Common Core
Posted by CarolSeer2014 10 years, 4 months ago to Education
It's time to have the conversation about Common Core. What are your thoughts, Gulchers, about the innate evil in Common Core?
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Common Core is evil. I just recently 'retired" from an elementary school where I worked for the last 10 years, mostly because of Common Core. (Other factors being a gun free zone, and having to watch, and practically be forced to participate in socialist behaviors, which I refused to do loudly. And some major disappointment in realizing how UNeducated teachers can be.)
With that said, I've read some interesting books on the subject: "Teaching Johnny to Think" Peikoff, "Credentialed to Destroy" Robin Eubanks (both I recommend). I've read some others that are escaping me at the moment, and many articles on the subject. (facebook page "Moms against Duncan" is also a good source of info.)
There have many discussion about Common Core in the gulch as well.
Common Core, although presented as a big positive in critical thinking and "career and college readiness" (whatever the hell that's supposed to mean..."make you all sheep" would be more accurate) is nothing more than teaching NOT to think, be eternally confused about everything, and don't bother asking too many questions, stay in line and be the same as everyone in your group.
Public schools be damned. Home school!
What are your thoughts? :)
(See Hitler Youth, and compare to an American political scientist, James Q. Wilson, who believed that government shapes character.)
When what others think of you becomes your ethical standard, then who better than the government to hold the dangling carrot of approval?
That's why rational self-interest is the apex of ethical behavior and competency is the highest form of morality. They don't require an approval rating.
Is there a link to this?
If they're privately-owned, non-gov't, consumers can choose unionized vs non-union. It's all none of anyone's business.
At any rate, the morality of having a central government attach strings to any financial help for education institutions is an abomination!
I understand the second point, but I don't see what it has to do with the Weathermen.
I'm naturally paranoid about very little peril with my kids. I'm trying NOT to be afraid. I won't be shocked if we have to pull them out. It only took 13 days last time. LOL But we loved the new pre-school. I really hope things continue to work out.
Yes. We are at greater risk of this now than in the past for two reasons:
1) Technology makes it easier for the gov't to spy on people. For example, the Fourth Amendment allows the gov't to follow people around in public spaces and watch them. But they can't afford to do that to everyone. Now they can b/c of technology.
2) Automation is replacing many jobs, causing us to have economic growth but wage stagnation. The growth is in the form of return on equity. This will make people reach for socialistic solutions.
OTOH, I'm optimistic that we'll get the benefits of technology and find ways to work through the pitfalls. I agree completely, though, that we must be vigilant. The material in Fountainhead and AS is more important than ever.
Yes, but it also makes it easier for the people to "spy" on the government.
"2) Automation is replacing many jobs..."
Yes, but you would have carry that same sentiment all the back to when the "evil" printing press "stole" all the jobs from the scribes.
Yes. I intended to convey no sentiment at all about it. Machines doing work so people don't have to is a good thing. My point is a sudden appearance of a new kind of machine shakes things up and could cause people who ordinarily are not socialist to accept socialism. I want to get the benefits of new technology while avoiding socialism.
"Technology makes it easier for the gov't to spy on people."
Yes! And to share ideas with other people, not just ideas supported by large organizations and gov'ts.
Education over the past few decades has increasingly been geared to emphasizing conformity--a death knell for creativity and initiative.
I am sorely afraid for the welfare of America if this monstrosity is allowed to take place. (Along with Obamacare).
Rand said in her notes for "We The Living': America is the freeist country in the world. God forbid it should ever become socialist."
(It's Saul Alinsky, by the way.)
I agree, and I think it's been for a century or more. The industrial revolution brought jobs that valued following instructions. Increasingly computers and robots can do almost any task that is just following instructions. The new jobs are about putting automation to work in creative ways that solve problems. We're still teaching to the old system.
Even jobs weren't changing, we still wouldn't want to teach conformity. People absolutely need critical thinking to be good citizens.
I have a feeling our kids will go through several school arrangements, possibly with some home schooling, before they go to college. I'm not even sure if college will exists as it does today in 13 years. I hope it's more of a partnership with apprenticeships where people learn practical skills on the job at the same time as they learn theory in the classroom.
A prophetic warning.
They ought to be on the top of the list, now more than ever.
Such as the,
Freedom to public education
Freedom to food stamps
Freedom to healthcare
Freedom to low cost housing
Freedom to unemployment wages
Freedom to a minimum wage
And many other of their expensive wasteful freedoms, that demand the involuntary servitude of others.
It all socially progresses toward, freedom to dependency.
I wish it were only in the ivy league schools. It is, unfortunately, much wider in educational institutions and much deeper in mass communications. We have a huge battle on our hands.
I want to be careful. My understanding is that AR envisioned her Gulch inhabitants as temporary absentees, who would return back to the country to restore and rebuild. They shrugged so as to hasten the collapse and therefore hasten the recovery
My perception, and it might very well be unfair, is that at least some of the people who shrug now here, do it because they gave up. Of course, three will not be a real Atlantis, a copy of AR's imagined one. But there might be ways to fight the onslaught of moochers and parasites in such a way that they loose quicker than otherwise. It boils down, I think, of persuading minds. The most able ones first, but gradually many, many others.
What do you think?
If I sense a need to conform, that's the single thing that would cause me to withdraw my kids from a school. It's right up there with ideology of any sort.
I picked the preschool they're in now by asking them what they're opinions were on various things kids do. I was listening for ideology of any sort, not just political ideology, but ANY ideology, e.g. "kids must get outside at least once a day" or "kids must eat in a quiet space". We got burned by a school with strict ideology. I'm very happy they're in a non-ideological school now.
That one school had a rule for everything, even trivial thing like which way to approach the lunch table. It would have been fine if it were one pet peeve, but they had a rule for everything. Many of them were trying to do the right thing. A few of them liked enforcing rules strictly for its own sake.
