On Saturday April 5 at 11AM there will be a demonstration against Common Core in front of the Legislature Building on Carson Street between 4th and 5th Streets. It s part of a simultaneous multi-state effort.
http://www.carsonnow.org/reader-content/03/26/2014/protest-against-commo...
http://www.pr.com/press-release/550272
To understand why it is very important for everyone to come to this event, please consider the following.
Common Core is a new standard intended to change the purpose, content and methodology of K-12 education. It is coming to public, charter, private and home schools. There is no escape; textbooks, the SAT and the ACT will be “common core compliant.” The federal and state departments of education are using Bush's Every Child Left Behind and 0bama's Race To The Bottom grants to push it.
You have heard many claims and counter-claims about Common Core. The bottom line is this:
Common Core is one of the pillars of 0bamaʼs “fundamental transformation.” (Another one is 0bamacare.)
Common Core was not written or validated by professional educators. Nobody field-tested it to see if it will achieve better results than previous standards. Nobody looked at alternatives -- MUCH better alternatives such as E.D. Hirsch's series of book, "What Your ...Grader Needs to Know".
Common Core is creating a police state atmosphere in our schools. It makes teachers fear for their jobs and careers if they are seen as doubting or opposing the reforms, and parents afraid of retaliation against their children if they complain. The ugly rumors are coming from all over the nation.
Common Core is driving some of the best teachers into retirement or otherwise out of their lifelong dedication to the children. The reports are coming from all over the nation. The best teachers are pulled from the classroom to train the less experienced teachers. Who loses? The kids.
Common Core deprives teachers of their professionalism, by denying them the choice of the teaching method appropriate to the particular subject matter, the students, their level of preparation, and the available time. Forget everything you learned in your Methods class... Instead, Common Core is forcing them to act as nothing more than debate moderators or hall monitors, flitting like butterfles from one small group of students to another as they are struggling with their ignorance to arrive at a consensus solution and answer..
Common Core teaches students a disturbingly bad lesson in all subjects: There is no objective, absolute truth -- not in math, science, not in anything. A fact is whatever a group decides by consensus.
Common Core forces teaching math in such a strange way that it makes no sense even to mathematicians with advanced degrees.
Common Core English won't teach grammar or vocabulary. Students are expected to absorb that from "deep reading." But the reading list eliminates the classic literature that used to be the standard for English speaking people and from which people learned English vocabulary; Common Core eliminates even the beloved stories of our childhood. The kids are expected to grow up on "informational text" -- which are presented totally out of context, without historical or cultural foundation. The purpose of their writing assignments is to teach them the language and techniques of advocacy and propaganda for social change.
Donʼt even ask what Common Core does to history and civics... Let's just say that in the name of cultural diversity the reading selections drive the notion that the root of all evil in the world is... America.
Common Core eliminates any chance for parents to help their kids with homework. The Common Core methods and contents are too different from the experience of earlier generations.
And,...
Common Core requires massive collection and mining of deeply personal "data points" about an individual and his family. This database will follow the individual from pre-K into the workforce. The data collection and analysis procedures are rigged to circumvent privacy laws so that the data, both statistical and individual, will be freely shared by public and private entities.
If THAT does not scare you, what will?
For more information about Common Core, see
http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership.aspx
For more information about the April 5 protest, see
http://www.pr.com/press-release/550272
http://www.pagosadailypost.com/news/25396/LETTER:_National_Protest_Oppos...
For insightful critiques of Common Core by professional educators, see
http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership.aspx