Common Core workbooks for my elementary school student

boing
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This is not my goal. This is the point of a nationwide policy on education. Change on a global scale cannot account for individual variation. Moreover, the reason for such a policy is to improve average performance, rather than to promote personal satisfaction.

From the point of view of public good, this is reasonable. Society does not cater to the individual, so every member (apart from some self-evident exceptions) should have a certain minimum of basic knowledge (e.g. literacy and arithmetic) just to be able to live normally. In a democratic society, this is even more important, since each member has a small amount of influence over everyone else.

College is not individualized education. While it is possible for a single student to tailor their schedule to a particular set of interests (even then, many universities have course requirements for graduation), the classes themselves follow the traditional model (highly impersonal lectures, limited feedback/interaction).

Even then, I’m not sure how a college-type model would work for young children. Kids need someone to engage them, to get them to do stuff. The can’t be expected to figure out (even approximately) what they’re interested in. Families can’t be expected to know that either (moreover, it’s probably a terrible idea for relatives to have significant input). A good system would encourage children to try many different things, without necessarily forcing them.

I agree that education funding is mismanaged, but I am more skeptical concerning the reason. I have attended public school in three different Western countries (including the United States), and I would not say that the teaching methodology is significantly different (it’s all fairly standard lectures within a rigid framework). The difference is largely in the content of the curriculum and the caliber of the teachers.

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While I (and our 2nd grader) do find some of the math problem solving methods difficult to comprehend, I am neither here nor there on CC. The important part of Jason’s review for me is kids do better when parents help, so find the tools that help you help.

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It is important to note - Common Core is NOT a curriculum, but a list of standards. It doesn’t list HOW to teach, it tells what must be learned to continue to the next grade.

All accredited schools have standards, even before Common Core. The problem was these varied state to state, which would cause some problems down the road, and resulted in kids in different states getting an uneven education compared to those in another. This would exasperate itself in college, especially if they went out of state. My brother in law was held back a grade in high school because he his old school didn’t meet his new schools standards.

I have seen this whole thing vilified many times on Facebook when all one has to do is spend 30 min researching what exactly Common Core is and isn’t. It isn’t the federal government. It has nothing to do with Obama. It was an independent, state-lead initiative.

The crazy math questions that people post on Facebook with a “WTF, Common Core?” tagline predate Common Core and aren’t actually a required teaching method. It is an alternative method that actually clicks with some people much better, and is taught in addition to the traditional method.

My favorite was people who were sure Common Core was dumbing things down, and yet then they were freaking out because the different method was too hard. Which was it?

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The only reason why Common Core was brought about is to test people
to see just how they would respond to it. Politicians know its garbage.
They just want to see how dumb parents really are.
The
whole discussion on “Common Core” or any other academic standard is
irrelevant. Because the whole concept of institutional learning is so
far from the proper path of bringing up a child. Public schools have
particularly failed in every way for over a century. Because they don’t
teach the things that are truly important. Preserving the childhood
innocence, building humility, spiritual insight, and ultimately becoming
a selfless individual.

Instead. Schools promote the opposite or
“N/A”. Institutional learning is a conspiracy against the family unit.
To bring up those who are selfish, love money and materialism, and work
to support politics and corporations. That sums it all up. And in my
mind that makes public schools highly irrelevant and unfit to keep my
children. We are talking 40 hours a week for our kids to absorb
unnecessary and harmful information. Toss in bullying as a bonus.

There
is a long standing tradition in schools to extract the innocence from a
child and convert them to whatever Uncle Sam wants them to be. Well let
me tell you. When we gave birth to our children, we volunteered to be
parents. Not some of the time. But all of the time. Those precious 40+
hours a week are included. They stay at home where they belong. It is
very difficult for children to go through life without learning what
they need to know. The academics they need are very little. And they
sure as Hell don’t need to know the names of US Presidents. The past is
the past. It died. Leave it buried.

