When my young son wanted to do some extra credit work for his middle school “social studies” class, I was obviously happy to help. Regrettably however, that assignment, and the eventual discussion it generated, confirmed for me what many have been saying about the new “Common Core Curriculum”, and for that matter, the state of our public education system as a whole.
Now I would like to preface the rest of this article by stating for the record, that I hold the profession of teaching in the highest regard. I believe there can be no greater responsibility than to educate our children, so they may have the tools necessary to succeed in this changing world. Moreover, I’m wholly confident the majority of educators are well intentioned and have a true passion for what they do. With that said, union influence, combined with an ideological push to embrace revisionism and mediocrity, as well as quell individual exceptionalism in our schools, is thwarting the efforts of good teachers across this great nation, while empowering those who would indoctrinate instead of educate. What started out as a simple request for a small paragraph, offered either in support of, or a critique of, any modern political event, has now caused me to become a “Common Core” vigilante if you will. I am now taking the numerous historical misrepresentations, grammatical errors, and mathematical inaccuracies in the assignments given as “homework” to my boy, much more seriously. And I’m now laser focused on making sure his efforts are not compromised by any of these errors, or worse yet, by any educator(s) confused about their job description.
Make no mistake, I’m a huge proponent of parents taking a proactive role in terms of their child’s education. Parental involvement in a child’s life efforts on every level, always benefits the child. But tell me, as that role appears to be growing far beyond what has always been seen as the traditional responsibilities of the parents, who incidentally must also feed, clothe and otherwise support the child, as well as work and pay the taxes necessary to facilitate paychecks for our “municipal employees”, what exactly will be the role of the “teacher” in this new “Common Core” dynamic? In my conversation at my son’s middle school, it seemed obvious to me that my responsibilities were growing while the teachers were shrinking. Much to the credit of his guidance counselor however, I thought I heard some “old-school” concerns in her voice as well.
Appropriately, I don’t want to engage in a debate over salary and benefits, or any of the other personal and political influences at this juncture. However test scores and evaluations of students of all ages, and from all across the United States, continue to show we continue to fall behind in the world.
At the end of the day, and as we see “Common Core” begin to have an effect on our kids and how they are learning, a couple of things come to mind. Firstly, teachers need to step back and re-think their role in a young person’s life, taking into consideration the lasting effects their actions (or inactions) will ultimately have on those young people. And secondly, we as parents are going to have to step up and do a better job policing this “Common Core” thing, because if they can’t spell, how in the hell are they going to teach our kids to???
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