I also hope they will sufficiently shake up the elementary grades the way the basic tests have done to the middle schools. These standards may point for some to a more dictatorial classroom, not a more democratic classroom. However, I see this as the most important skill for my students to participate in democracy at any level. Sometimes the more democratic classroom has to be the one that sets the standard above the mediocre majority. In order to have a more democratic classroom, the students must have the skills to work in that environment.
Students taking pride in all aspects of their work is a major step.
Advocating for students to show pride and confidence in producing documents as good or better then the rich suburbanites, gives them the power to demand their voices be heard. Some teachers and administrators are constantly making excuses for why schoolwork produced in the city looks like crap. I refuse to allow my students to look foolish in the future because I took any old thing they threw at me. It is the utmost of racism to have expectations so low that we allow students to produce substandard work and not teach them to do better. By that logic, we should not teach them to read at all since all they have to do is push the button on the console with the picture of a hamburger.