Common Core: What Kind of People are we Growing?

Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are a set of content standards currently limited to English language arts (ELA) and mathematics. 46 STATES AND THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA HAVE signed on to the Common Core State Standards Initiative. While supporters of CCSS have recently defended CCSS against rising opposition as a loose construct of base line standards. The push for common education standards argues that all American students should study a common curriculum, take comparable tests to measure their learning, and have the results interpreted on a common scale. National digital assessments are being written to line up with CCSS and schools nationally have been overhauling curriculum to line up with the tests. Change the test at the top control the curriculum and methods at the bottom that's the general intent.

This new construct threatens just about every academic discipline but as a lover of literature and a parent the changes in what books our children will be exposed to is of particular alarm. CCSS calls for 12th grade reading to be 70 percent nonfiction, or "informational texts" -- gradually stepping up from the 50 percent nonfiction reading required of elementary school students.

Mary Grabar, English professor of Emory University and writer, observed, "As a college English instructor, I am dismayed by how much we have already lost of our literary heritage. During the past 20 years, I’ve found each successive entering class to be less familiar with cultural and literary concepts. Often trained to parse imaginative works for political messages, students are rendered incapable of understanding the pathos of tragedy and the delight of humor evoked from sentences that build up complexly. They think that only facts are needed"

One South Carolina school administrator, defending Common Core, declared, “Kids don’t need to be spending hours and hours reading classical literature.” A representative from the state superintendant’s office claimed that students learn to write better if they study informational texts rather than literature. Perhaps, but they learn to write what? Technical instruction manual type writing, sure — but expressing ideas of value in elegant pros and inspiring truth, NO!

The real story behind Common Core's ratio 70/30 in favor of "informational texts" is that it won't be applied 70% great historical non fiction like Tocqueville and 30% enlightenment era classics "A Tale of Two Cities", because there has already been a growing trend of assigning pop fiction in place of the classics; many teachers do it to keep students happy. This focus on keeping kids happy is a deficiency in teaching. Good teachers inspire excitement of meaningful literature and lead children to understand the significance of great historical non-fiction. No meaningful study will automatically appeal to the angry birds generation.

As a parent I have painfully witnessed this shift away from classics first hand. My 14 year old has read one classic novel in his entire education thus far — Frankenstein — he hasn't read in school To Kill a Mocking Bird, Animal Farm, Lord of the Flys, Treasure Island, Tom Sawyer, Little House on the Prairie, Grimm's Fairy Tales — all of which I read before I was his age. And many more books schools could encourage Uncle Toms Cabin, Robin Hood, Arabian Nights, Christmas Carol, The Count of Monte Cristo, Sherlock Holmes, Jane Eyre... And the list goes on. I never hear of these books being read in school anymore!

So why do books like these matter? Classic novels, especially from the enlightenment era of western civilization, stretch a student to ask questions that inform their understanding of human character, historical context, and universal truths. These books are the foundation of our civilization, they have shaped science, religion, inspired the founding of our nation, and reformed the world. When my son read his first "classic novel" at fourteen it was really tough for him. He really struggled to understand the language, themes, and the lessons taught in the book. It takes exposure and practice for a student to grasp the truths found in the pages of the best books.

Anyone can read and understand simple non-fiction, it's self explanatory, but reading literature and historical non-fiction from the Enlightenment Era and understanding the complex themes, morals, alliteration, ironies, historical context, and analogies connects students with the significance of human history, our social progress, our language. It develops the abilities of thought that make it possible to think and judge for ones self and discern truth. This exposure reaches both intellect and spirit.

Grabber says, "We are losing not only writing skills, but cultural cohesion. What will the future hold when we have no frame of reference, such as a “Rip Van Winkle” or an “Invisible Man”?" With such sober warnings why would the majority of our leaders in both parties support the Common Core? Why would so many embark together on such a destructive path? Common Core's mission statement sheds light on the answer: "The standards are designed to be... relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college and careers."

What does "relevant to the REAL WORLD" mean? It means classics are no longer relevant or true (real). In the same way that secular socialists are systematically removing morality and God from education the thoughts and values that have informed our western civilization are "out of date" and no longer relevant — or have been determined to be completely false. Most of this classic literature delves deeply into themes that relate to the role God has played in shaping history and human society, if not promote spirituality, and we can't have that!

What is meant by "skills that our young people need for success in college and careers?" It means the American political and corporate classes see education as purely technocratic and want education tailored to workforce placement. Thus, CCSS establishes the P-20/Workforce Longitudinal State Data Systems for tracking and analyzing personal student data from birth to career and is unaffected by cutting classic literature. For this purpose you don't need people who know Shakespeare or citizens who think for themselves, are creative, and self-taught. The corporate money and interest in the SLDS gives validity to this argument.

As a mother who sent my son to school at the onset of NCLB and have seen what that experiment has done! My 14 year old takes tests very well. He knows how to make the grade! He's a straight 'A' student. He has learned to regurgitate the text book, even when he doesn't believe the interpreted conclusion. He can follow an assignment rubric to the letter, but I'm not sure how that facilitates any creativity. He will excel in high school, he will get 'A's', and he will probably score very well on his Common Core aligned ACT!

This year for the first time I felt as though I had really failed my son. I have not been oblivious to the deficits in his public school education. I have tried to expose him to what I thought he was missing at school but in the end school has taken so much family time away with longer and longer school days and years, more and more homework, that there's no time left for re-educating at home. It has been a real struggle.

As a prolific writer myself I am disheartened when I watch my son struggled to write out his thoughts and conclusions after spending quality time reading and discussing the complex themes. Years ago as they beat into him a stale 5 block writing technique I thought how unnatural it was and worried they were beating out the children's unique voices. Now I worry, is he is handicapped.? He struggles to hear his inner voice and write how he speaks.

When I learned that the Common Core will further deemphasize classics, and continues to drill writing techniques that destroy creativity, there was simply no way could send my youngest into school now at the onset of Common Core. What will they prepare him for? To navigate the over regulated technocratic corporate world? Smother him in busy work so he won't be frustrated by bureaucracy paperwork and rubrics of compliance? Make him adept at storing factual information in his brain and regurgitating it upon request? It won't matter that he doesn't know his own mind because no one will care to ask what he thinks.

The education reforms of the past two decades that have favored standardization, deluged our children in test taking skills, and de-emphasized classics have been devastating to the development of our children's minds and character. I believe this transformation is designed on one hand to deconstruct intellectual and moral character by cutting our children adrift from self discovery and the sound ethics on the pages of the great literary works. And on the other hand this deconstruction acts to turn our children into workforce technocrats who are proficient technical writers with the skills and factual information they need to be good employees but who possess no wisdom.

What will the next generation look like in this construct? What education will children be left with when they have been saturated in facts and technology at school and media and pop-culture at home? What kind of people will they be when their lives contain NO discussion of universal truths or social morality at school, and for most American children even less exposure to these concepts at home? What kind of people are we growing?