While reading through countless government documents regarding Common Core, I kept running into the same word, over and over. Like a broken record, the Common Core proponents and professionals worked it into their "pro-Core-paganda."
Rigor.
And always in the context of 'the standards and curriculum are rigorous' or designed to produce 'rigor' in the students' assimilation of knowledge.
Rigor is not a term that we commoners hear too often; and so I looked it up to be sure I understood what they, the professional educators, meant. Rigor, in the academic context, is defined as: "scrupulous or inflexible accuracy or adherence." (www.dictionary.com). Is that what we want our children's education defined as? Inflexible? Rigidly compliant?
Children were not designed to be under the microscope, studied like bacteria in a petri dish. Children are unique individuals with desires and dreams. We, as parents, teach our children "Reach for your dreams. Work hard. Be the best you, that you can be." But soon our schools will be teaching them, "Your dreams are irrelevant. Just do the work. Be what we want you to be."
The system of education is changing and creativity is quickly becoming obsolete. Our children will no longer dream of becoming firemen, doctors, teachers, business owners, or whatever sparks their interest; no, instead our schools will parrot the government's needs to them. Is our nation lacking in blue-collar workers, no problem, we will simply program the next batch of kids for those career opportunities. Common Core, in partnership with the P20 Council, will ensure that our nation, even our 'global community', has no want of 'human resources'.
An education is a living thing that grows and evolves along with the individual. It has to remain flexible for any learning to occur. Common Core will paralyze our children's ability to think for themselves. It will stunt their intellectual capacity so that the only thing they will be capable of is regurgitating the rhetoric taught to them.
Common Core, fellow parents and educators, is the death knell of childhood and education as we know it.
I, for one, refuse to let this government sign my children's educational death warrant. We have to be persistent and demand that our elected officials take the pen out of Uncle Sam's hands, before it's too late.
Well said! I remember when I was a kid, my dream was that when I grew up, I was going to build robots. Little did I know how much educational "red tape" stands between children and their dreams. When they see how much schooling they have to wade through to get to the finish of their dream, I think a lot of them simply give up and settle for less. When in reality, they have the smarts to achieve those dreams much younger than schools dictate.
ReplyDeleteWell-written post!
Thank you Joy!
ReplyDeleteHow sad that you didn't get to achieve your dreams. We are battling for our children's right to dream of a future that isn't dictated for them.
I agree. When you're little, you think you can reach for the stars...but school teaches you to be bored and disconnected, so you just don't care anymore. Terrible!
ReplyDeleteWe just can't let this continue. Children need a great foundation in education, so they can reach for those stars! Not be crushed by a test and left uneducated.
ReplyDeleteRigor, in the academic context, is defined as: "scrupulous or inflexible accuracy or adherence."
ReplyDeleteThe question then is, how does CC math fit this definition at all?! We've got kids drawing boxes, lines, circles and dots in order to try to add 4 digit numbers. When they make a mistake (which is likely because of all the drawing, counting, erasing, re-drawing and re-counting), they have no way to look back and figure out where that mistake was made. This is supposed to lead to "scrupulous and or inflexible accuracy or adherence?" Really?!