Posted on 08/10/2013 9:27:11 AM PDT by george76
Gov. Nathan Deal complains there has been much “misinformation” spread about the new Common Core national standards that Georgia adopted in exchange for a federal Race to the Top grant. Indeed, he’s right, but not in the way he believes.
One critical piece of misinformation is the claim that the Common Core math standards are more “rigorous” than our previous Georgia Performance Standards. Research shows the truth is quite the opposite.
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Common Core national standards will set our children back one to two years. The math standards specifically are markedly inferior to all three sets of standards used for comparison
So what is missing in the new Common Core Math Standards? A few examples:
• Probability — gone in elementary grades.
• Mean, median, mode, and range — gone in elementary grades.
• The concept of pi, including area and circumference of circles – gone in elementary grades.
• Division of a fraction by a fraction – gone in elementary grades.
• The Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic (prime factorization) – gone completely.
• Using fractions, decimals, and percents interchangeably — gone completely.
• Measurement (including density, velocity, and scientific notation) – no measurement instruction after 5th grade.
• Algebra — inadequate readiness in the elementary grades and pushed back one year (from middle school – 8th grade – to high school – 9th grade). This means most Georgia students will not reach calculus in high school, as expected by selective universities. And because algebra is the gateway to higher mathematics, Common Core’s approach reduces the likelihood that students will be prepared for university-level math.
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When our previous standards actually challenged students, why are we settling for the mediocrity of Common Core?
(Excerpt) Read more at ajc.com ...
Dumbing down the population is essential when the Government wants complete control over our lives. The newest generation will not have the advantage of being able to think for themselves. Pray for our country.
What would you do for a fist full of federal dollars, er I mean, Klondike Bar?
I was half listening to the radio yesterday and heard someone talking about this program describing it by saying kids won’t be asked when the U.S. “dropped the atomic bomb, but how the world would be different if we had not.” I wish I had been paying closer attention before he said this. Talk about indoctrination.
Dumbing down the population is essential when the Government wants complete control over our lives.
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Worse than dumbing down - communist indoctrination
‘Really Spooky’ Poem Praising Common Core Allegedly Recited by Dozens of 5th Graders
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3053007/posts
You really need to HEAR Beck and Stu perform this. It is worse than the Obama kids mentioned in post 11, because it is giving glory (worship, Kudos) to the curriculum, not a person, such as Obama.
Were 5th graders forced to recite “We learn more with common core!” poem?
Related
The Wave - what is it about?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2331015/posts
Common Core: A Scheme to Rewrite Education
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3053038/posts
My understanding is that in reading, classics (think Huck Finn)
Are deemphasized and ability to read dry manuals emphasized.
This is not necessarily dumbing down. I am no fan of Common Core. I consider it a wretched piece of crap that is designed to control our children. That said I simply suggest to you that the things ‘removed’ from the K12 curricula are not that big a deal. There is no good reason to teach fractions before 5th grade. There is no good reason to teach probability at all until college. So what if a high schooler cannot take calculus? Most of the calculus taught in high school is worthless when you take college courses that really need it (like physics and engineering).
When I went to school (back in the dark ages) we studied none of this junk until college...and of course it was so detrimental that my generation got to contribute to some of the best growth years this country has seen in modern times. We helped get us to the moon. We improved measurement techniques. We did the engineering and science work that has provided the modern world with many of its conveniences. Not a one of us had probability in elementary school or learned the fundamental theorem of arithmetic. So much of the ‘new’ math is nonsense. It is geared to protecting children from learning their ‘tables’. They use calculates and cannot make change if their life depended on it.
IF the common core would focus more on actual useful skills (can you add and subtract? multiply and divide?) it would be a better thing.
The real issue, in my opinion, is not whether Common Core curriculum is good or bad. I wouldn’t care if it was the greatest curriculum ever written, it still wouldn’t be right because the federal government has no business creating a “national curriculum” for schools, public, private, or homeschool.
The States should refuse to adopt Common Core for that reason alone.
Yes, the federal gov’t has greatly influenced public schools because of special funding from the Dept of Ed (also unConstitutional), but a direct national curriculum has never been done before. This is a bad, bad, bad idea.
At least with the States, they determined their own curriculum for their own kids - this in turn is also influenced by local school boards and parents. But this?
Talk about indoctrination! This is definitely it.
How did the Common Core practically become law with almost zero public discussion?
Sounds like Obamacare.
I am becoming very disenchanted with Nathan Deal who I voted for. He is not the conservative I thought he was.
“How did the Common Core practically become law with almost zero public discussion?”
When the states signed on, they got some cash from Obama’s “Race to the Top” program. That, and there are some who have wanted a national school system for years- and Common Core is a large step toward that. Common Core was cooked up outside the Federal government, which fooled some people into believing it is benign, but if the Feds encourage it with bribes it can’t be a good thing. Federal influence in education (which is a matter for states and local government) is a persistent danger to liberty. As I teach my students, one of the first things the Nazis did in Germany was to defederalize it- make it into a national entity with a national school system. Attempts to make one here should be resisted, even if they seem to be harmless.
I hate to tell you this but when I was in elementary school we did not use text books. The only books we had were those in the library for reading. All problems came either from the chalk board or the mimeograph machine. Did the teacher have a master text probably. I guarantee you that probability was NOT taught in elementary school......We spent our time doing drills for our arithmetic tables. We got fractions in fourth and fifth grade.
Blues Clues for math. Multicultural and eco examples abound. Instruction in methods sadly lacking. Common Core is garbage.
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