An interesting article about the Common Core from my West Michigan news WZZM 13 by Sarah Sell and Bob Brenzing.
Click here for the article
I'm not sure how much of the opposition I agree with. When the article paraphrases Melanie Kurdys, it says, "They say they no longer have input in their child's education and can't even help them with homework." The Common Core really does not change a parents input in their child's education, and parents may not be able to help with homework because they don't have enough mathematical understanding to help their children. Asking your kids to stop learning just because you can't help them, seems selfish to me. If you're saying, "My student struggles and I can't help them," then my suggestion would be to talk to your student's teacher. Many schools have after school programs to help students with homework. We also live in a world full of technology and the internet can be a valuable resource for both you and your student. Wolfram Alpha has helped me personally, with many homework assignments.
Please read the article and tell me what you think. If you have other politically neutral articles about the Common Core, I would love to take a look at them. I would like some good resources to give parents a clear understanding of their child's education.
As a future English teacher, I have to say that I have no issue with the Common Core. It seems that the people who oppose it the most are the ones who think, at least in the case of English classes, that the CCSS mandate each and every assignment that students complete. This is simply untrue. The article quoted a parent as saying, "During 9th grade, he had to read an Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore. So, how that fits into an English class, I'm not sure." I agree that this is probably a challenging and dry read for many 9th graders; however, there is not a shred of evidence in the CCSS that demands any student to read this work. The CCSS simply asks the teacher to look at the level, difficulty, content, and historical value of the pieces they put in front of their students. To give an example directly from the CCSS: ELA-Literacy.RI.9-10.9 requires students to "[a]nalyze seminal U.S. documents of historical and literary significance...including how they address related themes and concepts." The teacher who decided to give Al Gore's work to the student had, apparently, decided that his work aligned with either this standard or another. If the parents have an issue with that, I fail to see how they can blame the Common Core, which simply offered that particular teacher (or school district) the freedom to choose that piece of writing.
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