Does Being an Individual Matter Anymore?
I’ve come to think of the Common Core (and the standards movement as a whole) in three different layers, with each deepening layer being more difficult to see and to articulate. These layers are simplistic and certainly not all-inclusive, but they do allow me to at least symbolize different understandings of the CCSS.
Layer one: The Common Core standards in isolation.
Deeper
Layer two: The Common Core standards connected to political and economic considerations.
Deeper again
Layer three: The Common Core as representative of a particular way of imagining what it means to be human.
Layer one is simply the standards themselves as they function within the classroom. This is the level that teachers initially deal with and it is the way that the media all too often addresses the Common Core. I have written multiple times, as have many others (and below), about the dangers inherent in looking at the Common Core in isolation from its broader implications.
At the layer two level, we begin to see that the Common Core has the potential for doing great damage, particularly in its connections to high-stakes testing,
