Earlier this year President Obama detailed his new educational initiatives aimed at “closing America’s school readiness gap.” As with all things Obama, it seems that “readiness” is yet another doublespeak term that suggests exactly the opposite of the traditional definition.
At a recent school meeting in Grayslake, Illinois curriculum director Amanda August discusses the new federally mandated Common Core education standards, which are currently being implemented into school districts across the nation.
Here’s how we’re readying America’s children for a highly competitive globalized marketplace:
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But even under the new Common Core… even if they said 3 X 4 was 11, if they were able to explain their reasoning and explain how they came up with their answer, really in words and in oral explanations, and they showed it in a picture but they just got the final number wrong, we’re really more focusing on the how and why.
It’s no matter if a student comes to the conclusion that 3 x 4 = 11. So long as they can explain how they made this erroneous determination they go home with an ‘A’.
Watch:
Is it any wonder that, as Michael Snyder notes, our high school students are as dumb as rock, failing to answer the most basic of questions? A study conducted by none other than Common Core shows just how far we’ve fallen at America’s pedagogic institutions:
Only 60% of students knew that WWI was fought between 1900 and 1950 — they only had to guess the half century!
One in four high schoolers think Columbus discovered the New World after 1750.
On the multiple choice test, less than half of high schoolers knew when the Civil War was fought. They didn’t even need to know exact dates, just that it was sometime between 1850 and 1900.
40% of students could not identify the name of the ocean on the eastern side of the United States.
Nearly 60% of students could not identify the two major political parties.
When asked who is in charge of the Executive Branch of the United States, 70% of high school students got the wrong answer.
Fully 75% of high school students failed to identify the First President of the United States.
If you think we’re just picking and choosing, watch the following video from Lunch Scholars, which asks typical American high school students to answer a series of common questions covering topics such as American history, geography, and politics.
In which war did our country win its independence?
Who is the Vice President?
Which countries border the U.S.?
How many stars on the flag of the United States?
Can you name a country starting with the letter “U” ?
Though “experts” argue that the new Common Core standards will improve our education system and prepare America’s children for a brave new world, it should be obvious that this is nothing more than another Federal power grab, complete with taxpayer-funded bribes, that’s designed to add another layer of control for the State:
Sadly, but not surprisingly, instead of improving education by repealing No Child Left Behind’s testing and other mandates, the Obama administration is increasing national control over schools via the “Common Core” initiative. Common Core is a new curriculum developed by a panel of so-called education experts. The administration is trying to turn Common Core into a national curriculum by offering states increased federal education funding if they impose Common Core’s curriculum on their public schools.
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This is yet another example of the government using money stolen from the people to bribe states into obeying federal dictates.
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Critics of Common Core say it “dumbs down” education by replacing traditional English literature with “informational texts”. So students will read such inspiring materials as studies by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, the EPA’s “Recommended Levels of Insulation,” and “Invasive Plant Inventory” by California’s Invasive Plant Council. It is doubtful that reading federal reports will teach students the habits of critical thinking and skepticism of government that the Founders considered essential to maintaining a free republic.
It should be obvious that the long-term plan is not to improve the lives of Americans, but rather, to create a slave-based society through (mis)education, consumerism, and government dependence.