Common Core: Phasing Western Culture Out of (Public) Education

This week, left-wing outlets, like NPR’s quiz show, Wait, Wait . . . Don’t Tell Me! and the Huffington Post, as well as the British Telegraph, expressed surprise and concern that the new national Common Core standards will destroy the love of literature. The leftist outlets focused on favorites like Catcher in the Rye and To Kill a Mockingbird, but couldn’t seem to connect this unconstitutional federalization of education with their favorite presidential candidate.

They should also be concerned about what the recently released test questions reveal about what the feds want: happy workers for the State.

The test questions, which will eventually be given to every single student, are the kind you could expect from a close pal of Bill Ayers, co-founder of the terrorist group Weatherman-turned-“Distinguished Professor of Education.” Ayers’s close colleague, Stanford Education Professor Linda Darling-Hammond, education director of Obama’s presidential transition team, heads content specifications for testing under one of the consortia, Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium which received $176 million in stimulus funds to develop testing under Common Core—now the law of the land, at least in 46 states. (The rest of the $360 million for testing was given to PARCC, Partnership for Assessment Readiness for College and Career.)

SBAC recently released 16 sample test questions. They reveal that the “transformation” of American education that Darling-Hammond had eagerly anticipated will be fulfilled—toward making students into global citizens, devoid of a sense of cultural heritage, and content with performing quick tasks that require little concentration.

Common Core was sold as delivering more academic rigor, on a more consistent state-to-state basis. But one of its most controversial aspects for the English/Language Arts portion (the other being math) was the replacement of literary works with “informational texts.” Students are to divide their time equally between literature and informational texts,

I've been a teacher for 9 years and a FReeper for 11, and I have a few things to say about this:

1. In Duncan’s vision, schools would be open 12 to 13 hours a day, 7 days a week; they would “meet the social and emotional needs” of students, and provide cultural and academic activities, as well as services for parents, like GED tutoring and healthcare clinics.

This in and of itself is not a bad thing. They don't mean the kids HAVE to be there 12-13 hours a day, they are just talking about after-school programs and sports. I work in Los Angeles and we have as many of these as we can manage, often with volunteers and college kids helping. Anytime those kids are not out on the streets, bored and vandalizing the local businesses, that's a good thing.

2. This Common Core business, I do not like. The article is right when it says that the kids are increasingly not offered novels, nor anything of any worth and weight. It's all fluffy short stories with dumbed-down language (bell hooks, Amy Tan, Gary Soto, etc). Occasionally they toss in some retro stuff like Mark Twain or an excerpt from Anne of Green Gables or White Fang. But even these are problematic because first of all, they usually show up on periodic tests rather than the curriculum.

Now here's the thing: Children of 40 years ago could understand them because ALL their reading was at that level. Say what you will about the boredom of being dragged through Ethan Frome, A Separate Peace, or Across Five Aprils, it at least fed you a steady diet of fairly sophisticated rhetoric. But you can't feed these kids literary jello like Soto ("His shoes, twin pets That snuggle his toes, Are under the bed. He should have bathed, But he didn’t...") and then expect them to understand Mark Twain. It won't happen.

This is a cop-out and a compromise. I personally fight it every day I can, and my kids read Witch of Blackbird Pond, The Outsiders, and Murder on the Orient Express (7th grade) but it's a real struggle because they've been fed some pretty light stuff up to that point, and they are not accustomed to sitting down and reading a full novel.

>>>or an excerpt from Anne of Green Gables or White Fang.

Public schools in Texas have students read excerpts of the Odyssey, the holes are boarded over using a paragraph or so summaries. Our local public school has adopted a “Texas” version of text books which include printed as well as online versions, plus the other outside readings that require the purchase of the book at a bookstore. I don’t believe that the Illiad is covered at all in high school. Summaries used to be provided of the Illiad in our local school but no longer.

Local private schools have students read the whole epic poem, especially The Illiad. The selection of outside books in Texas public schools are also trending towards contemporary authors with global subjects.

It appears that if you want your children to learn about Western Civilization, about the contributions of the Hebrews, Greeks, Romans as well as American exceptionalism you need to send your children to a private school or take command of their readings yourself.

In a nutshell, the public schools have sucked the Western Civilization out of the curriculum.

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