When, How and With Whom to Battle the Common Core?
There are several reasons why I think it's a mistake--and dangerous--to join forces with people who are looking to take down the Common Core as a liberal plot to infiltrate the minds of children. The primary one is that--as my mama used to say--you're known by the company you keep.
Item: I'm in another state, visiting my daughter. We're getting pedicures. My pants are rolled up to my knees, my feet sitting in warm water, and the nice, 40-something woman wielding the metal clippers says this: So you're a teacher, huh? What do you think about this Common Curriculum thing? My daughter is a straight-A student, but this Common Curriculum worries me. I heard it's a lot harder. I worry that her grades will drop and she won't be able to get into college. And I really want her to have that opportunity, because I didn't.
Item: A National Board Certified math teacher, whose children attend a Catholic school, sends me a copy of a letter sent around to parents: Scholars fear that the to‐be‐developed science and history standards will "inculcate students into a materialist metaphysics that is incompatible with, the spiritual realities" and "promote the easy moral relativism, tinged with a pervasive anti‐religious bias, that is commonplace in collegiate history departments today."
There are lots of reasons to oppose the Common Core. But disaggregating the good reasons from the outright baloney is important. When we join the crazies, we reinforce their craziness and further
