Arne Duncan’s ‘what if’ attracts a flood of responses

Arne Duncan (Bill O’Leary/The Washington Post)

A post about Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s “what if” tweet attracted a lot of responses, some of which I put in the original post and some of which I am publishing now.

This is his original tweet:

What if every district committed both to identifying what made their 5 best schools successful & providing those opps to all their students?

— John King (@SecretaryKing44) December 30, 2014

A flood of people did their own “what if” formulations at #whatif and #whatif @arneduncan on Twitter — some of which were on the original post,

which you can see here

, and some of which are below. There were also some offered in the comments to the original post, with interesting discussions.

#Whatif @arneduncan helped teachers in our high-poverty communities get professional working conditions? - http://t.co/4eakBMqErY

— Ed Lettis (@edbobgreen) January 5, 2015

#WhatIf we spent the millions that we spend on tests on musical instruments, gym equipment, books. You know. Actually on kids. @arneduncan

— GatorGone (@GatorGone) December 31, 2014

#WhatIf @arneduncan @TeachtoLead & @usedgov actually sat down to read & *substantively* respond to 50,000+ #whatif tweets?

— Sarah Blaine (she/her) (@parentingcore) January 2, 2015

#whatif we took the chains off and actually allowed teachers to teach? @arneduncan @BadassTeachersA @DianeRavitch pic.twitter.com/5vfenvU2m1

— Steven Singer (@StevenSinger3) December 31, 2014

And some comments attached to the original post:

sideswiththekids 1/4/2015
10:40 AM EST [Edited]
What if we had a Secretary of Education who realized hundreds of school districts–maybe even a majority of them–are rural or small suburban districts that don’t HAVE 5 schools? While the majority of schoolchildren in the country probably go to large urban schools where it is possible for a student to change schools if there is a problem and for schools to differentiate in programs, probably the majority of school districts are like the one I live in–1 early learning center for all preschool through grade 1 students, 6 elementary schools to which students are assigned by neighborhood and either walk to or are bussed to, one middle school for all students, and one high school. The district to the west as one K-3 building and one building in which 4-8 occupy one wing and 9-12 occupy another. The district to the north has one building for all students. There are districts in the far West in which, to be big enough to afford different teachers for each class, some of the students travel an hour or more each way on a bus. Duncan, like most educators, has a “one size fits all” mentality.

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Jim Dunning
1/3/2015 12:44 PM EST [Edited]
Something to think about, but they might, in turn, ask, “What if teachers worked outside of the public school system before teaching?” lol

PLMichaelsArtist-at-Large
1/3/2015 6:17 PM EST Many, many teachers HAVE worked outside of the public school system before teaching: some doing part-time jobs or internships while going to school, some working SECOND jobs to make enough money, SOME having had a whole different career before teaching, others taking a break, and still others while waiting for an opening in a field such as art. To WIT: I worked in a hospital on weekends as a cashier, a secretary in two different Engineering departments (office work), a bookkeeper in a mortgage company, and ran my own private business for 5 years.

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