Common Core & Our Children's Education
Common Sense. If we could just start there that would be a good place to start.
Common Core has become a very heated topic among parents. The idea behind Common Core may have been well-intentioned but like most government implemented programs it was very poorly designed...or was it? It all really depends on the purpose. Common Core was developed to create a list of national standards that all children would need to meet. The problem is, not all children learn the same way, have the same interests, or attain knowledge at the same pace. That is the root of the problem with Common Core but there are many more issues with it that parents quickly learned--such as the convoluted way Common Core introduces math, the fact that classic literature is replaced with technical catalogs , cursive is not taught, and a myriad of other discrepancies. The biggest issue, however, it is what it is doing to our kids. Common Core requires our children learn what the government dictates, at the pace the government dictates and then requires our children take standardized tests to ensure our they are absorbing what is being dictated. It is a conveyor belt education creating a nation of workers who are taught to be subservient to government. This kind of education is completely absent of individualism, creativity, critical thinking, and freedom to follow ones own interests. If this was the kind of education Thomas Edison or Bill Gates were forced to endure would we have the light bulb or personal computer? We can't force children to learn. As Plutarch said, "The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled." Our goal as parents and teachers should be to nurture a love of learning in the hearts of our children so that they may discover their own genius within them. That not only benefits our children, it benefits our country, our culture, our society. Martin Luther King Jr. said, "Intelligence plus character is the goal of true education." What are our children really learning when we force feed them facts, strip them of their history and heritage, and eliminate all good wholesome, character-building literature from their lives? And what happens when the good, the true and the beautiful is replaced with gender confusion, sexual identity, sexual pleasure alternate lifestyles and relative truth? Oliver DeMille, author of Thomas Jefferson Education gives us a glimpse what that future would look like by referencing the past. The following excerpt is from his book "TJED for Teens." Oliver DeMille, former president of George Wythe University, addresses this very concern in his book, TJED for Teens. He states: “As Allan Bloom pointed out in his classic bestseller, The Closing of the American Mind, the last society to be as highly trained and as poorly educated as the current U.S. was Germany in the 1930s. A significant number of German engineers were highly enough trained to build cutting-edge weaponry, submarines, missiles, airplanes and so on, but not well-read enough in history to vote against Hitler or refuse to do his bidding. “Same with German scientists, who understood chemicals and genetics enough to experiment on their neighbors when they were thrown immorally into prison camps, but not learned enough in ethics, morals, history, psychology or basic politics to not elect Hitler or refuse to torture their countrymen. “Critics could say that by the time submarines were being launched and people were being tortured, it was too late to do anything. But only the combination of top technical training and poor Leadership Education could have allowed this all to happen. A less highly-trained people could not have done it, and a truly educated people would not have done it. This may seem extreme to some, but seriously, what is education all about? If it is not to teach us what is good, ideal, and right, then it isn’t really education.” The bottom line is no matter where our children go to school, we are ultimately responsible for their education. Neil Postman, in his book "The Disappearance of Childhood" states, "Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see." We need to decide what message we are sending. There are some excellent videos on Common Core and the current state of education in our country. David Barton has done an outstanding job addressing these issues and we highly recommend the documentary film "Building the Machine." It gives a very thorough and compelling history of Common Core. In addition to the videos are posted to the right, we have compiled several others you can view on our Education Videos page. |
We need a little Mommy Sense!An Arkansas mom went to her local school board meeting to show the convoluted curriculum of Common Core and why so many parents are opposing it.
See Full Movie at CommonCoreMovie.com
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Dr. Peg Luksik
Founder "Founded on Truth" |
Peg Luksik is a mother who has been crusading for truth for decades. She is the founder of "Founded on Truth" and has been speaking around the country educating parents on Common Core and America's education system. In this video presentation Peg provides an easy to understand and follow explanation of the federal government’s involvement with the Common Core Standards and how states are committed to them. She uses official documents from Pennsylvania and the federal government to present her findings. VERY eye-opening!
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"Common Core is educational...but schools aren't factories and kids aren't widgets. It wasn't a bad implementation. It was a bad idea." ~Peg Luksik