From a former teacher in NY... Common Core is nothing but a step in the federalization of American education. Its an attempt to homogenize education from one coast to the other ... under the guise of the trendy bark of reform. First, the states began the intrusion into local control of education ... now CC will allow for federal control. It assumes that kids in rural Nebraska have the same needs and prescriptions as those who dwell in the inner-cities. It presupposes that approaches to mathematics and language skills have a singular, best-practice, universal solution. Of course, theres cringing irony in such suppositions ... considering our liberal tilt to all things individual. Educational eggheads have rummaged every where, but have failed to address the obvious. Americas education slide parallels the collapse of the family. Single parent homes abound. Were swimming in substance abuse of all sorts. Dysfunctional families are excused by cultural cliches. Kids are seldom rescued from home horrors as they should be. God forbid we should look these issues straight in the eye. Out-of-wedlock births have skyrocketed. Those on public assistance have jumped alarmingly. And caught in all of this familial mess are the kids who march off to school each day ... kids free of traditional family experiences and free of basic values. Parents of those aimless students have famously pointed fingers everywhere ... exempting their dreadful behaviors and choices from any serious scrutiny. And their faux, misplaced rage has been taken up by progressive pimps who willing exonerate those immature, irresponsible, government sucklers from any sort of accountability. Common Core is nothing more that a nation-wide take-over of public education so that the federal government can fill the void created by the reproducing miscreants who demand that government do their parental tasks ... and allow them a continued bath in their own manufactured tub of woes. So, here we are ... in the 21st Century ... once again seeking out the elusive panacea for educational success as though all of human history has been a non-stop educational wander with zero success to show for it. Ludicrous stuff. Our cure is misdirected. Want better schools? Better student performances? Better outcomes? Then heal the family. Replenish the stock of our national values. Send to the schools young children with a sense of responsibility and respect ... kids with a streak of curiosity and eagerness ... and youll see the desired results. Teachers are not societal magicians. And schools are not healing centers ... or psychiatric institutions. They are as effective as the children are ready. The damaged and wounded children and teens who present themselves each day present a challenge that did not exist even a few decades ago. So, here we are. Rummaging ideas and listening to experts whove never taught a class, managed a school year or lifted a single soul out of education darkness ... as though they possess a blessed sort of new voodoo the world has overlooked for all of time. How asinine. Last, Im amazed how even some of our supposed most alert parents have been caught off guard by this CC garbage. The test score revelations were designed to be sensationally dreadful ... so as to serve as a legitimatizing tools for this federal take-over. And, it appears to have worked. Teachers and schools are the sudden suspects in our national educational decline. Bull. The quality of teaching has not declined ... and nor have the resources. What has gone to rot is the family unit ... and much of that rot can be placed at the feet of a federal government that has done anything and everything to replace that unit with a powerful addiction to federal and state largesse. Our policies have created an educational underclass ... and Common Core will not solve any of the underlying realities. In fact, Common Core is destined to be one the great educational catastrophes of all time. We will come to regret this choice. I hope to hell our regret comes soon enough for a nation-saving back-track. Denis Ian
Posted on: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 04:34:17 +0000
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015