The Reformed Advisor

States, Educators, Parents Abandon Common Core For Being Dumb

Posted on January 27, 2014 in Home School, Public Policy by

Common CoreWhen Common Core was announced it was touted as the “fix” to an American education system that has been in decline for years. Without much review or investigation into the privately funded, federally promoted standards and curriculum, school boards began approving its implementation. That snowballed into entire states “opting in” to statewide use of Common Core. (It didn’t hurt that the federal government offered millions in monetary enticements to join the program.)

What has been the result of all the pomp and fanfare rolling out Common Core?

Parents are learning that Common Core is rotten to the core.

A history professor at Hillsdale College, Terrence Moore, is writing a new book called “The Story Killers.” This book was prompted by Moore’s review of the English Language Arts curriculum found in the Common Core Standards. Here is what Moore says about those “standards” and what they will do to our kids:

“…imagine the national takeover of the American minds and souls? That’s what Common Core is. Because once you control the curriculum in the schools, then you can dictate what students are supposed to think and feel, and how they are supposed to look at the world…This is a political issue.”

This video interview (posted below) with Terrence Moore is worth the few minutes it takes to watch. Moore expounds on how Common Core will seek to inject a specific political ideology into public education intended to produce kids that simply spit out rhetoric rather than actually know how to learn. Moore goes on to share insight into the progressive ideal of education and how those ideals will be detrimental to kids. Specifically, traditional ideas regarding gender roles, family, and marriage will be replaced with progressive ideas.

A recent article at The Daily Caller further shows the dangers of Common Core bringing a specific political ideology into the classroom:

“What is happening to the classroom as a result of the Common Core? If you would like an answer to this question, spend some time with the English Language Arts (ELA) materials on the New York State Education Department (NYSED) website. On the engageNY homepage, click on the words “Common Core Curriculum & Assessments.” Follow the links until you get to Grade 5 ELA Module 1. Download the 589-page document. The module is on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). This is a fine topic to discuss in school, though the module does confirm worries that the Common Core could be used to promote a political ideology. My critique here is that this module — despite a disclaimer on the website — is a script, and scripts suck the oxygen out of a classroom.”

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a Unite Nations (UN) associated document. Why exactly do our public school students need to be studying this document instead of the bill of Rights or the Constitution of the United States? These great documents of our country enumerate the rights accorded to every citizen of our country. Common Core wants our kids to study a liberal, progressive document drafted by the UN instead.

Common Core has two main problems, as I see it. The first is that it is an effort to socialize our education system into a government run system. The federal government has no business telling individual states how they ought to be doing public education. Centralizing education allows a few people to dictate to the nation exactly what education ought to look like, incorporating their own worldview and political ideologies. This is not a conservative, classical way of looking at education. This is a big-government, freedom killing method that will be disastrous for our kids.

The second problem is that Common Core will threaten parental rights and school choice. There can be no doubt that those behind Common Core desire to control not just the education system but the testing system that paves the way to higher education. By doing so, those who would otherwise place their kids in private school, or home school, will either be forced into public schools are risk difficulty getting into college. This is a sneaky, underhanded way of attacking school choice and alternate schooling that parents should be highly concerned about.

Though not being talked about much at this point, teachers ought to be extremely concerned with Common Core. Teachers that are currently frustrated with the lack of classroom control and creativity will only be further frustrated thanks to Common Core. Teachers will have less freedom to encourage study, exploration, and learning. Replacing those valuable skills will be memorization, testing, and rhetoric. Teachers will, in the end, be nothing more than highly trained facilitators babysitting their class.

Incidentally, the federal government and state legislators are keeping quiet the fact that even though states receive millions in funding to implement Common Core, most states will have to make up a deficit of millions or even billions in order to complete implementation. For this reason even states like California are seeking to ban Common Core.

The fact is Common Core stinks. Everything that was right with the American education system will be replaced. Everything that was wrong with our system will be enhanced and built upon. America will not rise globally in academics as a result, we will continue to decline. Teachers will be frustrated. Parents will be outraged. And once again the losers will be our kids. Our kids always seem to be the losers in political battles.

Click here to see a map of states that have abandoned Common Core, those with legislation pending to ban Common Core, and those still moving forward with this train wreck.

Click here to see a mother destroy Common Core math in 3 minutes.

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