Every parent should make copies of this extremely well written letter about the Common Core and send it to the President, Senators, Congressmen, Assemblymen, right on down the line all the way to their Governor. We have to stand up and be the voice for our children! Dear President Obama: My name is John Sheffield and I am a parent and teacher in Central New York. It saddens me greatly to have to write this letter. It is extremely disconcerting to me to see what you have presided over regarding our public education system. What I refer to of course is the Common Core. What I have witnessed with regards to the Common Core is nothing less than a national travesty. You have handed over control of the nation’s educational system to people who have no business having their hands on the controls of such matters. Your own Secretary of Education not only has no experience in the field of public education, but his own children do not even attend school in a state that adopted Common Core. I also think I can say with a fair amount of certainty that the educational experience of your own daughters’ has very little similarity to the educational experiences of the vast majority of children in this country. Please do not use the argument that the Common Core Standards were “voluntary.” We both know that if states did not adopt CCS then they were not given RTTT funds. In the circles I travel in that would not pass as “voluntary.” I feel it is also behooves me to mention that the RTTT funding will not even come close to the amount of money it will cost states to implement this program; but I am sure this is known to you. You took advantage of cash strapped states and did so with my own tax dollars and the tax dollars of my own community and neighbors. You oversaw the implementation of a program that has ZERO research to support any of its proponents’ claims. The Common Core may have been well intended, as NCLB was. Like its predecessor before it, however, it was corrupted. It has out done NCLB in one aspect: It is destroying our educational system and our children’s psyches faster than NCLB ever could. I have witnessed first hand the struggles of students with standards that are not age appropriate. I have witnessed firsthand the frustration of parents and families as they struggle to help their children….in many cases low income families that have struggles in their daily lives that you appear to have forgotten about. I have witnessed first hand the devastation you have wrought upon a child’s natural drive to learn as CCS has sucked the very life from their natural curiosity. I have watched as kids that were once happy to come to school now dread it. Some things you perhaps you should be aware of regarding Common Core: RESEARCH SUPPORTING COMMON CORE There is NO research to support the claims that proponents of Common Core claim it will do......NONE. That’s right NONE!!! There IS research that clearly shows the American educational system, and our children are NOT as broken as the government would lead you to believe. FINANCIAL ISSUES The Common Core was essentially dictated by you: the federal government; it was a bribe to the states in that if they didnt adopt Common Core, then they wouldnt get Race to the Top money. The Common Core costs money and takes money away from things that make school enjoyable and exciting like art, music, hands-on science, and physical education. Worse yet, the money it removes goes into the hands of for profit test companies School taxes will rise exponentially for all after the funds revert back to the U.S. Treasury.... It is important to note that all Race to the Top funds not obligated and liquidated by September 30, 2015 will revert to the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Monies from Race to the Top given to states for adopting the common core is a pittance compared to what it will cost states to implement them. It decreases investing in vocational and technical programs that we desperately need to create jobs for our young people in a fast changing economy. In other words, there are many good and well paying jobs that do not require college. We cant move in that direction with the Common Core as technical and mechanical skills are not on the tests nor are they taught. LEGAL & CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUES By calling the Common Core “voluntary” this administration and the federal government was able to BYPASS three federal laws that strictly limit and/or prohibit the federal government controlling education on a national scale. REMEMBER: If your state did not “volunteer” then they were denied Race to the Top funding...funding that rightfully belongs to the respective communities you pay taxes in! The Tenth Amendment: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. Since education is not mentioned in the Constitution, it is one of those powers reserved to the states. It is possible that the Federal Governments “voluntary” program, by using funding as a coercive tactic, may have violated the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United Sates. CHILDREN (& FAMILIES) It is causing strife within the family unit per Marla Kilfoyle from her presentation and many others who have reported the same. Furthermore, it is causing strife within families as the homework assignments associated with the CORE are ones students have difficulty coping with and most parents are unfamiliar with. The unfair and inappropriate demands are breaking the spirit of our students, parents, and teachers as stated by members of all three groups! The pressures imposed by rapid, forced imposition of the standards, without debate or discussion, is further demoralizing our students, their families, and teachers. Increased stress to children, parents, and teachers. Yes, tests and quizzes are part of school, but the pressure to perform is very high right now. With this hyper-focus on the core areas of learning and the constant testing to ensure that the material is being memorize it will not be unexpected to see further increase in anxiety disorders among children, a statistic that is already on the rise. Do we really want to see those statistics skyrocket? Creativity is dead: Learning has always included textbooks and spelling tests at the elementary school level. Thats part of the deal. But it used to be that kids were given the opportunity to tap into their creative brains. Forget about thinking outside the box, these kids need to memorize the core curriculum first. Its as if creativity holds no merit. Dont we want to inspire kids to be thought leaders and world changers? Inadequate time to socialize: You know whats really taken a hit in recent years? Recess: Some schools dont have it at all. Recess is when kids truly practice social skills. They take turns. They negotiate. They initiate friendships. They learn to cope with disappointment. Sometimes they work together. Sometimes they dont. Either way, they learn to work it out, but not if they dont have recess. Poor eating habits and insufficient exercise: You cant turn on the TV or open a magazine without hearing about obesity in America these days. Its a problem. And yet, a school lunch is often 15-20 minutes long, forcing kids to wolf down food before the bell rings....NOT a healthy practice. Some school districts have completely cut physical education due to budget issues and gotten rid of recess in favor of increased seat time. With little recess and no PE, kids are not getting enough exercise. This at a time when new research is showing that with increased physical activity and proper down time academic performance increases! No time to decompress: Kids need downtime. There is a lot of talk about over-scheduling and the stress that results from too much going and not enough resting. But kids today are faced with a lot of homework. There are third graders with three hours of homework each night. And that doesnt account for long-term projects. Invasion of student (and family privacy) through use data collection and data warehousing to private companies. Private companies have more and greater access to your child’s test scores and data collected than the teachers who serve you and your children do! EDUCATIONALLY UNSOUND It promotes a one size all approach to curriculum and schools does not properly invest in vocational and technical programs that we desperately need. Many of the standards are developmentally inappropriate. As a result of developmentally inappropriate the Common Core discriminates against huge groups of children for whom the standards are developmentally inappropriate, especially ELL students, students with special needs, and children growing up in poverty. In areas of high poverty this effect could be magnified to frightening degree. Truth: Educators didnt write the Common Core; they had very little to do with it. Common Core validation committee’s two major experts refused to sign off on the English/Language Arts and Math standards. Dr. Sandra Stotsky ELA) and Dr. James Milgram (Math) refused to sign off on the CC standards. They were referred to as a “disservice” to our students, and in many instances not research based. One of the foremost educators and historians of our time, Diane Ravitch, denounces the Common Core and its standards for many reasons; one of the main ones being there is absolutely no research to support any of the claims being made by its proponents. President Obama, I submit to you that even as you read this letter more and more people are coming together to stop this atrocity. People from across the political spectrum: conservative, moderate, liberal…all of them. People of different genders and racial backgrounds. People from different economic circumstances and educational experiences. THIS should tell you something. These people, the citizens of the great melting pot coming together as one people, to unite their voices as one voice, to protect their children and all children. They should be heard Mr. President. We should be heard. We must be heard. Or this is no longer the United States of America that I grew up in. Respectfully submitted, John D. Sheffield
Posted on: Sun, 01 Dec 2013 03:06:46 +0000
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