[quote]DBCooper wrote:
Well, I’m a teacher and I support this opposition to the Common Core on a few levels. But in the article that you linked, I think point #4 is especially relevant.
I suppose it’s a normative take on education, but I firmly believe that high school is not to prepare students for the workforce but rather for college of some kind or a trade school. The purpose of education is not to create workers but to instill in students the ability to use their intellect for better, whatever that may be in their minds. I suppose a good way to put it is to say that education is not about teaching a student WHEN things happened or WHAT 2+2 equals, but WHY those things happened and WHY 2+2 equals 4.
We should be sending analytically-adept people capable of independent, rational thought out into the world. That is the most important thing in any democracy, really. Uneducated people make bad decisions not only in their own lives, but at the voting booths as well, even if they even show up to them. And what happens? We get a bunch of people elected who basically make decisions about our lives that represent a bunch of fucking morons or a very small minority of the adult population.
Preparing someone for the job market is leaving the threshold a little short. Preparing students for LIFE will naturally prepare students for the job market, but it will also prepare them for so much more than that.
I also agree with the Tea Party criticism that the Common Core essentially breeds equity amongst students. There should not be equity amongst students because, quite frankly, not all students possess the same intellect. I have had some issues with my own school because I do not give credit for simply participating and I do not teach to the lowest common denominator in my classes. I have high expectations for the students and I am not afraid to leave the less-motivated or intellectually-challenged students behind. They need to learn that they have to work harder to achieve the same grades that smarter kids receive. As a teacher, I see it as my responsibility to put in extra time on my own if necessary to help these students achieve all that they are capable of. But it is NOT my job to slow down the progress of the rest of the class so that the slower students don’t get behind. I think the Common Core can lead to this type of watering down of the curriculum and the pace of the class.[/quote]
You are clearly a racis’. Not dragging everyone down to the dumbest kid/ kid who doesn’t give a shit in the class? How DARE you!