My face to face experience with Common Core

Posted by Non_mooching_artist 11 years, 1 month ago to Education
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Earlier this evening, I attended my daughter's parent/teacher conferences. The first one was with her math teacher.
It started off well enough; my daughter is doing very well in his class, no issues. Well, he brings up that tomorrow, he has to teach the kids about baseball. HAS to. Then he says there will be some sort of "test" in an assembly type situation on Friday. I ask if the reason for teaching about baseball has to do with geometry, or something else math related. He said, no. Nothing whatsoever. I in turn ask if this has something to do with Common Core. Yes, it does is his reply.
Then he told me that on the assessments the kids took last week, they had "problems" in which they had to draw an answer. Not do a math computation. Draw. He also said there was trigonometry on the test. These are 8th graders. They haven't learned trig yet! I asked how that was supposed to assess any sort of understanding, when they hadn't even learned it? He said he thought it was ridiculous, and a huge waste of time.

So I ask what does your teaching the kids about baseball have to do with math? Nothing. Here's the kicker; he then tells me he's not allowed to talk about Common Core. NOT ALLOWED TO TALK ABOUT IT!? I am ready to lose it! I plan on being on the phone with as many of my state lawmakers as possible tomorrow. I need some more answers.

All Comments

  • Posted by Eudaimonia 11 years, 1 month ago
    NMA, I know that there is a fairly sizable home-schooling community where you are.

    I don't know if that is an option or not.

    At least your daughter has a teacher who isn't a "true believer".
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  • Posted by Non_mooching_artist 11 years, 1 month ago in reply to this comment.
    I think you're right about that. At this point, if my daughter gets into the school she has her sights on, CC won't be an issue, thank goodness! At the public high school, though, not sure. There haven't been any issues with my son's coursework. As a matter of fact, he's reading Fahrenheit 451 in his English class. He read Anthem earlier in the year. His English teacher GETS IT. But she's from a Eastern European country, so she would. She must be in despair seeing the events here unfolding as they are.
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  • Posted by marysnow 11 years, 1 month ago in reply to this comment.
    Requiring children to sign an oath is not acceptable, but I don't think that was in the original Common Core State Standards Initiative [ http://www.corestandards.org ]. I can not find this requirement anywhere on the official website. I think this is the standardized testing companies going way over the top.

    Also my apologies for using the wrong URL for the common core website in my original post. The correct URL is http://www.corestandards.org not http://www.commoncore.org.

    I think if you review the official site, you will find it is significantly different than what is being implemented. I am not surprised but am disappointed.
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  • Posted by Eudaimonia 11 years, 1 month ago in reply to this comment.
    While I agree, it's never going to happen under with this Ruling Class.
    The way Obama has gone after magnet schools is an example.
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  • Posted by Robbie53024 11 years, 1 month ago in reply to this comment.
    We need to have a voucher system so that those parents can send their money to the system that they believe is doing the best job.
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  • Posted by $ DARdaughter 11 years, 1 month ago
    Common Core is NOT about academic equalization. It's about assessing your child's values and behavior modification. It's about undermining your child's familial attachments and parental authority. NMA: You've been given an opportunity to pull your child out before it's too late. You have the right to sit in the classroom and observe "assessments" (not the same as an academic test to determine if your child learned math, english etc.) You have the right to "OPT OUT" of assessments. Look out for "Smarter Balance" too. Common Core is NOT intended to teach your child anything other than to OBEY, regardless of how ridiculous or insane the curriculum gets. If you can't homeschool by yourself, please find other parents that have formed homeschool cooperatives in order to safely teach their children. I can't stress enough to anyone that may think CC is innocuous or just another new teaching "method". IT IS NOT! Here's a link to one of our efforts in NH to get this insidiousness out of our schools. Either it goes, or your children should be removed from public school. Some States are even instituting CC in Charter & Private schools. You've been warned.

