Common Core and the Common Good

Concerned about Common Core and the Common Good?  Here are some possible solutions:

Phone your school board and say something like, “I’m concerned that Common Core may not be all it’s cracked up to be.” Don’t go on the offensive with a bunch of the technical mumbo-jumbo like, “It was adopted before it was even written,” “No one even knows how much it will cost,” or, “They have no right to teach my kids about sex in second grade!” They’ve been given the talking points, and facts may annoy them. Approach with emotion, not rational thought, because anyone  who hasn’t done their own research probably believes CC to be an improvement. I don’t recommend using the logic of “It’s never been tested! How can you call it an improvement?” You could try something less reasonable, such as, “It frightens me and my lawyer,” or, “Use someone else’s school district as your guinea pigs!”

If you’re feeling feisty, add, “Did you really think you could get this by all us parents without any of us noticing – without a vote?”

Once you’ve registered your opinion, sit back and watch what happens, like watching paint dry. I recommend a follow-up letter:

Dear [School Personnel],

Please I do not wish to expose my child to the untried curricula that is being implemented, and the data tracking it advances. Honestly! What has data tracking got to do with school curricula?! Can’t we just leave that to the doctors and Obamacare?

Yours truly,

Concerned Parent [insert name here]

Remember you never have to actually make good on this threat! While waiting for a response, consider that this entire mess is not because of education, but because of the almighty dollar. (Surprised?) Here are 10 simple facts:

What is COMMON CORE?

Biggest overhaul to our education system – ever
Adopted by 45 states - before it was written - because of  federal ‘Race to the Top’ funding promises $$$
Designed primarily by non-educators
Never voted on, not even by Congress (OR BY YOU), sacrificing state sovereignty to federal government: school boards, parents, teachers lose autonomy to a non-elected DC entity – setting a precedent
No amendments permitted – no changes allowed
Costs between $12-30 Billion in CA (What does that fix?) $$$
Lower standards than California’s 1997 ones
DATA TRACKING (400 data points) on all children
Completely untested. Are your kids DC’s guinea pigs?
Coming to your school this fall!

Strangely, for many it’s greed-driven, though funding goes toward costly implementation – an iPad for every student (read redundancy of teachers: replacement of humans with machines – your kids love computers, right?), so, it’s a wash. It’s like the bureaucrats make decision without even considering consequences! Indiana, after spending $4 billion, is stepping back from Common Core. (Can they vote against it if they never voted for it?)

After waiting for an answer that will never appear, use your frustration at being ignored about this monstrous and important issue (because, remember, you weren’t even asked, they’re not really your kids, and you didn’t build that). Tell the school, in writing, of your desire to home school as a way of avoiding the disaster that Common Core obviously is (why was it pushed though clandestinely, otherwise?). To this end, tell them, you will be keeping your child home, instead of enrolling him/her in the fall, and warn them the funding that would accompany that child to the school will be sacrificed on the altar of Common Core. This will please the bureaucrats in Sacramento to no end (they love to keep your money) but it will put a dent in your school’s plans. If enough parents do this, perhaps the school will be forced to reconsider, so they can have money.

Does that sound drastic? Well, drastic times…

Full disclosure: there is a website, Stop Common Core, to guide you through a less “activist” approach, but – my way is much more fun!

Here’s my theory: California, requires parents to file a Private School Affidavit  (declaration of intent to home school) only between the first and fifteenth of October. That basically means you are generously allowing the school six weeks to get cured of the Common Core, while they are hemorrhaging money. More importantly, it gives you six more weeks with your kids before they go off for indoctrina er – education. Maybe the school will wise-up. Maybe you will  bring your kid in to school on October 15th (saying the whole home school thing didn’t really work out), and the school will miraculously be purged of the Common Core. (CA officials may ask only to see a PSA, no other school paperwork, so truancy should not be an issue before the October 15th deadline.) Or maybe you will discover the joy of a relationship with your child (untainted by a bureaucracy’s intervention), and your kids will experience parents who aren’t the slave-driving task-masters of “homework” that their schools make them out to be.

Maybe good things really can come out of Common Core.