

Education Secretary Arne Duncan (Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

Education Secretary Arne Duncan tweeted this to his followers on Dec. 30:

What if every district committed both to identifying what made their 5 best schools successful & providing those opps to all their students? — Arne Duncan (@arneduncan) December 30, 2014

What followed on Twitter in reaction to that tweet was probably not what he had hoped to see. Critics sent some of their own “what if” thoughts to Duncan #whatif. Here’s a sampling:

#whatif kindergarten children got to spend 90 minute blocks in the forest instead of 90 minute reading blocks? pic.twitter.com/BhwoaWfJeX — Susan DuFresne1 (@GetUpStandUp2) January 1, 2015

#Whatif teachers were respected rather than disparaged by this country’s wealthy and elite — Randi Weingarten (@rweingarten) December 31, 2014

#WhatIf the public realized that our @usedgov has plenty of money to properly fund schools but they choose to channel $ to corps instead? — TeacherReality (@TeacherReality) December 31, 2014

#Whatif we said it is OK for kids to paint instead of taking tests used to evaluate their teachers? @arneduncan pic.twitter.com/1lN730q80w — Badass Teachers Asso (@BadassTeachersA) December 31, 2014

#whatif @arneduncan, children got their lives back, their joy of discovery and a safe place to learn to think critically? Play is real. — Karen Lewis (@KarenLewisCTU) December 31, 2014

#WhatIf Every family & student boycotted @arneduncan ‘s high-stakes testing & we moved to a well-rounded education w/ authentic assessment. — Chris Cerrone (@Stoptesting15) December 31, 2014

@arneduncan #WhatIf the DOE committed both to identifying what made their 5 worst reform initiatives failures & removing them from schools? — Jeanne Berrong (@kayringe) December 30, 2014

@arneduncan #WhatIf the parents of my students were paid a living wage which enabled them to provide their children with adequate nutrition? — Kathleen Jeskey (@KJeskey) December 30, 2014