Common Core: Headache or Brain Tumor? | LFA: Join The Conversation - Public School Insights

Common Core: Headache or Brain Tumor? | LFA: Join The Conversation - Public School Insights:

Common Core: Headache or Brain Tumor?

By The American Federation of Teachers on August 27, 2014

By Amber Chandler, American Federation of Teachers member and 7^th grade English Language Arts Teacher at Frontier Middle School in Hamburg, NY

Religion. Politics. Sexual Orientation. Breastfeeding. Abortion. Homeschooling. Salary. Buy or lease. Immigration. Organic.  In no particular order, these are some of the topics of conversation that I generally avoid talking about with complete strangers or getting in to verbal duels on Facebook about.  Sure, if you are in my inner circle, you might know how I truly feel about these issues.  That is not to say that I don’t have an opinion, but that is to say, I’m not generally the type to try to indoctrinate anyone, and I’ve been known to play devil’s advocate to make the conversation more interesting. It isn’t that I don’t have conviction, I do. I just try to intellectually consider the other side.  To some people, this makes me interesting. To others, infuriating.  If you would fall in to the later category, you have my permission to stop reading, no hard feelings.

In the last year, I’ve added the words “Common Core” to my inner radar of “let’s not go there unless you have an hour” topics.  I have heard and read so many ideas about this topic that I am certain we are not all talking about the same thing.  The conversations have stopped being healthy debate, but rather devolved in to lines in the sand with picketers on both side, and politicians handing out tracts and gathering email addresses.  The machine is at work, and despite most people’s best efforts, we’ve been sucked in, reconstructed in to boxes and sold to the public as what our profession has become.  It makes me nervous that we are starting to be so polarized that I was not the least bit surprised when I recently heard this statement: “I mean, really, if they can’t agree on what they should be doing, then what the hell is going on?”

When I am tempted to discuss “Common Core” I start with questions: Do you mean the implementation?  Do you mean the testing associated with it?  Do you mean the training (or lack thereof) for teachers? Do you mean the lack of community involvement in the development?  Do you mean that you disagree with for-profit educational institutions (hint: it starts with a “P”)?  Do you mean you don’t like the College and Career Standards? Do you disagree with Federal involvement and prefer State’s rights? Do you mean you don’t think the Speaking and Listening Standards are useful? Do you mean that technology is not readily available for accurate data? Do you mean your principal is not very well informed? Do you

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