that I felt became untenable, the most-recent perhaps in no small part because of my stances on American education. CCSS, TFA, and more. Maybe I'm a cantankerous old curmudgeon with a "Go to Hell" gaze and an untrustworthy brow. Maybe my weight and age and health have finally caught up to me and teaching is, more than ever, the domain of the young (and cheap, and inexperienced, and naive -- or savvy enough to play the game in hopes of changing it from the inside).

My unemployment could be for any number of reasons. But, I worry for our nation if the main reason is because when I engage in my visualization, using my fist and hand to create a "schooling onion," I am indeed shaking my fist in a threatening manner to those controlling public schools.