Galt's Gulch

John Stossel on Common Core

Posted by $ blarman 11 years, 5 months ago to Education
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Competition = advancement, bureaucracy = stagnation

I think he gets it right. How about you?
SOURCE URL: http://reason.com/archives/2014/01/01/common-core-the-latest-flaw-in-one-size

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  • Posted by teri-amborn 11 years, 5 months ago
    Children must be taught concretes first and abstractions second. Reality is a concrete. Reason is abstraction. Rational application of these create a good life.

    If emotions become the primary focus, reason and reality fly out the window and you end up with a non-thinking and obedient populace full of anger and envy of anyone who has a hand on reality.

    I think we might be there already.
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    • Posted by $ blarman 11 years, 5 months ago
      Yup. It's called the mob mentality. And we see it everywhere from the Occupy Wallstreeters to the welfare bums. It's (unfortunately) an extremely effective tactic for controlling large populations that in essence boils down to divide and conquer.
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    • Posted by LetsShrug 11 years, 5 months ago
      Yes! And an in depth lesson in all that can be found in Teaching Johnny to Think by Peikoff. Thank you for bringing that up. And this way of thinking, or not thinking, is showcased in Peikoff' s Ominous Paralells... about history's dictators and how they came to be in power. Easily done when the people lack the ability to reason logically. History is repeating itself and most have zero clue anything wrong or what is barreling down the hill towards them.
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  • Posted by LetsShrug 11 years, 5 months ago
    Yes, but he barely scratched the surface of common core with this article. It has roots in Russia and the Bolsheviks. This has been trying to get pushed into our schools for decades, but got rejected because the names they were calling it gave away the real motivation behind it...so they kept changing the name and tweaking the talking points and now it's just being accepted (along with billions of federal funding) because it uses labels like "critical thinking" and "higher learning" and "excellence"...and so on and so on. The sheep gobble it, it makes them feel all good and happy that they're their kids will be oh so smart with all this "higher ed" and don't do the research to see that it's actually a predator after their kids' minds. The goal is to change society...and this will do exactly that if we don't stop it! It's been done before...history proves it. (It doesn't include independent, individual, reasoned thinking based on logic...it's based on emotional learning.)
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    • Posted by brs02 11 years, 5 months ago
      I am not doubting you, but could you provide a little more support for your claim?
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      • Posted by LetsShrug 11 years, 5 months ago
        Read Credentialed to Destroy.... And anything else you can get your hands on. And most teachers are pension sheep so they don't know the truth either.
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        • Posted by brs02 11 years, 5 months ago
          Or know and don't care. Thanks
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          • Posted by LetsShrug 11 years, 5 months ago
            Teachers, surprisingly (and to my great disappointment) do not research it. They regurgitate whatever info is fed to them from their boss. If you ask clarifying questions you'll either get their made up interpretation or an annoyed look. Try it. Some have even told me they aren't' supposed to talk about it... which can only mean one of two things. They Don't have the knowledge OR they're hiding something. And the vast majority probably don't see past hiding their own ignorance, but it's much worse than that.
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            • Posted by brs02 11 years, 5 months ago
              Actually many are told not to talk about it. I spoke to a NJ principal out of my district about it trying to have an honest dialogue and get his take. He supported it in that he feels he has the ability to remove poor teachers. He was also impressed that our daughter's 1st grade teacher was using rubrics (I had to look that one up and am not really impressed.). I went into the curriculum, its purported problems and politics... he glazed over. Of course in NJ the teacher's union controls everyone including the Superintendent. It was a polite and honest conversation at a tailgate and I believe it is ignorance not intent when it comes to lack of understanding (from both sides). I think the approach to educators should be conversational rather than accusatory and aggressive. Otherwise defense mode kicks in, the lines are drawn, and they will defend it for the sake of defending it.
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            • Posted by $ blarman 11 years, 5 months ago
              I would be careful about conglomerating all teachers in this. My mother-in-law teaches kindergarten and our State began adopting Common Core after a huge brouhaha only a couple of years ago. It was pushed mainly by the Governor and the school administrators. My mother-in-law looked at the curriculum she is supposed to teach from and complained because it was making things harder for most of her students to understand rather than easier. She was told that if she didn't teach it she could be disciplined and lose her job, because if the schools didn't follow Common Core, they lost their federal funding.

