Embracing the common core = “Drinking poison to quench thirst”

Yvonne Siu-Runyan: “Once you told me a great idiom from China called, ‘Yin Zhen Zhi Ke: Drinking poison to quench thirst.’ Would you please explain why you used this Chinese idiom when speaking about American education?”

Yong Zhao: “Well, the Chinese saying is to warn people not to take measures that may appear to solve an urgent problem in the short term but in effect the solution is more damaging than the problem.“

From: Yong Zhao in Conversation: Education Should Liberate, Not Indoctrinate http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/05/yong_zhao_in_conversation.html