Common Core Curriculum, Data and Indoctrination
When it comes to
education, I am a lifer. There are four
generations of teachers in my family. I
taught from age 21 to—well—a really long time.
I have a Master’s in Economics and taught both micro and macro at the
local community college at night while putting my girls through college. I was also the principal of an elementary
school, and taught aspiring teachers at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Like I said, a lifer.
As you might guess, I have been watching the development
of the Common Core Curriculum (CCC) with tremendous interest. Unlike a great many people with an opinion, I
have actually read the standards—all of them.
I specifically looked at the sixth grade curriculum simply because I
taught sixth graders for years. I know
the curriculum by heart and still have a soft spot in my heart for those tall,
gawky, boisterous, challenging and ever curious kids, poised on the brink of
hormonal overload. What I found was both
good news and bad news.
The CCC standards all
by themselves are not a problem.
They are a grocery list of expectations for students in the areas of
mathematics and language arts (reading, writing, and speaking). The mathematics is rigorous, sequential and
leads directly to higher math skills in middle school. They keep algebra (a gatekeeper subject which
our middle school students must master to be ready for advanced math in high
school) as a key goal. The standards are
actually much more demanding that I was seeing in the watered down textbooks
that were entering the schools about the time I was leaving them.
In the reading standards the first thing I looked for was
phonetic instruction in the early grades.
I was pleased to see it there. If
you aren’t teaching K-1st graders phonics you aren’t teaching them
how to read. Period. I then looked to see if there was consistent
attention to root work and affix definition in the vocabulary building grades
(4-6th). Yup, they were
there. Finally I looked at the literary
guidelines and they were not only acceptable, but included all the different
genre of literature, plays and poetry.
Again, I saw things that made sense.
This should all make a trench fighter in the war against
ignorance happy, right? It should, but
it doesn’t.
As with many things dealing with education, the problem
isn’t with the standards, it is with the people who are executing them. The CCC standards are specifically vague as
to the use of texts, methodology and execution.
That means that these standards (and the students who are exposed to
them) are at the mercy of a few dedicated apostates of the far left. These disciples of social engineering are
sure that the standards are their chance to not teach so much as
indoctrinate. Every one of these CCC
standards could be taught with books as old as the Lucy Fitch Perkins,
“Twins…series” readers (circa 1920’s).
Instead, they are bringing in propaganda laced, poorly written pieces
designed to further a social agenda.
Then they try to cover up their nefarious scheme by pointing to the CCC
and saying, “We have to do it this way.”
Nonsense.
A
good teacher, supported by a responsible administration, could teach all of
these standards within a socially neutral environment. But the Big
Brother minions are going to try very hard to corrupt the whole thing. What is wrong with the CCC is that it gives
those want our children to be goose-stepping marionettes, marching to the
left’s drum, a tool that they did not have previously.
Examine
the curriculum and keep the faith.
Comments