              At least here where I live, it is the administrators and legislators that are the main proponents - and I'm in a solid Red state. Many of the teachers - and especially the ones who have to teach mathematics - are really starting to turn against it. I can only hope that the tide turns so red (my apologies to Alabama fans) that the legislators are forced to pull it, but only time will tell.
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              • Posted by LetsShrug 11 years, 5 months ago
                I wasn't. I said the majority. I work at a school. I'm speaking from my own experience. I'm in a red state too. Common Core Hasn't hit here as hard yet as other places, but it's coming and I'm removing myself on the last day of school... next week. I was a testing machine in kindergarten. It's crazy. 9 years there and they want me to be a robot. Bye! I want no part of it. They're losing me and it's their loss.
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    • Posted by flanap 11 years, 5 months ago
      Yeah articles like this just tickle the ears of the "concerned, but not involved" who really don't know what the hell is going on.
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  • Posted by Todds 11 years, 5 months ago
    I have thought for decades that the plan for public education was to create mindless robots to work the jobs created by the industrial revolution. Now it seems to have morphed to Politically Correct Socialist mindless robots.
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  • Posted by Temlakos 11 years, 5 months ago
    John Stossel showed the basic problem with it, and tied it to thee even more basic problem that we even have public schools..

    But he didn't discuss the leftist problem descriptions and distortions of history in Common Core lessons.
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  • Posted by NealS 11 years, 5 months ago
    What about the content of the Common Core's subject matter and the tests? Much of it is about marching to the tune of the government and mostly in a liberal direction. How would they feel about Common Core if it marched to the tune of religion, and used God as the subject matter and examples to get the educational points across? Perhaps the content of the text materials is another subject matter entirely.
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  • Posted by wiggys 11 years, 5 months ago
    It really makes no difference that the po is mandated it is still a poor functioning money losing proposition.
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    • Posted by $ blarman 11 years, 5 months ago
      Agreed, but many people only look at it from a money perspective. They do not think rationally about the ends - only the means. They falsely equate means with ends, ie more money = more success. They ignore the results that say that the volume of money has almost zero correlation with the effectiveness of education.
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  • Posted by wiggys 11 years, 5 months ago
    the reality is just like the post office not going away and the other "public" entities Stossel notes not going away "common core" is not going to go away. they will see the faults and "try" to fix them as government always tries to do with any program etc. that is created. could be a make work project to keep people of no capability working!
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    • Posted by $ blarman 11 years, 5 months ago
      Post Office isn't really the greatest comparison because it is actually a Constitutionally-mandated program, but the gist of your argument is valid. A better example might be Social Security, the EPA, or any of the other alphabet soup of government bureaucracies.
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  • Posted by $ jlc 11 years, 5 months ago
    A perspective from 'outside'.

    I am single, never had any interest in children and try to wash my hands quickly if courtesy requires that I touch one. Nonetheless, I have to take a certain interest in education as something that is needed in order to maintain civilization.

    Given that perspective, what I see of 'Common Core' in the media would have made me think that it is kinda sorta like the SAT...and I like the idea of a universal test that filters for accomplishment in reading, science and math. So - were I not on this list, it might look good to me. From what I have seen on this list, it now appears to me to be the 'wolf in sheep's clothing' of education (and the best endorsement for Charter Schools that I have heard of for a long time).

    Please be aware that some of the people to whom you speak may have as superficial a knowledge of the situation as I might have had...and that they might be potential allies if you approach the subject reasonably.

    Jan
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    • Posted by $ blarman 11 years, 5 months ago
      Ignorance is a tool with which to bypass reason. The uninformed frequently get manipulated by emotional arguments into prematurely taking a side, upon which it becomes difficult for them to admit they were duped. It is an unfortunately highly effective play on ego for which real information and a dedication to the truth are the only real weapons of combat. It is also one of the reasons the media keep pushing a sound-bite mentality of limited attention span.

      Back when the US was being founded, entire days were spent debating single policies in local town councils. People wanted to make sure they had fully informed themselves about an issue before taking a vote and as a result, we got much better policy-making. The current trend could not have been better described by the quip "never let a catastrophe go to waste". It focuses not on the argument, but on how to use the argument to manipulate and inflame the emotions of the populace toward supporting whatever policy dictates suit one's agenda.
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