The Observation Deck

Jeff Dreger wrote:Common core isn't the best but it's not the end of the world either.

First, maybe its not the end of the world, but it is a step in the wrong direction.
Second, We live in the United States of America. Tell me why you should settle for something that "isn't the best?" Demand the best!

Now, to this video that bugs me (most quotes are paraphrased):
First: "We don't know how are kids are doing in school and how they are going to do when they get out of school."
Thomas Edison was declared, by his teacher, to be "addled." Rocky was just some shmo until he got that break from Apollo Creed.
We didn't know then how students were going to end up and we never will. No one can predict the future.
Actually, I take that back. If you mold a child from birth for something specific, educate them only for it, place them IN a job without them having the freedom of choice to do what THEY want, then you can probably predict the future. But this isn't China...is it?

Second: "When it comes to learning what is needed to be successful after school..."
Again, you don't know what they need to be successful because you don't know what's going to happen in the future. My 16.5 years of school didn't prepare me to work the desk in the library, and as far as my book restoration business...I took one class in college that MIGHT have helped me with that.

Third: "Is the girl in your neighborhood being taught as much as her friend over in the next one"
My particular concern is with the drawing more than the speech over-top of it. The one student who is supposed to be learning more has more "stuff" in the classroom, which to me implies more money. This is not only feeding the fallacy that throwing money at the schools makes for smarter or more successful students, but is also invokes a class-warfare theme. Those evil rich people!

Fourth: "Is a graduate from St. Louis as ready for a job as one from Shanghai? The answer is no."
Every individual is different and every life is unique. This is an overly blanket statement and a stereotype. Maybe the one in Shanghai is ready for a job because the State has already determined he's working at a FoxConn factory building iPads.

Fifth: Every state has been setting its own standards for students at each grade level.
Well, a student in New York has less need for learning about farming than a student in Nebraska. A student in Texas or Florida may have more need for Spanish as a second language than one in Idaho. That's the state's choice to handle education as they want.

Sixth: "What if everyone's stairs were made at different heights?" Is it wrong to demand more from our students? Isn't that a significant factor in how couples choose where to live? "Do they have a good school system?"

Seventh: "Something like counting to a hundred leads to understanding dollars and sense and eventually to knowing how to do a budget."
I want a test to see if President Obama can count to 100. If he keeps his own golf score card, I'll bet he can't...

Eighth: Everyone can design their own curriculum...
That's funny, Bill Gates, who pours millions of his foundation's money into this stated that: "identifying common standards is not enough. We'll know we've succeeded when the curriculum and the tests are aligned to these standards. Secretary Arne Duncan recently announced that $350 million of the stimulus package will be used to create just these kinds of tests—next-generation assessments aligned to the common core. When the tests are aligned to the common standards, the curriculum will line up as well—and that will unleash powerful market forces in the service of better teaching."

Tim Liston wrote:Young people these days are honestly just dumb. My two daughters included, which pains me to say, even though they undertook a non-traditional education. Jim, our generation (plus maybe a very few years) singlehandedly ended the Vietnam war. Today’s college students don’t even care.

Where to start!

Singlehandely?

Today's college students don't care?

Where was the rest of America especially those that ended the war singlehandly when
George Bush stood infront of Congress and cited the "Gulf of Tonkin" Resolution for the
reason and way to go into Iraq, errr Afghanistan, errrr Iraq, errrrrr anywhere in the Mid-East?

No one cares, that is the secret, power has gone feral, and everyone else is suffering from
some form of battered wife system, afraid to say anything or worried the next is worst,
cause it always gets worse!

That said. Of course we are smarter than kids today. THEY ARE KIDS!

One of my many topics when talking with the young-ems, that I too take issue with at
times but rarely of school smarts is, Remember being 8? Remember being 16? Ok any
thinking progress now in your 20? Know more? OK now think of 50!

Critical thought and experience are gold, always will be.

Roy, Common Core does not cover a full day at school. Just the classes needed to get a
job and exist. Arts, Music, sports etc left up to the schools.

Or as one of my very, very R friends put it. "Common Core is designed to supply the lower
side of jobs with a constant stream of workers. Walmart, food service, janitors, plumbers,
etc." as he went on to say, "Let's be honest, any kid with a future is in a private school
with a great college program, and chance to mold their programs to the students." Yet
another way to separate the haves from the have nots. It sucks that private schools can
take $$$$$ from the public school system with less restrictions and testing. They are now
failing at a higher rate that most.

The entire nightmare is an op.

But we cannot opt out!

So let's do it the best we can, and with enough community support, Lakewood kids can
come through it with everything you are asking for Jeff, Tim, Roy, Grace, etc.

FWIW

.

Gosh, I don't even need to listen to Glenn Beck - I can come to the Observer and see what Roy posted to know what the latest conspiracy is!

