Saturday, March 16, 2013

Common Core… How it is Dumbing Down America’s School Children

COMMON CORE: A Cookie-Cutter, One-Size-Fits All Education Standards – Part 1

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton – The NoisyRoom

Today, I caught Glenn Beck on The Blaze and his excellent showcasing of Obama’s Common Core Standards that are now in 45 states, including my state of Idaho. Common Core is Marxism for children. It is state run propaganda and is meant to dumb down and control our little ones. It is evil and it has been a long time coming. Obama pushed it through slyly and quickly after coming into office, but I can tell you, this has been brewing since at least the 1990s.

A little background… When my children were in school in the 1990s, my husband and I requested to see the school curriculum for their school in Las Vegas, Nevada. We were refused and basically told we were too dumb to understand what the teachers were instructing our son and daughter in. The last straw came when they wanted to put my daughter in the second grade on Ritalin instead of disciplining her. I was pulled in front of four teachers and accused of not raising my daughter correctly, as well as basically being an abusive and stupid parent. I promptly told these teachers that they could pound sand and pulled our children (our son was in third grade at the time) out of school that very same day. I left the Fortune 500 and home schooled both of them till high school and in retrospect, should have kept them out even then. My children could not do the simplest of math or read when we pulled them out. I tested them and started them all over again with the ABEKA home schooling system, which at the time, cost a great deal of money. The children were tested by the state within a week of being pulled out and because they could not read or do math, the state threatened to remove our children, even though it was their damn lack of teaching that had produced this. Well, we knuckled down and by the end of the following year, both kids were excellent readers and were caught up in math. I never heard from the state again. My son went on to be a gifted software developer and although my daughter is still trying to find her way in the world, she is a talented artist and a survivor. Now on to the present matter at hand.

My friend and fellow blogger Michelle Malkin has done a set of four in-depth articles on reporting on the Common Core Standards as well as additional pieces providing more information. Her work is very well done. Before her write-ups, I would wager most parents had never heard of Common Core. There are now many teachers who are quitting and/or standing up against this Progressive travesty that is intent on corrupting our schools and students. Here are some videos explaining the Common Core Standards:

I will tell you that George Soros and the Tides Foundation along with other major Progressive organizations and the Obama Administration are behind all of this monstrosity. Gee, I’m sooo surprised. Educational policies are supposed to lie with the states, so the government coercing the states to carry the Common Core Standards violates the Constitution. The tracking database violates privacy at every turn as well. I strongly recommend you click on the links below and read what Michelle has written and fight to drive out the Common Core Standards from your state. While Obama took us from one emergency to the next, he was slipping in the back door to destroy our children who are the building blocks of the country. Get your children out of the public schools now and fight this at the state level. It is almost too late.

Michelle Malkin:

Many of you have expressed concern about the influence of the Common Core Standards and it's connection to Race to the Top. I am attaching a letter from Paul Horton, a history teacher at my old alma mater, The University of Chicago Laboratory School. He is also State Liaison of the Illinois Council for History Education. Mr. Horton is a serious, passionate teacher of history who teaches from history books and not textbooks. He believes that the Common Core has been corrupted by undue external influence. Mr. Horton believes that Pearson LLC and others are net beneficiaries of Common Core. Mr. Horton is demanding a full investigation of undue influence. If you agree with Mr. Horton that there should be a full investigation of Common Core simply e-mail me and I will pass your name as a joint signatory of the attached letter. 

William Korach

Publisher - The Report Card

www.thereportcard.org

facebook.com/reportcard.org

Citizens Against Corporate Collusion in Education (CACCE)

As American parents, students, educators, and concerned citizens, we are united in opposition to the agenda of those corporate, foundation, and government interests that seek to influence local district boards of education, state boards of education, state governments, governors, and the Office of the Secretary of Education. This agenda calls for standardization of national curricula in the form of the Common Core Standards mandated in the Federal initiative “Race to the Top,” data-driven assessments of students and teachers, and the creation and implementation of standardized discrete item testing to measure compliance to the Common Core Standards. The president of the College Board’s recent announcement that a new SAT will be created to measure Common Core Standards skills proficiency also alarms us. In addition, the Secretary of Education’s former press secretary has recently used the “revolving door” of public office to acquire a job with a company that is related to Pearson LLC.

We demand transparency and public accountability for decisions that are being made on the above issues without open hearings or public debate on the influence of corporate lobbying and marketing at local, state, and federal levels. We strongly suspect the existence of quid pro quo understandings between the current Secretary of Education and Bill Gates, The Bill and Melina Gates Foundation, The College Board and David Coleman, The Educational Testing Service (ETS), and Pearson Education LLC that amount to collusion between a Federal Public servant(s) and corporate interests that appear to be working together to limit competition in an open marketplace.

We therefore resolve:

1)  That State Attorneys General investigate possible quid pro quo agreements between the above parties and members of state boards of education and commissioners,

2)  That State Attorneys General investigate lobbying of the above parties to determine whether bribery laws have been violated,

3)  That all state governments conduct investigations of the contributions of Pearson LLC, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, the Walton Family Foundation, and the Students First Foundation to local school board elections and the elections or appointments of state education commissioners and state boards of education,

4)  And that each state file a complaint with the Anti-Trust Division of the Department of Justice in Washington preliminary to discovery of evidence of possible collusion of the above parties.

5)  We call for a Joint House-Senate Committee to be formed to investigate possible collusion and influence peddling between the above parties. 

6)  We call for the Attorney General of the United States to select an independent prosecutor to investigate the possibility of quid pro quo dealings and collusion between the parties above.

7)  We understand that the Tunney Act does not apply to this case and we argue that is precisely why collusion is involved, to avoid merger or the appearance of merger that would trigger a court hearing.

8)  We strongly recommend that the Special Prosecutor (6) investigate all contracts let by the Department of Education to Pearson Education LLC.

9)  We  strongly recommend that all State Attorneys General investigate all state contracts let by Pearson LLC. 

Paul Horton

State Liaison

Illinois Council for History Education

History Instructor

University High School

The University of Chicago Laboratory Schools

773-702-0588

phorton@ucls.uchicago.edu

www.ucls.uchicago.edu

Related:

 Is the ‘Common Core’ Initiative Dumbing Down America’s Students?

The Deliberate Dumbing Down of… Society, America, the World–Charlotte Iserbyt

The Dumbing Down of America Series

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