Posted on 03/31/2014 8:27:20 AM PDT by A_perfect_lady
I have been a Freeper for 12 years and a teacher for 10. I work in Los Angeles, in a public school, and I teach English. I want to say something about Common Core, although my observations will be strictly limited to my particular domain: English. I cannot comment on the Math portion.
I will begin bluntly: I do not understand the conservative outcry about Common Core. Perhaps it’s only because I teach in California, but to me it is an improvement, at least in some ways. If you aren’t a teacher (and most conservatives aren’t, which is a pity) you don’t realize what California standards were like. Oh, the goals themselves weren’t particularly remarkable… in the end, the goals are always the same for English, no matter how they word them: children should be able to summarize, identify, describe, explain, compare, analyze, evaluate, and synthesize the plot, characters, setting, theme, mood, tone… same stuff they’ve done for years.
What was noxious about California standards was their pressure to conform to a liberal reading list. The text books they issued looked as if someone had gone down a checklist with authors arranged by skin color and nationality. I could almost hear the editor muttering to himself, “We need an Indonesian.” Very few authors were classic writers noted for their skill. They seemed to think one short story by Hemingway, one by Poe, and one by Bradbury was sufficient to represent the Dead White Males of the Pre-enlightenment Era (that’s sarcasm, for those of you in Rio Linda). The ESL textbooks were even more pointed: children were directed to read essays on how FDR saved America, how nuclear power is bad, bad, bad, how the 2nd amendment is contingent upon government permission(!), how migrant workers are victimized by pesticides… yes, it was cheery stuff.
Now comes Common Core, and one of the first things they addressed in the training was this: children raised on the simplistic language of modern-day PC authors cannot comprehend anything else, and did horribly on the periodic assessments. The periodic assessments, created by people who apparently hadn’t gotten the memo, had included excerpts from The Odyssey, Anne of Green Gables, Call of the Wild, David Copperfield… could a child raised on the toothless prose of Gary Soto and bell hooks even comprehend the long, intricate sentences that were common to writers many years ago? No, they couldn’t. Imagine that.
So this is what the Common Core material suggests: classic writers. Documents written by the Founding Fathers. Greek mythology. Mark Twain. Louisa May Alcott. Yes, really. Common Core steps away from guiding the teacher’s curriculum along the PC lines of “authors of color” and “writers who champion social justice” and actually recommends classics, but makes no effort to control what the teacher chooses. This, my Friends, can only be an improvement, because liberals were in charge of our books for too many years. Any choices by teachers will swing to the right because frankly, they were so far to the left that there was no way to go further unless you have 7th graders reading Andrea Dworkin, and teachers with that attitude would have already been doing it.
I don’t expect a wave of support… my sad experience is that many Freepers hate teachers with such a livid passion that I wonder about them. But I wanted to say this: Common Core is much less prohibitive in English than the previous standards. Again, I cannot speak to the mathematics, the science, the history… but I can tell you that in English, it’s an improvement, for the reasons I have given above. Okay, flame away.
That’s great, a necessary evil. But some of you have become so focused on the “evil” you have forgotten the “necessary.”
Perhaps you might have simply posted this thread to yourself via FReepmail. Then ignoring dissenting opinions wouldn’t have been an issue.
I'll be happy if my sixth and seventh graders can find answers to science questions on the Internet and comprehend them (they usually can). Some of the school-suggested Internet knowledge sources are really pretty good. Mastering the subject is for grad school.
It’s just that your particular opinion: dismantle public education, is a non-starter. It isn’t going to happen. If you’re talking about the woman who denies that our military is managed at the federal level, what do you want me to say to that? Yes, it is. Sure, there’s a chain of command, but it’s not 50 militias. It’s the US military.
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Some may choose to accept what is being thrust upon them by those in power, but that is no virtue.
Oh, okay, tell me all about your plan to dismantle public education.
dismantle
verb
the old opera house was dismantled: take apart, pull apart, pull to pieces, disassemble, break up, break down, strip (down); knock down, pull down, demolish. ANTONYMS assemble, build.
Yep. So, what’s the PLAN?
I thought my statements were quite clear. What is it that you believe is missing?
A PLAN. What do you DO, besides talk smack on the internet?
I’ve made myself perfectly clear. If you have a specific concern, please let us all know what it is.
I'd like a description of your plan.
Description
noun
1. a spoken or written representation or account of a person, object, or event. "people who had seen him were able to give a description"
synonyms: account, report, rendition, explanation, illustration
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What is it about "dismantle" that is not apparent to you? If I recall correctly, you stated that you are an English teacher, which would tend to imply that you have some understanding of the language.
It’s the HOW. HOW are you going to dismantle. Do I have to explain the word HOW to you?
I’m sorry to say that it appears that we do not share much in the way of an ability to communicate. Regretfully, I bid you good night.
Good night. Let me know when you’ve dismantled public education. Hey, if you free Tibet while you’re at it, extra points.
I don’t think it’s fair to be branding all school teachers as some sort of propaganda ministers. And it’s certainly wrong to believe that EVERY public school in EVERY school district is just like the worst inner-city example. That’s just not reality.
Why is there such vitriol here towards people who are sharing their own personal experiences? I have 3 kids and some of the teachers they’ve had, I can’t put a price on. There are some wonderful people out there giving their all to this profession. Why is there such an insistence to think that EVERY teacher and EVERY school is “evil”? Are FReepers who have positive experiences with schools “lying?” Why the need to knock them down?
(these are general statements, not personally to you, trisham - thanks!)
This is in a very long Wiki list of quotations misattributed to Einstein.
Thanks. Your gracious response is much appreciated.
You’re welcome.
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