Earlier this evening, I attended my daughter's parent/teacher conferences. The first one was with her math teacher.
It started off well enough; my daughter is doing very well in his class, no issues. Well, he brings up that tomorrow, he has to teach the kids about baseball. HAS to. Then he says there will be some sort of "test" in an assembly type situation on Friday. I ask if the reason for teaching about baseball has to do with geometry, or something else math related. He said, no. Nothing whatsoever. I in turn ask if this has something to do with Common Core. Yes, it does is his reply.
Then he told me that on the assessments the kids took last week, they had "problems" in which they had to draw an answer. Not do a math computation. Draw. He also said there was trigonometry on the test. These are 8th graders. They haven't learned trig yet! I asked how that was supposed to assess any sort of understanding, when they hadn't even learned it? He said he thought it was ridiculous, and a huge waste of time.

So I ask what does your teaching the kids about baseball have to do with math? Nothing. Here's the kicker; he then tells me he's not allowed to talk about Common Core. NOT ALLOWED TO TALK ABOUT IT!? I am ready to lose it! I plan on being on the phone with as many of my state lawmakers as possible tomorrow. I need some more answers.