Common Core Or Rather Common Sore - Good Morning! - I remember back in 1990 talking to a French university exchange student and learning about the so called Central Graduation Exam.
I was admittedly stunned since that was completely new to me, but of course, since then lots of things have changed due to globalization and fierce international competition. As I understand the situation, several European nations are presently undergoing significant scholar changes by transitioning to common standard evaluations. You see, these days not only the US is struggling with remarkable inequalities, educationally speaking. I've been hearing bits here and there with respect to the great Common Core, but most of it has actually been rather controversial. So, yesterday I finally looked a little into the whole matter myself and would now like to present my findings to you the way I'm perceiving them. I have found an article online which starts just as follows: "The Common Core Standards Initiative is an effort to ensure that all students in public schools in America acquire the same skills and knowledge they need in order to be prepared to achieve success at college or in the work force." Okay, now listen to this: "The federal government is not responsible for this initiative, it was developed at the state level by government leaders and education professionals, who [...].
Before the initiative, each state set its own educational requirements, which led to a situation in which some states had much lower standards than others." You think? None of this makes sense to me! To begin with, why call it Common Core if each and every state (45 by then) puts their own mark on it? Secondly, what a revolutionary initiative is this with the federal government rejecting all the responsibility? Last but not least, failure is clearly programmed right there after having picked government leaders along with education professionals for that kind of task. What on earth has the government got to do with major educational changes like these? Educational professionals sounds like a strong word, too, but at least they supposedly know their job. I was once working in a team with English university graduates as well as English teachers to publish an English book for vocational schools. We all were young and fresh and yet experienced enough to tell what was indeed "en vogue", up to date and useful. This is exactly what I would expect from any committee that works on such a paramount educational step hopefully leading into the right direction. However, as usual reality proves to be quite the contrary once more as the old and dusted experts generally have a tough time turning the power over to those who are in fact much closer to the pulse of time. And this is now leading me right to the core issue concerning the whole being of the oh so highly praised Common Core. Why of all the many other and definitely not any less significant subjects does this sort of aptitude test rest on the two pillars of Mathematics and Englisch Language Arts only? The article I found on the Internet reads: "Standards have been developed only for these two subjects, as they are the foundations upon which students will build to master all the other subjects." Oh, is that right?
So, from that I guess, I have to seriously conclude that science subjects such as Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Computer Programming, etc. - just to name a few of the globally so highly competitive fields find its solid foundation in Mathematics. Vice versa, subjects such as History, Geography, Psychology, Philosophy, Religious Education, or - God forbid - even another language like Chinese or Russian are all well taken care of with English being the base of it all? Good luck with this bizarre prophecy! - Next time, let me show you a few Common Core test examples which will give you quite some headache. Promised!
I was admittedly stunned since that was completely new to me, but of course, since then lots of things have changed due to globalization and fierce international competition. As I understand the situation, several European nations are presently undergoing significant scholar changes by transitioning to common standard evaluations. You see, these days not only the US is struggling with remarkable inequalities, educationally speaking. I've been hearing bits here and there with respect to the great Common Core, but most of it has actually been rather controversial. So, yesterday I finally looked a little into the whole matter myself and would now like to present my findings to you the way I'm perceiving them. I have found an article online which starts just as follows: "The Common Core Standards Initiative is an effort to ensure that all students in public schools in America acquire the same skills and knowledge they need in order to be prepared to achieve success at college or in the work force." Okay, now listen to this: "The federal government is not responsible for this initiative, it was developed at the state level by government leaders and education professionals, who [...].
Before the initiative, each state set its own educational requirements, which led to a situation in which some states had much lower standards than others." You think? None of this makes sense to me! To begin with, why call it Common Core if each and every state (45 by then) puts their own mark on it? Secondly, what a revolutionary initiative is this with the federal government rejecting all the responsibility? Last but not least, failure is clearly programmed right there after having picked government leaders along with education professionals for that kind of task. What on earth has the government got to do with major educational changes like these? Educational professionals sounds like a strong word, too, but at least they supposedly know their job. I was once working in a team with English university graduates as well as English teachers to publish an English book for vocational schools. We all were young and fresh and yet experienced enough to tell what was indeed "en vogue", up to date and useful. This is exactly what I would expect from any committee that works on such a paramount educational step hopefully leading into the right direction. However, as usual reality proves to be quite the contrary once more as the old and dusted experts generally have a tough time turning the power over to those who are in fact much closer to the pulse of time. And this is now leading me right to the core issue concerning the whole being of the oh so highly praised Common Core. Why of all the many other and definitely not any less significant subjects does this sort of aptitude test rest on the two pillars of Mathematics and Englisch Language Arts only? The article I found on the Internet reads: "Standards have been developed only for these two subjects, as they are the foundations upon which students will build to master all the other subjects." Oh, is that right?
So, from that I guess, I have to seriously conclude that science subjects such as Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Computer Programming, etc. - just to name a few of the globally so highly competitive fields find its solid foundation in Mathematics. Vice versa, subjects such as History, Geography, Psychology, Philosophy, Religious Education, or - God forbid - even another language like Chinese or Russian are all well taken care of with English being the base of it all? Good luck with this bizarre prophecy! - Next time, let me show you a few Common Core test examples which will give you quite some headache. Promised!
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