[ClearCase_guy]

I am no fan of Common Core.

There are many educational approaches to various topics. It’s common for people to say “One method doesn’t work for everyone.” Which is true.

When it came to reading, for many years people taught phonics. It’s a very methodical approach, based on sounds and letter combinations, and various rules about ending some words with an “e” or whatnot depending on whether a word has a long vowel or a short vowel.

The Liberals seemed to have hated phonics. Lots of rules. Very tedious. And, hey, it worked for a lot of people, but it didn’t work for everyone. So — phonics got pushed out of the schools. It was often replaced by Whole Language, which I consider a nightmare.

But, back to math:

Common Core suffers from everything that Phonics suffered from: “Lots of rules. Very tedious. And, hey, it works for a lot of people, but it doesn’t work for everyone.” Abd even worse: it’s somewhat nonsensical. Most people hate it and just think it’s stupid. But they’ve made the darn thing mandatory. One size doesn’t fit all?? Shut up and learn to like it because Common Core is going to shoved down your throats.

Education is a very damaged field. They abandon any technique which clearly works, and they force people to use any technique which doesn’t work. They aren’t trying to produce well-educated kids. They are trying to produce problem kids and thereby justify larger school budgets.

End government schools. They are evil.

[BobL]

Good summary! I thought that I was the only one here who questions the ‘wonderful intentions’ of our ‘wonderful leaders’ of education.

Perhaps there is some hope!

[100American]

Agree completely on all fronts!

Bravo, post of the day!

[Garth Tater]

"They abandon any technique which clearly works, and they force people to use any technique which doesn’t work. They aren’t trying to produce well-educated kids."

That's the plan. Been the plan for a long time.

“In our dreams, people yield themselves with perfect docility to our molding hands. The present education conventions of intellectual and character education, fade from their minds and unhampered by tradition, we work our own good will upon a grateful and responsive folk. We shall not try to make these people, or any of their children, into philosophers, or men of science. We have not to raise up from them authors, educators, poets or men of letters. We shall not search for great artists, painters, musicians nor lawyers, doctors, preachers, politicians, statesmen — of whom we have an ample supply. The task is simple. We will organize children and teach them in a perfect way the things their fathers and mothers are doing in an imperfect way.”
                                  – John D Rockefeller

[Myrddin]

Phonics worked well for me. I rarely have problems with words in English, German or Welsh. French has different rules harmonizing adjacent consonants and vowels. Turkish add "vowel harmony". Scots Gaelic and Irish have some very complex constructs. Even Japanese written in katakana/hiragana is easy phonetically. Once you pull in Kanji, I'm over my head.

The Common Core math is just stupidly complex. I'm perfectly happy doing all manner of math. Arithmetic, algebra, differentials, integrals, eigenvalue decompositions. Trigonometric identities are critical in solving integral equations. The Common Core approach is aimed at making simple arithmetic look daunting.

[pepsi_junkie]

Common core has two (unintended?) outcomes. when parents tell the kids the correct and straightforward way to answer a question the kid will say “that’s not how they did it in class! If I don’t draw a picture and count them all manually I’ll get a it marked wrong.” In this way they are taught a) their parents aren’t to be listened to and b) the government isn’t to be questioned.

[Aevery_Freeman]

It would be better to they that they wish to "produce children with problems" rather than "produce problem kids".

Children with problems like ADD, ADHD, ASD or NVLD which are meaningless acronyms serving as medical diagnoses requiring additional funding to teach.

Nice racket they got there.