We get so many remarks from
family and friends on the behavior and knowledge of our children.
Because they are unlike those in public schools. And when they ask me
how we do it, I always tell them it all revolves around spiritual
guidance. We choose to follow the moral principles that were
demonstrated and recorded by Jesus Christ. And we don’t need to go to
church to do that. We don’t brand ourselves as Christians either. The
responsibility to raise our children right is universal and works for
all people if they care enough to try.

Sending kids to public
school is a cop out. Parents make many different excuses as to why they
don’t take them out and raise them at home. But there are millions of
homeschoolers today that prove that one parent can stay at home. Stop
living in big homes. Stop buying fancy cars. Stop shopping all of the
time. Put your focus on living up to the responsibility GOD gave you
when He sent you a child. There are no excuses for anyone. If you don’t
know how to teach a child then ask for help. Don’t cop out. There are
still millions of people who shouldn’t be raising kids. Because they
throw their kids in government daycares 5 days a week. Institutionalized
children today are very self centered and materialistic. They are
allowed to go online and act like fools on webcams and look at porn. And
if they don’t do those things, the kids at schools are telling them
about it. Shame on all of you for sending your kids to the wolves.

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There’s a difference between the Common Core standards, and how textbook publishers and teachers are implementing them. If you’d like to take a look at the CCSS for math, here they are:

[http://www.corestandards.org/Math/][1]

There’s nothing in them about 2nd graders having to use 4 different ways to find 2+1. In fact, one of the standards is: “By end of Grade 2, know from memory all sums of two one-digit numbers.”

Standards don’t tell how to teach, just what the outcomes should be. For some reason certain publishers and/or teachers and/or trainers have interpreted the standards as requiring multiple solution methods. This might come from the 8 Mathematical Practices (which include things like “persist in solving problems, be precise, etc.” But it’s a misinterpretation.

I agree that the change to CCSS is happening too quickly, that teachers are not being given enough time to adapt, and that there is still WAY too much emphasis on standardized testing. I think there are also commercial teacher trainers who are jumping on the bandwagon to make money off the standards by oversimplifying them and steering teachers the wrong way. My job is to prepare elementary school teachers to teach math – I haven’t changed my basic approach, which builds from concrete to iconic to symbolic (cf Jerome Bruner) because of Common Core. In fact, I see Common Core as a swing of the pendulum back to the left, if you will. When I was in grad school in the 80’s, there was an emphasis on teaching math for understanding (which approach also didn’t give teachers enough support), then a backlash, then a return to “basics” that went along with No Child Left Behind.

Now there’s a return to expecting teachers to teach math so that it makes sense to students, not just prepare them with the right memorized algorithms to pass the standardized tests. This is harder to do, but it’s not impossible. However, no one has thought about or provided the funding and time to help teachers learn how to teach this way.

There’s no point in demonizing the standards however - see for yourself; they are not much different from the math that you and I probably learned (I tell my students that the math that is taught in school doesn’t change much - math changes at the margins, where grad students get their doctorates).
[1]: http://www.corestandards.org/Math/

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Yep. But we had moved on to No Child Left Behind by then:

Why Americans Stink at Math (NYTimes)

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Minor correction - there are no Common Core Science Standards. There are the Next Generation Science Standards (which have only recently been released) and there is a section of the Common Core English and Language Arts standards on Science and Technical Subjects (grades 6-12).

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@aikimo this is what i was talking about in the other education thread when i said that i get a lot of this kind of thing from voucher and homeschooling advocates. in texas these folks are uniformly tea party republicans.

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There is no history Common Core. It’s reading/language arts and math only.
http://www.corestandards.org/about-the-standards/myths-vs-facts/

Get your facts straight and stop watching Fox News.

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I totally understand. I respect someone like Greg’s desire to homeschool his kids, though I might disagree with his reasoning. Same with someone who sends their kids to public school. And attitudes like his are in the minority, even, in my experience, in the homeschooling community.

Most homeschoolers recognize the fact that it’s not for everyone, nor should it be, and that public education is essential.

Most voucher advocates embrace public education because even if vouchers go to private schools, the purpose is for public education.

There are radicals all over education policy (really, every part of government policy), from every perspective. That’s why I like Alfie Kohn’s essay on the 10 things about education that most people agree on.

http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/duh.htm

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Those phrases are never in the standards, silly! They simply define the dominant culture in school.

Actually, and probably like you, I love those things. I just love them. I have no doubt Common Core will work wonderfully for lots of kids, and I love the idea of more people increasing critical thinking skills and scientific literacy.

But like all standards, and all previous attempts to make all kids learn the same things at the same time (as if that was possible), millions of kids will be failed by Common Core, simply because they won’t be able (or interested) to learn what Common Core says they must learn when they must learn it.

It’s a perfect illustration of Einstein’s definition of insanity.

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Actually, education is an inherently social institution. In fact, it is through schooling and education, that every society and community regenerates itself. The whole reason for the existence of an education system is to create a “next generation” of mature members of the society/community. Thus, it is necessary for a functioning education system to have a set of standards and values that it teaches to its students.

This issue has weighed on the minds of many Americans over the centuries. In particular, in order for our form of democratic republic to run effectively, its citizens need to be well informed and good thinkers. They also have to learn how to get along with each other and how to deal with adverse opinions without resorting to violence.

Happily, we have a say in those standards and values – as long as the public education system remains. But, we do have to be careful that our own inadequate education does not impede a superior one for our children.

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I’m pretty close to some pioneers of homeschooling and it saddens me when they talk about how their ideals of cultivating creativity have been co-opted by the same old anti-government political positions.

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I feel like a lot of anger at the Common Core is misplaced.

When teachers are trained (at least in my experience), there is a definite effort to get the novitiates to acknowledge that Education (with a big E) is designed to teach to the middle of the bell curve. It works pretty well for kids one standard deviation off the norm most of the time. In the absence of additional programs, interventions, and resources, the rest of the students (those with special needs, those that are very far ahead or very far behind) are left to deal on their own. Common Corr doesn’t fix that because Common Core wasn’t meant to do that. It defines a universal median that should outline a path that (all things being equal) all students can follow.

When students fall through cracks, it isn’t the curriculm’s fault (usually–Sex Ed comes to mind as an exception); the failure is institutional. It demonstrates a lack of resources. When budgets shrink and support programs are kiboshed, the middle ground shrinks, and the kids on the tail ends of the bell curves (there many different bell curves) are the first to suffer.

To put it another way: if schools had infinite resources to hire as many teachers, educational specialists, teaching aides, psychologists, social workers, etc as they needed, would there as many students struggling?

…and one can’t rebut with the observation regarding American per capita educational spending; per capita everyone makes 54,000 bucks and we all know that isn’t true.

(Also, Einstein never said that.)

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That’s uncalled for. As I noted I’m not criticizing the common core itself but the implementation of it and the various new teaching methods, materials, and specific curriculum that have been brought in along with it. Which have come in with all subjects in many schools, not just those directly included in the common core. Maybe I should been clearer on that. You can’t fix education by throwing every new, half thought out teaching reform you can find at over stressed, under prepared teachers on short notice while simultaneously continuing to cut education funding as much as you can. That’s idiocy.

I don’t watch Fox, I frequently complain that the Democratic Party doesn’t even qualify as left wing (from where I’m sitting they look pretty center-right most of the time), and dismissing people by making assumptions about their political views isn’t a legitimate response whatever point they’re trying to make. Frankly the rote politicization of this (and every other issue I can think of) is probably a bigger problem then whatever short term mess is caused by the fumbled implementation. You might also notice that criticisms more substantive and specific than “get the governments out of my peanut butter crackers” are most often coming from teachers and students/parents.

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I agree and disagree. Education is inherently social, much like religion. It requires the passing of knowledge from one person or group to another.

