Common Core and the Wisdom Deficit

In a thought-provoking essay, veteran English teacher Michael Godsey writes that he doesn't teach much "wisdom" in his high school classes anymore, and he wonders who does now that the Common Core has taken hold in public schools.

Secular wisdom in the public schools seems like it should inherently spring from the literature that's shaped American culture. And while the students focus on how Whitman's "purpose shapes the content and style of his text" [in the Common Core]," they're obviously exposed to the words that describe his leaves of grass.  And that's good. But there is a noticeable deprioritization of literature, and a crumbling consensus regarding the nation's idea of classic literature. The Common Core requires only Shakespeare, which is puzzling if only for its singularity.

The Common Core's 10 so-called College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards focus heavily on technical skills and impersonal text analysis and leave little if any room for classical literature. Yet classical literature plays an important role in encouraging students to personally engage in, and examine, literary characters' life experiences and decision-making processes. Through literature, students had the opportunity to garner a certain wisdom from those life lessons and to evaluate truth and appropriately apply it to their own lives.

Admittedly, nothing abut the Common Core or any modern shifts in teaching philosophies is forbidding me from sharing deeper lessons found in Plato's cave or Orwell's Airstrip One. The fine print of the Common Core guidelines even mentions a few possible titles.

But this comes with constant pervasive language that favors objective analysis over personal engagement. Achieve the Core, for example, an organization founded by the lead writers of the standards, explicitly encourages schools to teach students to "extract" information so they can "note and assess patterns of writing" without relying on "any particular background information" or "students having other experiences or knowledge." This emphasis on what they call "text-dependent reading" contributes to a culture in which it's not normal to promote cultural wisdom or personal growth; in fact, it's almost awkward.

Godsey doesn't worry about his own children, or children of families who value classic literature and the life lessons they teach enough to pursue it at home. But he is concerned for the millions of young people who are not so fortunate and who will lose out on the shared wisdom that families once relied on their public schools to transmit.

Source: The Wisdom Deficit in Schools, Michael Godsey, The Atlantic, January 2015

Common Core's Fuzzy Addition and Subtraction

"This is the introduction to the first of six 'Homework Helper' segments Buffalo, NY, NBC affiliate WGRZ is broadcasting this week in honor of back-to-school week," reports Kelsey Harris.




If that didn't make you cry, moms and dads, try this one for subtraction:



We suspect there will be a whole lot of parents homeschooling their little ones on math this year!

Pullman: Common Core's Bait-and-Switch

"Common Core supporters know many voters and politicians dislike federal meddling with education," writes Joy Pullman of School Reform News.

That's why they insist Common Core is “state-led” and “voluntary” even though the evidence shows these descriptions are deceptions. The Obama administration already has proved this by, at the repeated request of those who created Common Core, requiring states to adopt it in exchange for a chance at federal grants and to receive much-desired No Child Left Behind waivers. But these public relations pushes also disprove the “state-led” and “voluntary” promise, for how “voluntary” is a public policy instituted under the influence of federally funded advertising and with little open debate?

In short, federal funds are being used to convince the people the government forced to provide those funds that unelected bureaucrats and private nonprofit employees did the right thing with their money before the people got wind of the scheme.

Isn’t that a little backwards? A self-governing republic means lawmakers carry out the will of the people after judicious reflection and under the rule of law, instead of retroactively attempting to convince citizens we should want what unelected bureaucrats already did without the public’s knowledge or consent.

Common Core has leaders, all right, but they don’t govern by consent.

 For more discussion on the K-12 Common Core scheme, watch the discussion, Stopping Common Core National Standards and Testing, with researchers Joy Pullman and Lindsey Burke.

Blaming 'White Soccer Moms'

From Investor's Business Daily editorial, Duncan Blames Common Core Fight on 'White Soccer Moms':

Perhaps nothing personifies the arrogant nanny state paternalism of the Obama administration more than this statement by Duncan on Friday: "It's fascinating to me that some of the pushback is coming from, sort of, white suburban moms who — all of a sudden — their child isn't as brilliant as they thought they were and their school isn't quite as good as they thought they were, and that's pretty scary."

Secretary Duncan made his comments about the Common Care State Standards (CCSS) before a group of school superintendents in Richmond, Va., to a meeting of the Council of Chief State Schools Officers organization (CCSSO). This is one of the two organizations that own the public license to the Common Core State Standards.

The Common Core State Standards Initiative was devised by a group of the nation's governors and backed by the Obama administration in 2009 with the goal of setting a uniform standard for grades K-12 nationwide. Some 45 states, in many cases enticed by federal grants, have signed on. It has since morphed into what many consider an attempt to nationalize education and control what future generations think and know. [snip]

As Valerie Strauss points out in the Washington Post's "The Answer Sheet," New York was the first large state to implement the standards and give students new standardized tests supposedly aligned with the Core. Test scores plummeted by 30% this year. [snip]

Free minds are the last thing Common Core advocates have on their minds. Common Core contains statements in its lessons such as "The commands of government officials must be obeyed by all" and "The wants of an individual are less important than the well-being of the nation."

In the middle school, Common Core calls upon students to read only the First Amendment. Can't have 14-year-old minds learning about the other amendments that constitute the Bill of Rights, such as, say, the Second Amendment or the 10th — those defending the right to bear arms and limits on federal power.

Public education as we know it is a relatively recent phenomenon. This nation was built on the foundation of the proverbial little red schoolhouse and local control.

Now we are to be in thrall to ideologically driven teachers unions and education statists who seemingly share V.I. Lenin's terrifying belief: "Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted."