Is the Common Core the New Coke?

Is the Common Core the New Coke?  The parallels are alarming.  Granted, the Core has not been bottled, although it may soon be canned.

New Coke, a sweetened-up version of the old favorite, was designed by the Coca-Cola company in the hopes of revitalizing its market in the face of mounting pressures from the Pepsi Corporation.  

Common Core was designed to revitalize education in the United States.  Yet, the new flavor in education evokes strong protest in the same tradition as New Coke.  Whereas New Coke was primarily opposed in the South, the Common Core has met with strong disapproval across the nation. 

Gates, I'm sure, even with all his computers, never could have predicted this backlash.  In the case of New Coke, the company president, Keough, said, "There is a twist to this story which will please every humanist and will probably keep Harvard professors puzzled for years.  The simple fact is that all the time and money and skill poured into consumer research on the new Coca-Cola could not measure or reveal the deep and abiding emotional attachment to original Coca-Cola felt by so many people."  Despite the most generous federal grants to try to convince people otherwise, human emotions are strong and Americans hold dearly to their reserved rights over state education.

Just as there had been an original Coke before the New Coke, states had standards before the Common Core came along.  Some state standards, apparently even by the admissions of the Fordham Institute, were superior to those of the Core.  To tell you the truth, I was quite pleased with the NYS standards at the start of my career, but I watched them fall off greatly during the Bloomberg era in a drive to water down learning to meet demands for metrics that befit an "Education Mayor" and help protect schools from retributive closings.  Tests became easier and the credit-recovery schemes spelled out E-Z pass for NYC.

Strange, unexpected things started to happen with the introduction of New Coke.  The Coke company hired a psychiatrist to listen in on their phone lines when they started to get 1,500 consumer calls a day protesting the change.  A wealthy Texan bought up $1000 worth of Coca Cola to tide him over in the months following the disappearance of the original Coke.  People actually began hoarding the original Coke.  Some stocked up as many as 900 bottles.  I think people should hold on to any Common Core materials because they promise to become collector's items some day.  They might fetch more on eBay than an obsolete can of New Coke, or the rebranded Coke II.

In a humorous anecdote, the chairman and chief Coca-Cola executive officer, Roberto Goizueta, said his father criticized him for his promotion of the new product.  In his disdain for the product, his father agreed with Fidel Castro who claimed the New Coke was a sign of capitalist American decadence.  It was the only time his father, a Cuban exile of Castro's time, ever agreed with the dictator. 

Gates might take some comfort in knowing that although his Core is largely unwanted and unloved, it is possible the conversations generated about education may have some positive long-term effects.  Some states may more carefully scrutinize their standards.  States may reexamine their own tests and try to either fortify them or prevent some of the same flaws as the Core. 

People may realize that education is dear to the hearts of Americans and they will not be handed top-down policies that threaten their children.  The Common Core's flavor has become "toxic," even by the admission of its supporters.  Lacking flavor and going flat, it has lost much of its intended "fizz."