For months now I have read the debate between parents and teachers on Common Core. Most of the opinions are very negative, and I do understand why. But Id like to offer another perspective. For those who do not know me, I have a masters in mechanical engineering and 10+ years of industry experience working with companies such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing, NASA, Ford and Caterpillar. One of my primary job functions is mentoring and training young engineers. From my experience, one of the most important, and quite frankly hardest to find, qualities is the ability to think beyond the text book. When I am looking to hire someone, an engineering degree is a prerequisite, but it only tells a small portion of the story. I assume anyone who has a degree can solve the book problem. But what truly separates candidates is the ability to solve unconventional problems in a creative manner. The reality is, the book problem does not exist in the real world. Many of the arguments against Common Core focus on it not being the way we learned it. This is perhaps the worst possible reason for not doing something. If we never do anything but what we already know, we have no opportunity to grow. The way we learned things was based almost solely on memorization and regurgitation. This does little to help us actually solve unique problems. The other prevalent argument against Common Core is that, citing their own prowess, that they were not able to help their children with their homework because it didnt make sense to them. Is it not possible that the reason you are not able to help them is because the way we learned it was so regimented that it did you adequately prepare you to think about problems in a different manner. What I see in Common Core is the ability to teach the fundamentals, but at the same time, open your students minds to a different way of thinking. Or perhaps its just teaching things in a way that they already think. You have to remember how much different the world is that the one we grew up in. 2 year olds can operate devices that only existed in science fiction movies when we were that age. The phones we all carry are much more powerful that the fastest super computers were back then. They cannot fathom a world without the internet. To them, that world only exists in zombie apocalypse movies. Danielle Hatton Goedel, Jennifer Glasbergen Ashton and all the teachers out there. Keep fighting for what you believe in. Even if the parents of the students you teach dont appreciate what you are doing, know that those who will employ your students in the future do.
Posted on: Mon, 24 Mar 2014 01:00:22 +0000
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