I don't know how much more of this Common Core bullshit I can take.

[AtheistCrusader]

I swear, my facebook feed is like a PARADE of stupidity and fear mongering about CC.

Couple months ago, it was number lines. Now it's basic addition (the 6+9 meme). Yeah, ok, it covers a new principle to approach the WHY of arithmetic that works for bigger numbers than you can memorize. Scary, right? No? Guess it helps if you frame the issue correctly.


These troglodytes are why I have to have two tools for every stinking size, Metric and SAE.

Why is it so frightening to some people that our children learn a new method that helps them exceed our capabilities? Why is that not every parent's dream? I want to see my child achieve things I could never accomplish.

argh

[TreasonousBastard]

1. With no kids in school, this is mysterious to me...

and far too complicated for me to worry too much about. But, you can't get away from it.

Although, while I remember the mess with "new math" (which seemed to confuse the parents far more than the kids) I can't imagine any good reason why all this hysteria about wanting kids in Texas and Mississippi to be at the same level as Massachusetts and California.

Simultaneously, there seems to be a war on teachers, with demands to cut tenure and pay.

Is there really a movement to dumb down our kids? Sure looks like it, but who would do such a thing?

[underpants]

4. Yes yes and yes

Yes to war on teachers. Not only are they often unionized humans that people actually see everyday but (I've heard this on talk radio) also the teachers unions originally were comprised of or aligned with THE BLACKS - even RADICAL BLACKS. seriously that is out there.

Yes to dumbing down. Public school is there to create worker bees, private schools are for the management type. That is a bit paranoid but there is a link to the Hoover Institute at Stanford from waaaay back.

Why? The anti- Common Core types tend to be the 'burbs (the autism-vaccine crowd) to believe-anything RW'ers. Think about how the RW keeps their believers cut off from the world and information. It's basically an abusive relationship - Don't talk to them neighbors! They'll fill yer head with craaazy ideas! - you do what *I* tell you.

Something like 20-30% of families will move during a child's school age. Mostly work related, some health related. On average a kid that moves loses about 1/2 a school year in the transition. From the move itself to adapting to a new (advanced or step backwards) curriculum.

[procon]

2. Welcome to the Age of Mediocracy

Do mediocre people need an education to join the expanding growth in service jobs? What need is there for critical thinkers where mediocrity is the goal and success is rewarded by a bit of shiny new corporate bling to pin on your uniform beanie?

[underpants]

3. It's the modern day "Communist fluoridated water"

And people eat conspiracy theories up.

[Smarmie Doofus]

5. Oh... I don't know.

My least year teaching (2011-2012) I was told to stop teaching my 15-21 year-old severely intellectually handicapped ( autism, Down Syndrome, cerebral palsy, etc) how to make change to use the bus, tell time to get to a job on time, and round-off prices in grocery stores so they could someday shop independently ( or more realistically, semi-independently) ....... and instead start teaching them algebra and geometry.

Why algebra and geometry? Because that's what the NYS CCSS said all HS-aged kids HAD to be doing.

Are you *sure* that the "troglodytes" are the *anti*-common cores ?

[AtheistCrusader]

6. That sounds like fallout from NCLB.

The '100%' compliance to standards issue.

[Smarmie Doofus]

7. It's fallout from people that don't know anything about public education...

... like Obama, Duncan, Gates et al, et al .....insisting that they DO.

And basically not giving a shit whether they do or not.

[Igel]

10. Mostly.

A lot of IEPs and SpEd programs put kids in below-level classes or modified the standards to focus on what the kids could do and needed to do.

This was a good thing for a lot of developmentally disabled kids.

But immediately administrators and parents, both greedy and grasping, decided that they'd put kids on modified programs for their own purposes. To avoid stressing the kids. To avoid stressing the administrators. So modified tests are biting the dust and modified curricula are, too.

Every useful tool that can be found can also be abused. And when it's abused, it's taken away. You think the parents and administrators would learn to stop abusing their tools, but since they're all short-term thinkers it's a "tragedy of the commons". ("I want to get my kid to graduate ... he has 3 years"; "I want to get that promotion, but that won't happen for two years&quot

[madfloridian]

11. "administrators and parents, both greedy and grasping" Wow!

That's sort of following along on Arne Duncan's uninformed criticism of teachers and students.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025490636

You just put a heck of a label on a lot of good admins and parents.

