Here is the second part of the essay by Ethan Jackson on Common Core. ~ Scott
Government Founded Common Core: Not the Answer (Part 2)
What about privacy? Isn’t that an American right? In fact it’s all over the Bill of Rights. However, along with the proposed standards of Common Core, a mandated tracking system has been put into place. Actually, not only will the child be tracked but also his/her teachers and the child’s whole family. As far as schooling is concerned, the government greatly exceeded collection of the normal school records with implementation of the Longitudinal Data System. In this system, every child is classified as a number, not as their name or their name with a student identification number. The students of America have been reduced to nothing but a mere number to the government. Is that how the free people of America should be viewed? It would seem as though the students aren’t free when one looks at the type of information that will be stored. Not only all academic records will be stored but personal and health records will also be tracked. But most startlingly is the fact that the entire family’s financial status and credit history will be tracked! Not only is this a major raid of privacy, which Americans are entitled to, but it’s also going way out of the supposed limited power of the government. In the end, the government would end-up knowing more about the child than the parents. And this brings up the question: whose child is it – the government’s or the parents’?
Race to the Top, another government attempt at improving the educational system, is also a part of the stimulus package that simply wants to make better assessments and standards. It also seeks to make teachers more effective. This is actually a great idea. The only problem is that the government is going about this the wrong way. In my opinion, since the government became a part of this pondering quest, it feels obligated to succeed, even if that means forcing all of Common Core’s tactics on the school systems. In Common Core or in any other system, there will never be 100% excellence. The government refuses to understand this though and that is what’s causing the standards to be lowered. Common Core doesn’t provide enough education and learning opportunities, to those that are able, in order to get into STEM colleges. STEM colleges deal specifically with science, technology, engineering, and math. That fact takes out the “college ready” portion of the government’s proposal, since math is a major factor in successful college life. To clarify, common core is ideally a simplified version of the previous curriculum, like Spark Notes, so that every student can “get it”.
All this talk about Common Core introducing new methods and assessments into public schools might have homeschoolers and private school students thinking that this whole topic doesn’t even apply to them. However, the sad truth is that it does. In 2012, College Board recognized their new president, David Coleman. In 2013, David Coleman was already working with the government on simplifying the material on the SAT and AP curriculum in order to match the Common Core standards. It’s interesting that the AP curriculum are being matched to Common Core standards because AP course work already exceeds the standards. Why would the government want to disable students who already exceed their standards? With Common Core every child must know the same thing; standards are set low so that every child can meet them. Even if the student is schooled another way, other than public schooling, the SAT is required for everybody before high school graduation in order to get into college. Homeschoolers and private school students are now trapped, trying to decide what to do next. In order to do well on the SAT, it’s necessary to know the methods of problem solving, which are being changed by Common Core. In short, the government is trying to take away the freedom of schooling options, forcing everyone into one mold.
Because every child will have close to the same unlocked intelligence as another, the students who actually want to learn, will have to work extremely hard. Those students will have to endure major suffering as they spend all their time learning the standards and then stuffing in extra work with what little time they have left. But this extra work is their future profession. The government thinks its standards are “rigorous”, but it won’t even tell the people what makes for a rigorous standard. Dr. Jim Milgram, a math professor, and Sandra Stotsky, an English professor, were the only educational specialists on the thirty person Common Core validation committee. They both disapproved of the standards saying that Common Core is not internationally bench-marked and is not adequate to make a student "college ready". At least they can explain why Common Core is not the answer. David Coleman, Susan Pimentel, and Jason Zimba are major supporters and developers of Common Core; however, they declined the opportunity to defend Common Core either because they don’t know its well-rounded aspects or because they know themselves that Common Core is not the answer. The government wants to make everyone the same; but God made each and every individual in America and all over the world different and unique. It’s time that the government turn this subsiding educational system over to God so that the United States of America, as a whole, can find the proper answer for education with no strings attached.
No comments:
Post a Comment