Common Core is an interesting topic. My husband asks me why I care since I homeschool, not out of any apathy on his part, but out of genuine interest in my motive.
Quite simply: it is because the way the youth are educated determines the future of a nation.
I have been a little wary of the extreme sensationalism and fanaticism I have seen opposing Common Core. While I respect fiery determination to right the wrongs of this world, as found in Samual Adams and Patrick Henry, I am also mindful of the mindless passion that led many of the people of France to bring friends and family to the guillotine. I am also mindful of how easily "facts" can be misrepresented and fabricated.
And yet, I have also been a little puzzled at the relatively silent and steady (even secretive?) movement forward of the implementation of Common Core and the fear that I sense that seems to be enabling it. For instance, the other day at Pack Meeting, a dear friend shared with me some of her concerns. She has all of her children in mainstream public school for she felt that is the right path for her children. (I heartily believe in and support the right of the parent to know what is best for their child!) However, as she shared just two examples of her concern and her feelings that went along with it, I became alarmed.
Example 1: One of the test questions given to one of her children went to the effect of "In which of the following situations would you steal?" Six options were given and not one was "I would not steal" or "none of the above." Think of what is happening with this one simple question: you have a trusting, impressionable young student who has been taught culturally and in his home that tests are meant to be passed. They are presented with only options that violate his core beliefs. His "only option" to "succeed" in this question is to rationalize each of these situations in his mind, justifying the response of stealing to feel if any of them would be acceptable.
In six different ways he tries to feel out if he could justify stealing, all with the idea in his head that one of the answers must be right. What if none of them are? What is this doing to the moral foundation in this child? Depending upon the home, it could be starting beliefs that run completely counter to the parents' core belief. Regardless of the parent's belief or lack thereof, it could be running against God's eternal truths, indoctrinating them in the "religion" of moral relativism and secular humanism.
Another follow-up question in this example was raised in one of her children's classrooms: "Who knows what is best for you, the government or your family?" What child understands that question? What child understands even what government means? True government in the democratic republic our Founding Fathers created is a representation of the people, in which case the question is irrelevant. Who is even asking this question? And more importantly, why?
Example 2: In some testing situations, children have headphones put on their heads. If they respond "incorrectly" to an answer, they hear a buzzing in their ear to let them know they were wrong. This is conditioning-- creating instinctive, automatic responses to certain questions. Pavlov did it with rats. It has also been performed on people.
Do we know what is on these tests that are being used to create generated responses? Answers I have received from teachers and parents alike is that none of them are permitted to know what is on these tests. The potential for wide-spread conditioning to specific ideas is huge. And what if those questions they are being "conditioned to" are the ones I mentioned above? And what if, morally and religiously, I am completely opposed to the "correct response?
I bring up all this from a first-hand account of my dear friend in the public school system. She is trying to make it work, because she feels that is where they need to be. However, as she considers "opting out" of the testing, she hears from another friend who experienced first hand the negative effects on her top-scholar son's academic record: he was labeled as a "non-performing" student. My friend fears the negative repercussions that could come from refusing to have this testing done.
Another lady I met yesterday who recently went through this process of "opting out" experienced the same things for her sons,...in fact, the principal at first refused to even take her "opt-out" papers, assuring her of the negative impact it would have on her sons' academic records. Her friends in her community, who actually inspired her to do it in response to their own outrage over Common Core, all feared to do the same and opt their children out, and she ended up being the only one to opt out.
My purpose in bringing this up is not to incite fear, but rather to provoke questions.
*Do we know what our children are learning, both ours and their peers?
*Are we, as parents, truly mindful that we are primarily responsible for the education--spirtual, moral and secular--of our children?
*If we have a system that is steeped in secrecy and generates fear, what is our role in identifying what is happening?
*How can we find the facts amidst the sensational?
*Are we allowing our fears to govern our actions, rather than our sense of right and wrong?
*How can we rise above our fears of "what will this do to the social standing of my child" and do what we feel is morally right?
Those last couple questions are what bother me the most right now, I think. I see so many people feeling and knowing that they need to do something different, but are being immobilized by fear: fear of academic labels of their children, fear of peer exclusion, fear of "what might happen"? That is what scares me the most. Does it truly matter more how the mysterious entity of "the government" labels our children than how they and we stand in doing the right thing before God? Are we so frightened of peer pressure that we are allowing tyranny to spread in our midst?
Historically, I saw these same fears paralyze Nazi Germany, Stalin's Russia, and Mao Ze Dong's China. It is horrible,...it is horrific. We must start today to stand for what we believe is not only "the best" for our families and our country. More importantly, we must simply stand for what is right.
If people geniunely feel Common Core is right for their child, I respect their right to choose that for their education. However, I feel that if a parent feels it is wrong, that, too, needs to be respected and honored, and neither the parent nor the students should be made to fear or shunned, as if it was morally wrong to opt out of a government-generated educational program.