You parroting Glenn Beck and posting things you get in mass emails really weakens your position and credibility, Roy. Maybe you should check some of these things out on Snopes first.

Do you have original thoughts or are you just a mindless Tea Bagger who seizes upon the latest talking point, cuz thats all I see here. Every post you make I can google and it shows up as a recent right wing piece posted on radical sites and sent in mass emails.

Grace, if Common Core is so great, why don't you give me some examples of where its working instead of attacking me?
If I and everyone "on the right" is wrong, it should be very easy to refute my "facts."

"Ridicule is man's most potent weapon." Alinsky's Rule #5. Alinsky, who dedicated his book to Lucifer and learned tactics from Al Capone's gang during his doctoral thesis work.

I think the bigger problem is "How does Juanita not know how many friends she has?".

Roy

I don't need to give you any facts because I'm not the one making outrageous statements. I've never stated any support or opposition to Common Core because my mind is still open.

YOU need to make your case with cogent arguments and facts because YOU are the one continually coming here and claiming that Common Core is akin to the government taking over our children's minds for some nefarious purpose, not me. Constant posting of talking points you get from right wing groups is not helpful or fact based.

Grace O'Malley wrote:Roy

I don't need to give you any facts

I've posted links to multiple news articles, including the vaunted Huffington Post.
I've found direct evidence on government websites and provided those links as well.
I've got pictures from school workbooks.
These are not facts?? Do you think I'm some master hacker, placing these articles on these servers illicitly to prove my own point??

Grace, you've made up your mind...not on Common Core (I'll take your word for that)...but on the source of the material. You won't trust anything that comes from my mouth...or fingers in this case, whether it is fact or fiction, simply because I choose to associate myself with one person (Mr. Beck) or a group of persons (the Tea Party). It is your right to do so, but you do yourself a disservice by not having the open-mindedness to consider the possibility that what I say is even partially correct.

Dealing with you isn't worth my time. I will continue to post what I find insightful, but I'm not going out of my way to deal with your insults.

One last thing: Listen to the others here. I don't hear them heaping praise upon Common Core. I have, in fact, heard numerous people say (paraphrasing), "It's what we have and we'll just have to deal with it." That is not exactly a resounding endorsement of the system.

[sarcasm]This message brought to you by my Zionist master.[/sarcasm]

Here's a link to the Common Core Standards in case anyone wanted to actually talk about what they actually say or anything.

http://www.corestandards.org/the-standards

And here's a few of the Grade 9-10 Reading: Informational Text Standards as an example of what they look like and say. There's more standards on the site. Lots of them. They're definitely worth a look. It might also be noted that there's not a single standard in Language Arts that is linked in any way to a specific text, like, for example, The Canterbury Tales.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.9-10.1 Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.9-10.2 Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.9-10.3 Analyze how the author unfolds an analysis or series of ideas or events, including the order in which the points are made, how they are introduced and developed, and the connections that are drawn between them..

I'm not up on the Math standards, but they don't seem to be much different in approach or scope from what the Language Arts standards do. There isn't a link to Common Core Science, Social Studies, Foreign Language, or Art Standards because they don't exist.

I'm not commenting on whether or not the Common Core is or isn't what people say it is. Nor am I saying that these standards are or aren't worthy of public debate. As has been pointed out, as a teacher, I'm responsible for them either way. I'm posting as a reminder that if we're going to analyze a text, we should start with the text itself and not skip to the commentaries, secondary materials, and op-ed columns. That's just good textual analysis, Common Core mandated or not.

Sean Wheeler wrote:Here's a link to the Common Core Standards in case anyone wanted to actually talk about what they actually say or anything.

http://www.corestandards.org/the-standards

And here's a few of the Grade 9-10 Reading: Informational Text Standards as an example of what they look like and say. There's more standards on the site. Lots of them. They're definitely worth a look. It might also be noted that there's not a single standard in Language Arts that is linked in any way to a specific text, like, for example, The Canterbury Tales.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.9-10.1 Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.9-10.2 Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.9-10.3 Analyze how the author unfolds an analysis or series of ideas or events, including the order in which the points are made, how they are introduced and developed, and the connections that are drawn between them..

I'm not up on the Math standards, but they don't seem to be much different in approach or scope from what the Language Arts standards do. There isn't a link to Common Core Science, Social Studies, Foreign Language, or Art Standards because they don't exist.

I'm not commenting on whether or not the Common Core is or isn't what people say it is. Nor am I saying that these standards are or aren't worthy of public debate. As has been pointed out, as a teacher, I'm responsible for them either way. I'm posting as a reminder that if we're going to analyze a text, we should start with the text itself and not skip to the commentaries, secondary materials, and op-ed columns. That's just good textual analysis, Common Core mandated or not.

I completely agree and appreciate your posting, Sean. It's valuable to hear from someone who is actually in the classroom, and I hope you continue to provide us with your insight.