It's not as simple as the whole thing's a cult or rule masters. People get involved for different reasons. I agree with their discouraging screen time in small children and not exposing them to things without parental guidance. But exposing them to some corporate logos won't hurt them. Corporations are just a way to structure ownership with limited liability, not something inherently bad. They push plastic toys and unhealthful food b/c those are things kids *demand*. There's a reason why "plastics" was the word whispered in Dustin Hoffman's ear in the 70s. If you think plastics are an amazing technology as I do, though, you probably shouldn't be at Waldorf.
"Waldorf schools are popular with progressives. But how do you feel about a dose of spiritualism with your child's reading and math?
Would you send your kid to a school where faceless dolls and pine-cones are the toys of choice? A school where kids don't read proficiently until age 9 or 10 -- and where time spared goes to knitting and playing the recorder? A school where students sing hymns to "spirit" every day?"
What were we smoking? You see, I've been very wrong about schools before.
A lot of schools seem to have this problem to some extent. None of the schools in my area are pricy. I think everything is under $12k/yr. The gov't schools cost taxpayers around $10k/yr. They're all in the same range.
I think the key is never to rely on a school to do all the education. I think we'll have more influence than a school. I know at a gov't school they're going to encounter gov't workers who laugh at the very notion of good citizenship. It's up to the parents to stay on top of things and not just turn them over to others, esp not gov't workers.
Also, I've wondered what it was about Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead that turned you toward Objectivism?
I know most Gulchers welcome anyone to their blogs, even someone not quite objective!
What bothers me is that in most schools only a form of Marxism will be taught--
What bothers me is that in most schools only a form of Marxism will be taught-"
If I see that, we may be suing yet another school. Actually, we'd probably just pull them out. And we're never handing a school $10k all at once again. We're learned to be skeptical.
I can't get back to you til tomorrow, so economize on your thinking, as you are wont to do.
BS EE - U of FL
MS EE - USF
I love those topics. I've thought of going back and taking another class on math or physics now that I have more practical context. I know many rules of thumb involving physics. If I learned Maxwell's equations, I'd understand them better this time b/c I have all these years of seeing the results in action.
When you taking your kids to a NAMBLA meeting so they're exposed to THOSE theories?
And they haven't accomplished what they set out to do. A high school diploma isn't associated with a clear set of skills and knowledge. I wouldn't mind Fed involvement in education if they had accomplished something. Instead of finding more ways to get people in to college, I think we should fix up the high schools and have some clear set of standards (maybe not federal standards) of what exactly a high school diploma means. People belittle the GED, but to me it means more than knowing someone has a high school diploma b/c I can look up exactly what test they passed to get it.
Yes. The federal approach has not worked
I think we should just provide vouchers for the poor to buy their own education. There are many problems with that approach, but it would end public debate over what type of education to buy. As I said in another thread, Waldorf is kind of weird, but there's no public debate over it. You just move your kids somewhere else. I would like that approach if it could be done without hurting the poor.
Getting parents to leave public school and DEMAND vouchers for charter schools is exactly what the communists want you to do: why?
Charter schools aren't accountable to parents because there is no school board. Don't like what's being taught? (Yes, CC will be taught there too) Tough! Suck it plebe. Charter School's also don't have libraries. Why? Because it easier to control the subject material and keep those nosy parents from learning what's really going on behind our doors.
THINK before you act. Remember what the communists fed the soft heads of impressionable Americans during the '50s & '60s: Don't go with the Establishment. Question authority. Seems like great advice in these days.
This youtube interview gives a great deal of info as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldkAuUgS... (Don't fall for and click the "improved version" - the sound is off)
Common Core is the final step. Don't believe me? Ask an 18 year old if they know what the American Enlightenment is.
Yes, it appears Bill Ayers was involved. Ayers and Obama were part of the Annenberg Challenge for school reform in Chicago. Of course they were promoting Marxist ideas. When Common Core was rolled out, Ayers was one of the chief presenters at the event.
Common Core is not about education, it is about transformation, of students into sheep, and about lowing the intelligence level to close the gap between third world students and the US, to please the UN. I guess the US' being 25th was not low enough for those in power. By removing parts of history, changing the Jewish history will not be noticed. It is like "1984", history will be what they want it to be. English is already mutilated in this country, but it will get far worse. Math teaching is absurd! Environmentalism will take center stage to set the students up for UN Agenda 21, which they will accept without question. They will learn private property rights are not sustainable, as the UN says. They will become the sheep, who will learn the jobs the government wants them to do. Sadly, now they are making inroads into dumbing down college as well. So we will have people with college degrees who are clueless - like a certain leader of this country. Atlas is shrugging.
Otherwise, no thanks.
As one commenter noted (and I have said this many times), as soon as the feds send tax dollars, they also send parasites to oversee. Why should some D.C. parasite be able to determine the school lunch menu for an elementary school in Wyoming? Eliminate the Fed Dept of Ed, a monumental failure whose rise matches the decline in student achievement. k-12 school control belongs with the school board. Yes, some boards will force Creationism over Darwin, Progressive dreams over reality-based truths, but that is up to the parents to resolve.
One more chain to wrap around the minds of children. It is a smiling face with a hateful intent.
You do seem to either worship power or those in offices of power.
No
A warning, though, people in high places watch posts like these--
Wow. Thank you for sharing that.
Did you have rightwing ideological opinions before meeting him? Or was his influence part of changing your ideological opinions?
A book you should read is her "For the New Intellectual--the Philosophy of Ayn Rand." Taking from the particular to the general. That is, from the novelist's instantiation of her philosophy to the philosophy itself. You will get a taste of her Attila the Hun/Witchdoctor analogies.
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