What if I told you that ‘globalization is a reality’? What would you envision by being globalized? What happens to each nation, her people? What about beliefs, education?
According the the Worldview International Program for Educators, not only is globalization a new reality, it also means having a ‘global education’ is paramount. Here’s an excerpt from their website you might find interesting:
‘global content and
best practices for integrating global
education in all areas of the curriculum
and at every grade level….. Programs
are for all K-12 and community college
teachers, instructors, and administrators’
Considering this Program is housed at the University of North Carolina (UNC), why would an American school of UNC’s stature, want to raise up global educators? Isn’t it K-12’s job to educate with basic skills so that by the time students are old enough they can decide to go ‘local’ or ‘global’? Have colleges and universities suddenly stopped teaching international relations as a major? Why the push for so much globalism? Is Common Core involved? Let’s see if we can uncover it!
Worldview at UNC:
Back in 1998, Worldview was seen as a way to help prepare NC students from K-College for life in and amongst the world. The opening line on the website, at least to me, is a bit humorous. “The world is much smaller than it used to be.” Why do I find this funny? Because it was a direct answer to the question, ‘Why go global?’ Unless, we all were asleep, the world is the same size as it’s always been. However, given the advance of technology, it certainly can feel like a smaller place. The opening page also goes on to state things like ‘all of us need to learn to get along’. Fine, no problem there. However, knowing what we know about the UN’s involvement in Common Core, we must continue to dig. (More about the UN later).
As we know, curriculum isn’t Common Core, no, those are ‘just standards’. That one lie has been so exposed, I’m not going to write about it. There are excellent documented resources available. That said, let’s look at what groups or people are contributing to this Worldview education.
Friday Institute, a known Common Core proponent! According to the Worldview website, Friday doesn’t supply curricula materials but does develop teachers. Hmmm..take a known CC supportive group and have them help guide teachers. Here’s a blog stating how much of a CC resource, the Institute is!
NC State Board of Education and the Dept. of Public Instruction recently co-sponsored a day long symposium for Worldview..hmmm, Common Core Standards? Absolutely! Featured speakers at the event were from pro CC groups like National Geographic. They are so supportive of Common Core, they have an entire NG, CCSS collection! Here’s a snippet of their pro CCSS statement, “The National Geographic Society offers K-12 educators resources that align to and support the Common Core State Standards.”
ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education), “The ISTE Standards help educators build a firm foundation for teaching with technology and further the development of many of the same 21st century skills set forth by the Common Core State Standards, such as problem solving, critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration skills. In addition, the ISTE Standards focus on the development of the digital skills that are requisite for success in the workplace. Rather than being a set of content standards requiring stand-alone learning activities, the ISTE Standards include knowledge and skills that span the curriculum providing a firm foundation for the effective use of technology in any content area and particularly, in support of the Common Core.” They go on to say they are the best resource for teachers with CCSS and technology.
Learning Revolution appears to be a clearinghouse of all kinds of technology, education events, information, and resources. By searching their site for Common Core, I was able to find “Common Sense Media” is not only CCSS aligned, it had a major university help develop it…that would be Harvard University. (note: Harvard has shown up repeatedly in my research with Common Core). Take a look for yourselves at the LR’s CCSS search results. Before we leave LR, if you look at their website closely, you’ll see it says it embraces all educational choices. Super..however, look at the partners, most are CCSS aligned, as a result ALL educational choices are impacted.
Add to all of the above, educational consultants steeped in 21st century skill beliefs, best practices, and more CCSS and you have a giant CC aligned education!
So, are they teaching ‘global’ or, are they teaching Common Core? While I’d like to think Common Core could teach anyone anything..especially globally, but I highly doubt it.
If you have the time, look at each of the partners WorldView at UNC has. The Asia Society is one of their partners in education. Did you know the Gates Foundation regularly awards grants to the Asia Society? Some for humanitarian work, but look at all the ones marked “College Ready”.
In closing, what is your state doing? Remember, this is just ONE of the states embedded with CCSS and hanging a ‘global’ agenda on it. Look into your state’s colleges and who they are aligned with. What are THEY doing in teaching CCSS to those who teach the students in the name of 21st century rhetoric?
NOTE: This article was originally published on the Prevent Common Core website [ https://web.archive.org/web/20160618033837/http://preventcommoncore.com/?p=1211 ]