Conditioning scares me. It creates responses based upon systems of belief that may be false and may have the same results we saw in Germany, Russia, and China. May we learn from history so we will not be doomed to repeat it. It all starts with one person doing the right thing and others being inspired to do the same. May we each be the one to make a stand and our influence will be great!
Quite simply: it is because the way the youth are educated determines the future of a nation.
And yet, I have also been a little puzzled at the relatively silent and steady (even secretive?) movement forward of the implementation of Common Core and the fear that I sense that seems to be enabling it. For instance, the other day at Pack Meeting, a dear friend shared with me some of her concerns. She has all of her children in mainstream public school for she felt that is the right path for her children. (I heartily believe in and support the right of the parent to know what is best for their child!) However, as she shared just two examples of her concern and her feelings that went along with it, I became alarmed.
Example 1: One of the test questions given to one of her children went to the effect of "In which of the following situations would you steal?" Six options were given and not one was "I would not steal" or "none of the above." Think of what is happening with this one simple question: you have a trusting, impressionable young student who has been taught culturally and in his home that tests are meant to be passed. They are presented with only options that violate his core beliefs. His "only option" to "succeed" in this question is to rationalize each of these situations in his mind, justifying the response of stealing to feel if any of them would be acceptable.
In six different ways he tries to feel out if he could justify stealing, all with the idea in his head that one of the answers must be right. What if none of them are? What is this doing to the moral foundation in this child? Depending upon the home, it could be starting beliefs that run completely counter to the parents' core belief. Regardless of the parent's belief or lack thereof, it could be running against God's eternal truths, indoctrinating them in the "religion" of moral relativism and secular humanism.
Another follow-up question in this example was raised in one of her children's classrooms: "Who knows what is best for you, the government or your family?" What child understands that question? What child understands even what government means? True government in the democratic republic our Founding Fathers created is a representation of the people, in which case the question is irrelevant. Who is even asking this question? And more importantly, why?
Example 2: In some testing situations, children have headphones put on their heads. If they respond "incorrectly" to an answer, they hear a buzzing in their ear to let them know they were wrong. This is conditioning-- creating instinctive, automatic responses to certain questions. Pavlov did it with rats. It has also been performed on people.
Do we know what is on these tests that are being used to create generated responses? Answers I have received from teachers and parents alike is that none of them are permitted to know what is on these tests. The potential for wide-spread conditioning to specific ideas is huge. And what if those questions they are being "conditioned to" are the ones I mentioned above? And what if, morally and religiously, I am completely opposed to the "correct response?
I bring up all this from a first-hand account of my dear friend in the public school system. She is trying to make it work, because she feels that is where they need to be. However, as she considers "opting out" of the testing, she hears from another friend who experienced first hand the negative effects on her top-scholar son's academic record: he was labeled as a "non-performing" student. My friend fears the negative repercussions that could come from refusing to have this testing done.
Another lady I met yesterday who recently went through this process of "opting out" experienced the same things for her sons,...in fact, the principal at first refused to even take her "opt-out" papers, assuring her of the negative impact it would have on her sons' academic records. Her friends in her community, who actually inspired her to do it in response to their own outrage over Common Core, all feared to do the same and opt their children out, and she ended up being the only one to opt out.
My purpose in bringing this up is not to incite fear, but rather to provoke questions.
*Do we know what our children are learning, both ours and their peers?
*Are we, as parents, truly mindful that we are primarily responsible for the education--spirtual, moral and secular--of our children?*If we have a system that is steeped in secrecy and generates fear, what is our role in identifying what is happening?
*How can we find the facts amidst the sensational?
*Are we allowing our fears to govern our actions, rather than our sense of right and wrong?
*How can we rise above our fears of "what will this do to the social standing of my child" and do what we feel is morally right?
Those last couple questions are what bother me the most right now, I think. I see so many people feeling and knowing that they need to do something different, but are being immobilized by fear: fear of academic labels of their children, fear of peer exclusion, fear of "what might happen"? That is what scares me the most. Does it truly matter more how the mysterious entity of "the government" labels our children than how they and we stand in doing the right thing before God? Are we so frightened of peer pressure that we are allowing tyranny to spread in our midst?
Historically, I saw these same fears paralyze Nazi Germany, Stalin's Russia, and Mao Ze Dong's China. It is horrible,...it is horrific. We must start today to stand for what we believe is not only "the best" for our families and our country. More importantly, we must simply stand for what is right.
If people geniunely feel Common Core is right for their child, I respect their right to choose that for their education. However, I feel that if a parent feels it is wrong, that, too, needs to be respected and honored, and neither the parent nor the students should be made to fear or shunned, as if it was morally wrong to opt out of a government-generated educational program.
Conditioning scares me. It creates responses based upon systems of belief that may be false and may have the same results we saw in Germany, Russia, and China. May we learn from history so we will not be doomed to repeat it. It all starts with one person doing the right thing and others being inspired to do the same. May we each be the one to make a stand and our influence will be great!
This was an amazing blog post Mary. Amazingly well thought out and said - as usual. :)
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