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.

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  • Posted by mckenziecalhoun 11 years, 1 month ago
    Tip of the ice burg, sir.
    There is SO much more going on that is unethical in the public schools.
    A book needs to be written.
    Perhaps I'll do it after my four decades as an educator.
    And it's going to get worse.
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  • Posted by Non_mooching_artist 11 years, 1 month ago in reply to this comment.
    Thank you! I am putting up another post which will have what the questions were and "how the kids needed to answer". I just found it all out from my daughter. You will fall out of your chair!
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  • Posted by Aristocrat 11 years, 1 month ago
    I agree - not being allowed to "talk about it" has to be the last straw added together with all of the other stories about how absurd especially the math is now. Orwell predicted that math would come to this. 2+2 no longer equal's 4 and the worst part is that is only takes one generation of kids being taught this way to make it stick. Fortunately many are waking up and trying to put and end to this before it can take hold. The group I work with is collecting up all of the public school horror stories by putting out an open call to parents to tell their stories. Maybe if enough people speak out somebody will start listening. If you want to tell your story, here's the link: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/03/pr...
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  • Posted by Zenphamy 11 years, 1 month ago
    One of the things that strikes me is the amount of parent involvement with this issue over the last few months. Interesting that it takes something like this to get so many to stand up and dig in to find out what's happening to their children. We can only hope that this involvement will continue until the parents once more gain control of their children's education.
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  • Posted by wiggys 11 years, 1 month ago
    for what it is worth you have my support with EVERY ACTION you take.
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  • Posted by $ GMudd 11 years, 1 month ago in reply to this comment.
    Think before you speak.. Making an all inclusive statement often makes it wrong. If a child's parents move often it would be beneficial if the teachers were teaching the same subject in the place moved to as the place moved from. That being said, I don't support all of the common core goals and I feel it opens the door for not only uniform education but also uniform brainwashing. Some of the exciting things for some people are also the things that scare the pants off me.
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  • Posted by $ WillH 11 years, 1 month ago in reply to this comment.
    Oh, Lexington KY. I thought you were talking about Lexington TN. I am 5 hours from the KY one. I will still talk to my girls and see how set they are on that camping trip this weekend. It sounds like a good way to help the cause.
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  • Posted by Robbie53024 11 years, 1 month ago in reply to this comment.
    Because that's how they keep a large bureaucracy employed, and are able to dole out political favors. Take away their money and they lose their power.
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  • Posted by Robbie53024 11 years, 1 month ago in reply to this comment.
    What benefit would be created by making the teaching schedule more uniform? That's a ruse.
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  • Posted by khalling 11 years, 1 month ago in reply to this comment.
    your post has generated lots of concerned interest. I hope you are attending that rally today.
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  • Posted by $ GMudd 11 years, 1 month ago
    I have taught in public school and this sounds very fishy, I am/was allowed to talk about Common core as much as I needed. The whole plan was to make it so that different places around the country would be on similar or the same teaching schedule to make education more uniform but it sounds like something much more sinister is in the works. How things change in such a short period of time...
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  • Posted by richrobinson 11 years, 1 month ago
    Good luck non mooch. If CC is so great you would think they would want to brag about.
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  • Posted by CircuitGuy 11 years, 1 month ago
    I agree you should escalate to management. I would not be surprised if he said that because he didn't know the answer. Stupidity is much more common than plots.

    If it turns out to be on purpose, you'll decide whether you want to make a case out of it to help bring about reforms or if you'll just go to another school. I respect both approaches.

    Remember we're talking about taking a handout. I have very low expectations when I'm getting a free gov't benefit. It might suck and not be worthwhile to reform. It might be better off to send them to some other school.
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  • Posted by Non_mooching_artist 11 years, 1 month ago in reply to this comment.
    Aha! And that's an excellent point, K! Precisely because there is no foundation is why this is made for failure. And this will also skew results to a lower level. It's really a corrupt system. Kickbacks to state admins is rampant and has been investigated in the past. Not enough noise about that though. Go figure. Wait! They can't! They've never been taught....
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  • Posted by khalling 11 years, 1 month ago in reply to this comment.
    Learning trig in 8 th grade can only be effective if the student has had a firm foundation in geometry. There are foundational reasons for grouping certain math systems together. Just taking a system out of the blue and expecting students to understand the abstracts, teaches them to memorize as opposed to building on concepts they already understand. Leaves lots of kids frustrated thinking they are no good at math. Math texts written by english majors.
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  • Posted by Non_mooching_artist 11 years, 1 month ago in reply to this comment.
    Yes, and I've said as much. What do we in CT need federal money for? It's not like there's really any of I for them to give anyway. Why tax people, when it is coming back? Not really, just in some mindless way and why aren't people standing up and demanding accountability!? I can figure out how to best utilize my tax dollars towards education. Stay out Feds, which they're supposed to do anyway, based on law.
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