[madfloridian]

12. Frankly it's upsetting to see these attacks in the Education forum

I still get brave enough to post stuff about education in GD, but I know I must take the pile-ons.

We shouldn't have to do so in the Ed forum.

[madfloridian]

9. Arne just stated he wants ALL students to have IB classes, pass all tests.

It is so unreal it is almost unbelievable.

Anyone who has worked with students with special needs knows that all kids are NOT alike, and they can NOT all function at high levels.

He said this:

“We know that when students with disabilities are held to high expectations and have access to a robust curriculum, they excel.”

Really? Guess he doesn’t know that not all special needs will disappear with the right curriculum, standards, and testing. Guess he subscribes to the same thinking as school administrators who believe kids will outgrow their learning disabilities and differences, thereby requiring fewer support services as they mature. That’s one way to justify cutbacks in the services they need and the special educators and therapists who administer them.

Yes, we should have high expectations for children with special needs. But access to a “robust curriculum” is not the answer. Nor is testing them. Nor is threatening their teachers and schools in the same manner as Duncan’s approach to general education.

http://www.chicagonow.com/still-advocating/2014/06/arne-duncan-and-special-education-a-dangerous-mixture/

It's insulting to teachers to say that we do not demand the best of students. How did we let the reformers take the high ground on this issue?

Now since the extreme right opposes it we who are teachers and are on the left wing....are treated like trolls if we oppose it also.

Nothing wrong with sensible standards, but FL has had standards for decades. They keep changing them, changing the name.

It's the tests that are going to destroy public education.

You simply can not declare that all children are capable of reaching the same level....and have it be true. Magic wands don't work that well with kids.

[msongs]

8. "When I look back at all the crap I learned in high school, it's a wonder I can think at all" -

as Paul Simon correctly points out most of what we "learn" in school is useless crap with absolutely no value beyond the moment.

[madfloridian]

13. "troglodytes" refers to what group?

[AtheistCrusader]

14. The ones posting the 'I've got a math BA and I can't figure out this CC math problem'

crowd, that are appealing to ignorance and flipping over tables on issues like the 32-12 math problem. There is a strong correlation between this 'outrage' and conservatives/homeschooler movments.



I've taken to responding to it with this.

[madfloridian]

15. There are a lot of ways I could answer that.

In a way I agree that the concepts taught the new way are important ones. In fact in the primary grades I and many others used those methods.

But in the end there is the real world. So many students simply get lost in the maze of the new math that they end up thinking they don't understand something that could be done simply and quickly as in your example above of 32-12.

There is a fine line to walk unless the "old" way is presented so the "new" way challenged ones can get it and deal with it in real life.

Teachers don't mind standards, but they want "good" standards. Actually it is the testing they are demanding that is going to be destructive.

Some of the best students are not good test-takers. They read too much into the questions, they over think them.

With these new standards the non-educators are moving in with an overwhelming number of new tests to give. There will now be testing most of the year at many grade levels...EVEN Pre-K and Kindergarten.

AND that testing is not teacher made testing...it is testing made in secret by conglomerates like Pearson and graded secretly as well. If parents want to see a test to understand why a child fails a test....they might as well hire a lawyer up front.

The old way is still going to be needed in real life. Many children with disabilities can grasp the concrete thinking in involved in 32-12. But they can not dissect the problem like the new math requires.

What happened to individualized teaching? We were always taught to take the child where he is and then take him as far as he can go. Some can go a long way, some can not.

Arne can NOT just magically make all children capable of the same degree of learning. He is not God though he thinks so.

[Ka hrnt]

16. Common Core is a nation-wide *experiment*; no evidence it will work.

From what I have read, there's essentially no evidence to justify the existence of Common Core. About the only things that guaranteed is that with national standards, the "big ed" companies can now get better economies of scale by not having to make different versions of textbooks/tests. In other words, the biggest advantage is that Common Core is going to be (even more) profitable for Pearson et al.

[LWolf]

17. Common Core is not a "new method."

It is a list of standards, like every other list of standards. Some lists are better than others. Common Core includes some extra emphasis on some things not found as a focus on other lists of standards.

It's not the list of standards that is at issue; it's the misuse of those standards that is the point, and the whole point of those standards is misuse and abuse of the system.

It's true that under CCSS, some math will be taught differently. It's not the teaching. To repeat, it's the misuse and abuse of the "standards."