Posted on 01/17/2014 2:50:03 AM PST by T-Bird45
Viewed from Washington, which often is the last to learn about important developments, opposition to the Common Core State Standards Initiative still seems as small as the biblical cloud that ariseth out of the sea, no larger than a man’s hand. Soon, however, this education policy will fill a significant portion of the political sky.
The Common Core represents the ideas of several national organizations (of governors and school officials) about what and how children should learn. It is the thin end of an enormous wedge. It is designed to advance in primary and secondary education the general progressive agenda of centralization and uniformity.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
bttt
The Slippery Slope Of The Common Core
Since the Common Core standards were unveiled in 2010, advocates have insisted that it’s a “state-led” effort. President Obama declared in the 2011 State of the Union, “These standards were developed... not by Washington, but by Republican and Democratic governors throughout the country.” This past June, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan thundered, “The federal government didn’t write them, didn’t approve them, and doesn’t mandate them, and we never will. Anyone who says otherwise is either misinformed or willfully misleading.”
Tony Evers, state superintendent for Wisconsin, told the Wisconsin legislature, “To those who are concerned that the Common Core represents too much ‘federal intrusion’... I was not coerced by the federal government to adopt the Common Core [and] didn’t adopt” it in response to the Obama administration’s “Race to the Top” federal grant program, which rewarded states for adopting the Common Core. It’s apparently just a coincidence that Wisconsin adopted the standards on June 2, 2010, the day they were released—as promised in the state’s “Race to the Top” application. Just as it’s presumably a coincidence that Kentucky adopted the standards before they were released—a move celebrated in its “Race to the Top” application.
It’s hard to take seriously the insistence that the feds played no role when Secretary Duncan said this summer, “Did the [”Race to the Top”], and the dollars, matter to the states? Absolutely.” Indeed, President Obama has bragged, “Race to the Top has led over 40 states to raise their standards for teaching and learning.”
In truth, as Mike McShane and I point out in our new book, Common Core Meets the Reform Agenda, there’s a studied dishonesty about the “state-led” rhetoric. Going back to the initial planning for the Common Core in 2007 and 2008, its earliest advocates always noted that getting most states to adopt common standards and implement them aggressively would probably require an outsized federal role.
Commie Core is designed to usher in socialism or communism into the U.S. Basically, the kids teach themselves. They are given documents which they have to pour over in groups. They have a list of questions which they then have to answer, and then cite where in the document they got their answer information from. The teacher’s role is merely to “facilitate” and stay out of their way. One of my main questions about that is, “How do you know what meanings the kids are getting out of those documents? How do you know what nuances of thought they are getting out of those documents?” The students basically come in mostly at 1 or 2 reading levels (out of a possible 4). So who knows what they think a lot of those words mean? Citing where in documents you got your information is just the bait to get people saying, “Well, what’s wrong with that?” Then they sign off on Commie Core and Phase II begins, with the absolute uniformity of thought. Teachers standing there and teaching, putting notes up on the board for the students to copy, is now verboten. So the students will be trained to work in groups and not take notes. They will not be used to teachers actually teaching. Then they get to college, huge lecture halls, notetaking not an option. What then?
The curious thing...which just makes it more of a joke....is that Common Core is mostly a script. So you could have a dimwit from Poka Valley Community College who got a degree in animal husbandry who steps in, and does a math class. You don’t really need to be a degreed person to figure this gimmick out. Bad teachers? You won’t be able to say that anymore. Everyone...good teachers and bad...will have to go by the script.
After three or four years...most of the better teachers will just fade to real jobs and move on. You could go out as the local county and hire just community college graduates and pay them $20,000 a year. Skip all this $50,000 a year stuff....you just want script-readers. I’m not sure if that was the original plan or not....but it will be the result if it stays on.
Amazing how this bureaucratic money sucking behemoth of left wing hacks called the Dept. Of Education was established in 1979,spearheaded by the Senator from Ct.Abe Ribicoff,my wife worked for a guy who was on his staff and has a signed book on the making of this monstrosity,how the hell was anyone educated before 1979 without a bunch of Marxists bribing local officials to take federal govt money to brainwash the children.What a bunch of morons we were
Do you really think Big unions would allow that?
Maybe not....but why hire some idiot who just recites a scripted text to a bunch of fourteen year old kids? I mean...even some Ukrainian plumber with four months of community college....could do Common Core.
Obviously you are on the outside looking in at teaching. You disrespect me and all my dedicated hardworking colleagues by implying that the work we do is not a "real job". It is, as a matter of fact, the most important job in America, and one of the most respected jobs abroad. Too bad Americans lack respect for the people who enable them to GET their jobs and who spent time above and beyond their official work hours to listen to their problems and try to work with them to find solutions.
Your profession would garner more respect if it wasn’t dominated by Leftists intent on soiling everything that was good and decent.
A big booser of Common Core is LA’s Governor Jindal, whom many consider “conservative”.
Then he’s not conservative. You only have to see a Commie Core lesson in session to become a believer that it’s Commie. The kids are basically teaching themselves from reading articles. I don’t see teachers standing up before classes and lecturing them nor the kids taking notes.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.