The Common Core Con
In reading through a thread of comments under a recent article written by the Thomas Fordham Institute on Nevada’s Washoe County I noticed for the umpteenth time the author of the article dismiss a parent’s concern over a math assignment because the mother was not able to prove it was a Common Core State Standard’s math assignment.
Parents are being sent on tasks such as “find the right” worksheet to keep us busy so we won’t notice what is really happening. What is happening? We are being conned. It is not incumbent on parents to prove an assignment is Common Core. Our one and only duty is to our children. We have every right to question an assignment given to them by a public school teacher, within the walls of a public school – Common Core or no Common Core.
Since when did parental focus of our children’s education become so narrow? Was that choice made for us too? We have to return to a wide scope of concern and control regarding our children’s education. For some of us it may be the beginning. Either way I like to quote Heidi Huber, Founder of Ohioans Against Common Core, when she says, “Get comfortable with being uncomfortable.” It is not always easy for nice moms to question people they’ve never thought to question before, but now we have to because the trade off, if we don’t, is our children.
Parents are continually admonished that Common Core State Standards are ELA and math only and that they are “just standards.” Baloney on both counts.
Here’s the con - Common Core State Standards is an Initiative. These standards were never about elevating our children’s learning. If they were they’d be the best standards, culled from the minds of our nation’s educational experts, not businessmen unanswerable to the American public. Furthermore, if they were educational standards there would not be the current obsessive push to pipeline our children into the workforce under the guise of college and career readiness. By the way – can one really measure “college and career readiness?” Would Einstein have been considered “ready” for either? Einstein was considered a failure in his time, by many. In today’s world of assessment-crazed lunacy I think Einstein would have been left behind NCLB or not!
Einstein said, "Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts." It would behoove our Governor, State BofE and the like to heed those words.
Under Common Core State Standards history and social studies is to be taught in English classes. Additionally, I just recently found out from a friend, in another state fighting Common Core, that a local music teacher is using the ELA standards to teach music.
The Future of Sex Education, FOSE, National Sexuality Education Standards that have been making quite a stir around the nation for the past year or more advertise that they are “informed…(by) the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Mathematices5,”
Make no mistake when parents attempt a civil dialogue regarding “Common Core Sex Ed” we will be told “There are no sexual education standards in Common Core State Standards.” Technically, that will be a correct response but that will not speak to what is happening in our public schoolhouses across the nation. The Common Core con men are skilled at the deception of making us believe we are the confused because we can’t locate the “right” worksheet or we are “misinformed” about which standards are Common Core and which are not. It does not matter.
Here is what matters. Our children belong to us not the government. Common Core is not a set of standards for two subjects. Common Core is the beginning of an all encompassing initiative that is meant to take control of our decision making as parents, and in the end, take control of our children’s decision making for their lives as well.
Fussing over math worksheets in this Common Core initiative is the equivalent of painting one’s toenails just before the surgeon amputates the entire leg. Pointless. It is not only our right as parents to stand up for our children it is our duty.
