Recent headline on an education site sums up the story: “The majority of public supports Common Core, but opposition is growing.”
Another ed site announced, with a map: “Breaking News: 20 States' Pending Legislation...to Reject or Limit Common Core."
Common Core Curriculum, steamrollered across the country several years ago and adopted by almost 45 states, may be faltering. Why do so many people consider this wonderful news? Here are 8 good reasons:
1) Common Core represents a federal takeover of education. This is a dream that progressives and liberals have pursued for a century. States and communities have traditionally been smart enough to resist this centralization of power. Education should remain a local concern. That is the only way the country will have diversity and choice.
2) Common Core was promoted in an unscrupulous way. The Obama Administration basically offered bribes to the individual states if they would cave. These bribes were called “Race to the Top” grants. In tight economic times, the states were seduced, some of them with irresponsible speed.
3) Common Core was sold aggressively to the public but many of the ideas were not field-tested nor proven to work. Little was explained in depth. Parents do not understand the degree to which a federally-mandated, one-size-fits-all approach would descend upon the country. It won’t be pretty.
4) Common Core has been developed by the same “experts” who have made a mediocre mess of public schools for more than 75 years. There is no reason to believe these incompetent people can operate at a higher level or want to. Indeed, many of the worst theories and methods used for decades have been cycled forward into Common Core.
5) Common Core uses so-called standards, regulations, alignments, assessments, grants and staff promotions to manipulate and control every aspect of education. Imagine that the EPA has taken over your local public schools. There will be a rule for everything; and the average citizen will be harassed into compliance.
6) Common Core will make change and experimentation almost impossible. Even the smallest alteration will be like changing the speed limit on the Interstate. A community would have to petition the federal government for minor variances. Bureaucrats could tie everything in knots for years.
7) Common Core uses the word “standards” in a dishonest way. In fact, they are merely goals that students are supposed to reach. Stating a goal doesn’t mean any student will reach it. After all, don’t we have “standards” now? For example, children should learn to read in the elementary grades, right? But more than half our children do NOT learn to read at a proficient level by the eighth grade. Common Core promoters throw the word “standards” around as if it’s some sort of pixie dust and everybody will immediately possess those skills. That’s the big lie of Common Core.
8) Common Core will be used by the far-left to insinuate socialist teachings, Islamic propaganda, gay sex ed, and a litany of UN obsessions. The public has no idea how quickly real education can be gutted. For example, a “Science” course might become a month each on sustainability, global warming, AIDS, rising sea levels, ecology, and recycling. At the end of such a course, students might have learned 50 politically correct attitudes and still not know what a cell is.
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A TEACHER IN A COMMON CORE STATE sums up the bleak situation: “There is no such thing as autonomy and creativity in the classroom anymore. Our administrators want to see the same lesson per content area and grade level being taught in each classroom. For years they were shoving professional development workshops on ‘differentiation’ down our throats and expecting us to teach to individual learning styles. But with ‘Common Core’ has come ‘Common Bore’ and if we don’t adhere, it affects our ‘performance appraisal.’”
That’s eight reasons why Common Core should be canceled ASAP. Seduced states should try to regain their dignity and independence.
Parents and community leaders need to focus on why standards have sunk so low in the last 50 years, and fix those problems at a state and city level. The guiding principle is obvious: do not listen to our Education Establishment. Here is a simple rule of thumb: find out what the best private schools in your area are doing and follow their example.
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MAIN REASON TO BE DEEPLY SUSPICIOUS OF COMMON CORE: the pretentious and absurd verbiage on the Common Core site. See especially material for the early grades, for example: "Grade 1 » Number & Operations in Base Ten.”
OAK NORTON VIDEO SHOWS INDOCTRINATION ALREADY IN COMMON CORE. It’s as if Bill Ayers is in charge of the whole operation.
A BETTER BLUEPRINT: "A Bill of Rights for Students 2013"
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