Common Core is Destroying our Children
By: Robyn Brydalski
Let me begin with: I am not a psychologist, brain researcher or doctor. I am not a behaviorist, counselor or psychiatrist but I am willing to go out on a limb with my seventeen years of teaching experience to make a carte blanche statement:
Common Core Curriculum is destroying our children.
Rigor, fidelity, efficacy, pacing and stamina are the devil’s dealings. We have lost sight of our children and how they learn best. It is June in my classroom. There are less than two weeks to go and my students are falling apart. My building is falling apart. The children are out of control. With the black cloud of state testing moving east (until the results are sent to us sometime in September), many teachers are trying to have fun with their students but Reader’s Theater, visiting the playground, free play, celebrating writing, participating in self determined book clubs and exploring Science and Social Studies have left our students in a tizzy. The children should be laughing, engaged and having just plain fun, the exact opposite is happening. They are using words to lash out at one another, physical aggression to release anger, refusing to comply with adult directives and disengaging from the teacher, classroom and school.
Why?
We have created these negative behaviors. At the start of the school year, we ignored the child. We ran straight out of the starting gates so that we would not fall behind on the pacing Badass Teachers Association: