Warriors fighting to end Common Core and all that goes with it, if you’ve been following my blog in the past week, you’ll know that I’ve been following much of the concerted efforts aimed at our post-secondary students.
If you’re anything like me, you are beyond disgusted with the unabashed claims to all the federal overreach; all the P3 meddling; all the teachers being blamed; and all the students being sacrificed in the name of ‘education reform’, ‘global competitiveness’, and ‘the good of the national economy’.
We have corporations blaming everyone except themselves for the mess education is in. We have legislators creating education bills where they have absolutely no jurisdiction. We have different parts of the federal level of government so busy pointing the finger at each other that it is absolutely childish.
In this game of ‘educational dodge ball’, we have our students right in the line of fire. Enough!! The game of dodge ball can be quite viscous. Yet, daily, we’re seeing the public-private partnerships pummel our kids of all ages with the initiative surrounding Common Core and all its related parts.
Daily these groups line up on opposite sides and throw educational landmines at our teachers, too. Yet, through it all, things remain mostly the same. Each state still has illegally based education reform via either the Common Core, American Apprenticeships, Career Pathways, Career Technical Eduation, STEM, STEM to STEaM, AP classess, IB Schools, Next Gen Science, C3 (the CCSS aligned replacement for civics), Workforce Education, and any other connected program.
Each state has received some sort of incentive in a variety of ways, from a variety of federal/state agencies that seemingly are helpful, yet, when researched, the ties to further constrain us are found. It can be enough to make one weary beyond belief.
However, I’d like to encourage us to in spite of the pain, the weariness, we KEEP informing others. We KEEP protecting our students! We KEEP those in authority in check. We KEEP exposing the corruption.
While the false arguments, the trumped up worded phrases which are double speak are being flung at us left and right, we have folks willing to speak up and share their personal experiences about living the CCSS Machine’s nightmare in education. For example, as a result of my recent articles exposing the post-secondary undermining, a brave former student reached out and shared the following:
“As for STEM, I am a STEM graduate, and am one of those who can’t find a job now. I found that 1/3 STEM jobs are going to foreigners now and 1/2 that go into STEM field are not ending up in it as a career.
My personal feeling is that STEM companies are partnering with Common Core so they can DELIBERATELY dumb down the kids and then use that as an excuse to hire more cheap labor foreigners.”
At least 2 post-secondary educators have also commented via other social media outlets about the horrors of alignment they are having to adhere to. One of these educators, who wishes to not be featured here, shared how the lies about the skills gap has been so overplayed it is a sham! Here’s a pro CCSS perspective on the responsibility of who we should be holding accountable. http://shop.mheducation.com/ideas/educator/prepare-students-workforce.html An anti CCSS warrior’s response: ‘poppycock’!
Trace the educational failures back to NOT the people currently in the classrooms, but the switch from academics to outcome based education! Note how, since competency based models have been implanted in our schools, education has taken a nose-dive! As long as the supporters of the CCSS mess are allowed to keep producing ‘research’ which states the need for more of the same, we’ll not be free of it! Here’s an example of the ‘skills gap’ based on ‘research’. See: http://diverseeducation.com/article/76145/ (*Note: students are referred to as ‘human capital’)
Education has become so incestuous with the agenda behind the CCSS Machine’s work, it has polluted not only traditional schools (public schools of all kinds), but private schools (including homeschools and faith based schools), and our post-secondary institutions (including for profit ones). Please take the time to read this article by long time education watchdog, Charlotte Iserbyt, “The Death of Free Will, Parts I and II”. (http://www.deliberatedumbingdown.com/MomsPDFs/Death%20of%20FreeWill_12_11_2010.pdf)
Closing:
In my researched opinion, the responsibility of who’s to blame in the realm of all this educational is a red herring. Why? With so many pointing the finger at others (and they, in turn, point out even more folks), the REAL issue gets lost. What’s the REAL issue?! Eliminating the illegally based education reform from our nation! Stay informed about the REAL issue. Do not allow the red herring above or any of the others which are being served up almost daily to throw you off course. Help stop the senseless educational dodge ball ‘game’ the CCSS Machine has forced upon us.