What Is Wrong With Common Core? Part 2

Common Core creates uniformity rather than individuality; test takers rather than independent thinkers.

Every child is different and every parent will agree that although their children are siblings, each child is completely unique from the other. With that undeniable fact in mind, how can we expect our children, who are all unique, to be taught a curriculum that promotes uniformity and not individuality? The Common Core Standards is standardized instruction, meaning that all children will learn the same thing, the same way, at virtually the same time, in all 43 states that have adopted the Standards. This type of uniformity does not promote children to embrace their uniqueness but rather create “commonality” thus literally describing the name, Common Core.

Education-policy analyst Diane Ravitch writes, “Behind the Common Core standards lies a blind faith in standardization of tests and curriculum, and perhaps, of children as well.”

To ensure that children are truly understanding the concepts set forth by Common Core, they are given standardized tests to measure their understanding of the curriculum. In the state of New York, children in 3rd and 4th grade, are given Common Core English Language Arts and Math tests, and it will require 70 minutes a day for 6 days (7 hours total). For 5th graders, they will average 90 minutes each day (9 hours total). And for some students with IEP’s, those times are doubled, meaning that they will spend 3 hours each day, for 6 days, taking tests. For the sake of comparison, the SATs are 3 hours and 45 minutes long; the LSATs are 3 hours and 20 minutes and the MCATs are 5 hours and 20 minutes. Our kids will eventually become great test takers rather than an independent thinkers. Do we want that for our children?

Kris Nielsen, a good friend and author of the book, Children of the Core, says it best, “Our schools have been quietly taken over. We are no longer teaching the skills and concepts that our kids need. Gone are the days of creativity, innovation, and personal growth: Here are the days of nationalized pigeonholing, segregation, dysfunction. It used to be that in America you could be whatever you dreamed you could be and you were allowed to change your mind if your dreams led you in a new direction. In the near future, kids will be allowed to be whatever their Pearson test score says they’re qualified to be, and nothing more, unless we, the loving parents and teachers, stand up and fight for our children.”