Education is also inherently personal, much like religion. It is formed from a personal perspective on the kind of values that feel right to each individual. This is why many Catholics are able to support gay marriage and a woman’s right to choose, despite the church’s disapproval. It’s why so many successful, happy adults look back at high school as a years-long trauma and/or waste of time.

If public education telling kids what, how, and when to learn is supposed to be the way to achieve this, then public education has been a failure since forever. If the argument is that we wouldn’t have “good thinkers” who don’t “resort to violence” without public education telling kids what, how, and when to learn, then I think such an extraordinary claim requires extraordinary evidence. Or any at all.

You can’t have education (or religion) without society. But when society starts to tell individuals how they should learn, how they should understand the world, as opposed to exposing them to discovered truths and letting people make of them what they will, that’s where authoritarianism begins (and exists in the public school system).

If you want to restrict what, how, and when all kids learn, then you have a responsibility to demonstrate that such restrictions are effective tools for making better people and a better society. There is no evidence that this is the case.

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First of all, let me thank you for correcting me on the Einstein “quote.” As John Adams said, “That’s slightly fucking embarrassing.”

Does it? What do you mean “works?” Do you mean it provides most kids with a positive, meaningful learning experience that they will carry with them into a correspondingly healthy, thriving adulthood? Because I think that’s what most people want from education. But that’s just me. I think we have to come to an agreement about what it is that education is supposed to do. And I don’t know that this is even possible.

Whether or not they can follow it is, to me, less important than whether or not they want to or will follow it. We act as if education is something that belongs to the people creating it, instead of something that belongs to each, individual student. It doesn’t matter if Common Core was created to help most of the kids of average intelligence learn (as if determining “average intelligence” was like determining the half-life of strontium, but that’s another pickle). What matters is that we pretend that all those kids need to be learning the same things in the same ways at the same times.

When 14-year-olds who can’t read are “falling through the cracks” because they’re forced to spend their time temporarily memorizing the names of 19th century state politicians, the problem isn’t a lack of resources. When 17-year-olds who can’t turn a percentage into a fraction are “falling through the cracks” because they’re forced to spend their time (their time, remember, not ours) temporarily memorizing the difference between a covalent and ionic bond, then the problem isn’t a lack of resources. It demonstrates a lack of flexibility and an adherence to arbitrary and demonstrably unrealistic expectations.

Well, not as many, certainly. But there would still be plenty of intelligent, curious kids who have learned, primarily, to resent school and resent education because none of the adults respect them enough to ask them what it is they want to learn and/or how do they want to achieve the things they want to achieve.

Well, there’s a huge difference in how personal income levels are created and how schools are funded, in that the latter is immensely simpler and easier to fix. Also, when New York City and D.C. spend more per-pupil than any other country on the planet to support some of the most dysfunctional schools, it’s perfectly reasonable to suggest that how money is spent is more of a problem than a lack of money.

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i really wonder what state you’re in and when the most recent contact you’ve had with an actual 14-year-old in a public schools was because current curricula in both reading and social studies in texas, coupled with the demands of high-stakes testing has resulted in an intense focus in math and reading, almost to the exclusion of everything else. besides which social studies curriculum here is much less about specific dates and names, other than the ones everyone already knows, and more about the overall forces and trends of historical events-- and, since this IS texas, generally expressed from a white, conservative point of view. a 14-year-old here who can’t read is probably going to have two reading classes a day.

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I’m in California, and I talk to high school students (friends) regularly about school. I also spent many years here, teaching in special ed with at-risk students.

The state history example was just one of many examples of trivia that have no interest or meaning to lots of the kids who are forced to temporarily memorize it. We waste so much time telling kids they need to know stuff they obviously don’t, creating within them a disdain for formal education and a reflexive mistrust of the adults who have authority over them.

Nearly 1 in 5 high school grads are illiterate. But they’re not illiterate in the same ways or for the same reasons. Until we become flexible enough to rationally deal with that fact, I doubt that stat will improve any time soon.