Common Core Teaching System Must Be Stopped

Dear Editor:

By now your children are back at school and have already dealt with their first midterm. But did you know that they are using a new way to teach your children? It's called Common Core.

Common Core is touted as a national system of teaching kids. That way if students move from one state to another, they'll be “on the same page.”

Common Core isn't just about teaching national standards, it's about data mining. They, and they being the U.S. government and big corporations, want information on your kids, and you. The government has suggested 140 points of data they want collected. Among those 140 points, these ones strike me as highlights. They will collect and track:

1. Family income (last time I checked it didn't matter if you were poor or not when it came to learning.)

2. Religious affiliation (really, I thought they didn't want religion in schools)

3. Parents voting status (seriously, can't even come up with a retort for that!)

4. Your child's health care records (i.e. were they a preemie? why were they at the doctor?)

5. Your child's extra curricular activities (what are they doing on the weekends? sports? volunteering? nothing?)

Common Core is all about the testing. Basically kids will become test taking drones. No thinking for yourself. The teachers must teach to the tests so students will be able to pass them. Oh sure, you can deviate from what's on the tests, but that takes time away from test material. And I don't blame the teachers for this. They are doing what they are told to do. And I don't blame the school board; they don't even know what's in the Common Core standards yet.

Common Core changes what kids learn about history. They are not only changing history by only covering certain half facts, but by the way questions in all classes are phrased.

Great literature won't be a part of learning. Oh sure, they'll tell you there's a whole list of books they can pick from, but mostly they will get 5-10 minutes of reading said material. Stories teach great morals, but you need the whole story, not a couple of examples. They will have a list of books that are “age appropriate,” but it's only the words, not the context. What I mean is how big and complicated are the words? “The Grapes of Wrath” (which I haven't even tackled) is recommended reading for a third grader. Another thing that bothers me is no cursive writing. It's bad enough that they don't encourage it, but to not teach it? Or old letters from the past? (The Constitution, grandma's diaries).

Now I'll be honest, I never liked Saxton math. The way they tried to teach my kids to do simple math (add, subtract, multiply and divide) was confusing and frustrating. But Common Core takes that to a new level. You will no longer be able to help your kid with the homework because it won't make sense. (My favorite is the lattice method. I get it wrong almost every time.)

Common Core has never been tested. Nor was it written by educators. Nor was it written by governors. It was written by David Coen. It is a progressive takeover of our schools. If Common Core was so swell, why did the governor, the state superintendent and all of her board ignore my letters just asking about it? I wrote to each of them. Twice! Not even a “thank you for your concern” letter.

And, if it is so great, why did all states have to be bribed to enact it? Bribe? Can you say stimulus money? The only way each state could have any of that money (which is just our tax money being used to buy us) was to say yes to Common Core.

The only way to stop it right now is to opt out of the tests. Parents must sign an opt out form every year. That takes away the data. If the testers have no data, they have no profit. Common Core is expensive to administer – just ask any school board member.

If you want to get more involved, contact your state representative. Ask them to get us out of this. Let's say NO to dumbing down our kids, enough is enough!

If you have any questions, feel free to call or look it up for yourself. You can go to opi.gov (that's the Office of Public Instruction) and read the standards for yourself. They have them for each grade level.

Sam Kindle

Malta

P.S. Did you know schools were formed to teach poor people to read, so they could read the Bible for themselves? Just an FYI.