    https://www.facebook.com/StopCommonCoreI...
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  • Posted by Non_mooching_artist 11 years, 1 month ago in reply to this comment.
    That is completely unacceptable to me that I am not allowed to have a candid discussion with my daughter's teachers about this! I'm working out the final draft of a letter I'm sending to the superintendent as well as the newspaper. I'm going to be a very irritating presence, indeed!
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  • Posted by $ DARdaughter 11 years, 1 month ago in reply to this comment.
    Teachers should be striking if they care one wit about children. If they can strike about benefits and pay, they can strike about this abomination. If they quit, it's not going to change anything. It just gets them out of they way of implementation. If they aren't striking, they are part of the problem. "Just following orders" as an example to the children that there is no hope of escape.
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  • Posted by $ DARdaughter 11 years, 1 month ago in reply to this comment.
    Children all over the country are being required to sign "oaths" that they will not discuss any assessment (or test) with their parents. Teachers ARE directed to not discuss its contents with ANYONE. This has nothing to do with a District's policy. It is the requirement the school is bound by when they accept CC.
    Some very smart children have started photographing their tests with hidden phones in order to get this info out to the general public. Don't underestimate the schools lying to you or your children.
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  • Posted by j_IR1776wg 11 years, 1 month ago
    This is not chaotic, it is a well thought out plan for making sure that children never learn to reason and thus insure submissive compliance and loyalty to the new order. There will be no authority (parents, god, church, bible, friends, philosophy etc) except for the One who is all-knowing and the perfect good. Plato could not have designed Utopia better.
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  • Posted by redoty09 11 years, 1 month ago
    I heard on a radio station news back in the mid 1990’s that college students at some college in the United States were given a test that was given to students graduating the 8th grade back in the 1890’s and the college students had trouble passing it. The government for years has talked about doing something to improve education in the United States. Looks to me like they need to start teaching the way they did in the 1890’s, with strong emphasis on the basics, reading, writing and math. My granddad, born in 1890 was fantastic at math. When I was in grade school he would help me with my homework. One time he let me give him multiple, two and three digit numbers to add up. I think I gave him about a dozen or more. After I gave him the last number he drew the line and the bottom and wrote the answer right away. I checked it by slowly adding the numbers one at a time and his answer was correct. He was able to add the numbers up in his head as he wrote them down. I have never seen anyone else able to do that. I have tried to do that many times since then and can do it for a few two digit numbers at a time but no where near as well or as fast as he could. I know he went to a business college in Kansas City Missouri and he also managed a Safeway store back in the 1930’s to the 1940’s.
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  • Posted by jpellone 11 years, 1 month ago
    After I retired from the Navy I had the opportunity to go to UT San Antonio so I decided to become an EC-4 school teacher. All during college I argued with many teachers about what they were teaching. I don't want to get in those discussions so I will leave it at that.
    My point is that when it finally came time to go through the student teaching part of my education, I had numerous disappointments with the curriculum.
    It was more important that the kids draw this teeter totter instead of simply writing 6-5=1. They are so concerned about the process, who cares if they know how to get the correct answer. History is geared around teaching the kids to hate America. Science is geared around climate change and respecting the planet. Well, the second part don't sound too bad but it is biased also.
    I graduated in 2007, took the state exam, passed it with flying colors, got certified to teach in Texas and never even applied for a job. I decided that I could not teach the crap they are shoving down our kids throats. Instead, my grandson goes to public school and then I teach him the real lessons when he gets home.
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  • Posted by Notperfect 11 years, 1 month ago
    Non-mooch you stay on their arses like stink on sh%t for the sake of your child. Many more will follow and it will be a fight they may have not asked for. My Dad took trig in high school, but that was 1955 and it was an introduction to college classes. That was also the year he graduated from high school. A little bit of difference between then and now. Smaller classes with more of a one on one type atmosphere. I call my senators and congressmen all the time and a few are leaving Michigan for higher ground. I know you understand that analogy because we have not won and far from it, but we gotem' on the damn run. Prayers to you and your children!
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  • Posted by $ number6 11 years, 1 month ago in reply to this comment.
    thank you for straightening me out, I never realized there was only one way to look at this.
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  • Posted by $ number6 11 years, 1 month ago in reply to this comment.
    a little testy with your bile comparing people working to change from within and being productive people to nazis, next you'll call them racists (Lol).... we shall agree to disagree
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  • Posted by LetsShrug 11 years, 1 month ago in reply to this comment.
    I have had the threat of loss of job before for sticking to my principles... several times. There are options...you find them, you make a plan, you downsize and get the hell out of corruptville. It's not rocket science. Either you're part of the problem, or you aren't. If you go along with evil, then you're part of the problem. A is A. (As for your last sentence...I think it's been spoken by a few nazis.)
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  • Posted by $ number6 11 years, 1 month ago in reply to this comment.
    what you miss is the threat of loss of job ... so you believe they should be principled and become non producers?

    Its not about pensions, its about a job and occupation and earning a living.
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  • Posted by LetsShrug 11 years, 1 month ago in reply to this comment.
    The teachers are NOT blameless. Everyone ALWAYS has a choice and they are CHOOSING to be a cog in the common core wheel when they go along with what they know is wrong. This idea that they have 'ZERO choice' is a crock. The problem lies with whom EVER goes along with it (for the sake of a pension or the union or any other weak reason). It's not just the politicians and the administrators..it's ALL of them. It's totally disgusting to not take a principled stand. If not now....when? (It sure as hell is not going to go away on it's own.) You would think educated teachers, who love their students so much, wouldn't hesitate to point out out evil and call it what it is when they see it trying to get into the classroom.
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  • Posted by LetsShrug 11 years, 1 month ago in reply to this comment.
    I disagree. Have you taken a good look around you lately...do you see who people are electing, do you know what many of these mongers are doing to our freedom, the Constitution and so on and so forth etc etc etc??????? (Not to mention the every growing entitlement attitudes and freebie spongers). The overwhelming majority of people who elected them into office went to public school. How well is that government education really working out for this country, and for US???? And now the gov is doing a full takeover and this doesn't scare the shit out of you? Why would ANY one want their kids taught what the government decides to teach them? HAS THAT EVER WORKED OUT WELL FOR ANYONE?? History has a few examples of this very thing.
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