What a shock. Our elitist busybody overlords are using English lessons to indoctrinate our children with liberal crapola.
This is common core. You will comply.
It’s exactly what critics of the Common Core school curriculum warned about: Partisan political statements masquerading as English lessons finding their way into elementary school classrooms.
Teaching materials aligned with the controversial national educational standards ask fifth-graders to edit such sentences as “(The president) makes sure the laws of the country are fair,” “The wants of an individual are less important than the well-being of the nation” and “the commands of government officials must be obeyed by all.” The sentences, which appear in worksheets published by New Jersey-based Pearson Education, are presented not only for their substance, but also to teach children how to streamline bulky writing.
I suppose that, just like all the other things destroying our country, there is nothing we can do about it. Just roll over and play dead, it will go much easier with you that way.
Ssshhh. Just let it happen. Ssshhhhh.
November 7, 2013 at 2:14 pm
This is the most important sentence in the story, IMHO: "The official adds that while they are currently being used as common core material, versions of this worksheet including the questions of the Possessive Nouns section have been around and copyrighted since 2007."
This is not new. The Common Core is making parents look at what their kids are ALREADY doing. These are the same materials, or at least the same sorts of materials, already in general use. Don't fixate on the Common Core as the problem — see it as an opportunity to change what is already happening.
November 7, 2013 at 4:16 pm
When you're ready to homeschool, just say the word. I know of an excellent book on the subject.
November 7, 2013 at 5:07 pm
What you are citing is CURRICUIUM based on common core, not COMMON CORE. The problem is not with the common core standards. Have you read them? They don't mandate CONTENT. Your issue should be with curriculum writers. The standards do not dictate curriculum. Maybe if critics would actually READ them, they would understand. I agree that the curriculum cited is awful, but choosing curriculum is totally up to individual States and school boards.
November 7, 2013 at 7:49 pm
Well, Jack is correct. This is really a matter of curricular decisions rather than the standards themselves. Because this is becoming such a hot topic, particularly in light of the recent open letter by several prominent Catholic professors to the US Bishops encouraging them to dismiss the CC, it would behoove all of us to become educated on what they are and what they are not.
However, the worksheet in question is written by Pearson, and this discloses a different problem with the CC. With standards will come standardized tests, and with the tests come curriculum. Thus, while Jack is correct as of now (because CC is still so new), it is likely that national tests will eventually become geared towards the CC and thus influence curriculum. Standards and curriculum are never purely separable.
All that being said, it is important for us Catholics who believe in quality education as the formation of the human person to see CC for what it is. The stark reality is that the CC standards are bad, but they are not much worse than what we have had in place for the last several decades. They are the next iteration in a failing system of public education. Long ago we decided that education was no longer about the formation of the soul and that it was instead about producing an economic workforce. CC is centered around the idea of College and Career Readiness, which itself is a meaningless and flawed idea. If we do not get back to the root of education, especially as Catholics, then we will continue to see the disintegration of not only education, but also culture.
As one evidence that CC is the next iteration in a failing system, I would direct the reader to the CC directive that reading should be less about classical literature and more about "information" texts. Language arts is to be balanced in the early grades as a 50/50 split between fiction and "information texts," and by the time students hit high school, that ratio is to be 70/30 in favor of the information texts. This is particularly problematic. It amounts to the near elimination of truth, goodness, and beauty as disclosed in the great works of literature.
As for math, it is not much worse that what we have now. It continues to reduce math to engineering and application and continues to fail at teaching the actual discipline. This is not a new problem, but it is the continuation of what we have seen in recent decades.
Groan. Bring back the classical academies! Catholic schools … Lead the way!
– Jake
November 7, 2013 at 8:34 pm
PS. I know that the advertisements are random and out of the control of the website manager, but does anyone else find it ironic that the ad under the New Advent, Pew Sitter, and Culture Wars banner has been for Common Core videos and books?
November 7, 2013 at 8:57 pm
"Don't resist, it's so gentle, like slipping into a warm bath."
November 7, 2013 at 11:23 pm
Common core refuses to teach children how to think. Children will learn how to think somewhere else. In my day, children learned how to read from the TV Guide, the comics and comic books. They learned how to count from money. I am still working on reading and writing. Indoctrination and force will make Common Core concepts irrelevant, boring and obsolete. When children figure out how they have been swindled, maybe, then maybe, they will fix everything for the next generation. Beauty will return. We need God, not the state as perfection.