There is a scene in one of Heinlein’s books [Starship Troopers] in which the teacher asks the student if he’d be happy just getting the medal for a race he didn’t win. The student is rightly outraged and thinks it makes a mockery of the proceedings.

It wasn’t until last week when I found myself caught in a Facebook thread on Common Core started by my friend and colleague Larry Correia that I realized this scene must be utterly baffling to the left.

You see, my husband posted some examples of Common Core math problems.

He’s a mathematician and it exasperates him when people praise Common Core for “teaching children to think.” Continue reading →

NOTE: Just a bit dated, therefore referrence to names who no longer a part of the picuture, however read and study carefully – IF you are a supporter of Charter Schools or Home Schooling. Contrary to the words of Betsy Devious – Common Core-Uption is still upon the land. Change the names of the players – and nothing will make a difference – until WE the PEOPLE take over the School Boards and route the crooked board members OUT! ~ J.B.

“Those who have the privilege to know, have the duty to act.” ~ Albert Einstein

Obama and ‘Conservative’ Groups Use Bait and Switch Tactics. They are using the momentum against Common Core to complete and further their agenda – “Choice” and Charter Schools.

The truth has uneasy consequences. ‘Conservatives’ and Republicans are revealing their so-called “Choice Plan” that mimics the Obama-Duncan Plan. In an article posted by the ‘conservative’ organization FreedomWorks, their entire proposed controversial agenda for “choice” in education demands rebuttal, discussion and dissection. The Einstein quote at the top of this article validates my decision to act on current documentation, explaining to the American people the danger that these ‘conservative groups’ represent to parents when they demand “choice.” Continue reading →

If you have kids in school or you teach schoolchildren, you must remember those halcyon days of 2008, when the idea of a Common Core (CC) to direct and track all American children along educational pathways to careers or college began to take root.

You remember when testing consultant David Coleman and the executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), Gene Wilhoit, visited Microsoft mogul Bill Gates in Seattle to persuade him to generously supplement future governmental funding of Common Core. And did Gates’ foundation ever deliver! It provided grants to write, implement, and finally propagandize CC totaling $384,605,464 as of June 2016.

You also likely remember when later in 2008, a Gates-aided triumvirate consisting of the National Governors Association, CCSSO, and a big-business-led outfit called Achieve started plugging for federal backing for Common Core, which the Obama administration subsequently was thrilled to pledge as part of a “federal-state partnership.” Continue reading →

A retired college professor confirms what many Americans already believe: universities have abandoned the concept of being a marketplace of ideas.

Common Core Standards Test

Speaking on American Family Radio earlier this week, Dr. Carol M. Swain said campuses used to be places with opposing views and debates.

“Opposing sides came together, people listened, and the person with the best arguments and the best data and ideas would be the most persuasive – and people would leave the debate forum probably thinking differently than when they entered because they would have heard more sides,” said Swain, who had been a professor of political science and professor of law at Vanderbilt University since 1999.

“[But] I think the universities today have a viewpoint, and they’re very much into indoctrination; and when students arrive, they teach them what to think, not how to think critically.”
Continue reading →

Hiding the Truth About School Choice and Charter Schools

“Those who have the privilege to know, have the duty to act.” ~ Albert Einstein

June 30, 2014 – Obama and ‘Conservative’ Groups Use Bait and Switch Tactics. They are using the momentum against Common Core to complete and further their agenda—”Choice” and Charter Schools.

The truth has uneasy consequences. ‘Conservatives’ and Republicans are revealing their so-called “Choice Plan” that mimics the Obama-Duncan Plan. In an article posted by the ‘conservative’ organization FreedomWorks, their entire proposed controversial agenda for “choice” in education demands rebuttal, discussion and dissection. The Einstein quote at the top of this article validates my decision to act on current documentation, explaining to the American people the danger that these ‘conservative groups’ represent to parents when they demand “choice.”

Republican Governors who say that Common Core is gone are using fraud and deception to further their cause. Their cause is government-controlled, taxpayer-funded “choice” and charter schools. Republicans are now conveniently using the slogan “No Common Core” as a litmus test—a popular hot button that will cue the Fall elections. But, are citizens and parents aware of where that path will take us? For example, see the following quote: Continue reading →

Writer and veteran teacher Susan Ohanian provides the facts you need to know about the Common Core State Standards.

Bill Gates (Sebastian Derungs)

In response to a poverty rate that tops 90 percent in many urban and rural schools – and 1.6 million homeless children, many in schools with no libraries – education reformers at the White House, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the National Governors Association call for a radical, untried curriculum overhaul and two versions of nonstop national testing to measure whether teachers are producing workers for the Global Economy.

They call this upheaval the Common Core State (sic) Standards (CCSS), and there are two things to remember: The Common Core did not originate with the states, and it is speculative and experimental–in a word, cuckoo. Continue reading →

Our last column entitled: “You’re Letting Liberal Educated Globalists Brainwash Your Kids!” covered the people who paid for and developed the Common Core State Standards that have now been instituted in 40 states. It became abundantly evident that the standards were not a state effort, but a pure federal effort led by liberal globalists. The Standards had the United Nations (globalists) written all over them.

Previous to writing the article we were not privy to any specific Common Core teaching document. However, one of our long-time members e-mailed us a PDF copy of the Common Core Mathematics teaching document for Grades 3 thru 5. We started reading the document, looking for how they were going to teach math. To our dismay, we found it wasn’t about math at all, Continue reading →

Jane Robbins, author

In the past, I’ve written about the disingenuous information routinely put out by the Collaborative for Student Success (CSS) to make the Common Core national standards look good. CSS is at it again.

CSS is a non-profit organization financed by the same groups that bankrolled the Common Core propaganda campaign — the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Broad Foundation, ExxonMobil, etc. In keeping with its raison d’etre of shilling for Common Core, CSS is trumpeting state test scores for 3rd-graders to prove that “higher standards [i.e., Common Core] are leading to better outcomes.” Not exactly! Continue reading →

Supporters of Common Core are being “disingenuous” again in their efforts to prop up the controversial education standards – so says an education policy expert in the nation’s capital.

With both President Donald Trump and his nominee for secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, expressing opposition to the Common Core standards, proponents have stepped up their spin. Jane Robbins of the American Principles Project says the Collaborative for Student Success (CSS) – an organization trying to salvage the Core – is focusing on state Core-aligned tests to distract attention away from national student performance tests, the results of which she says are not so encouraging. Continue reading →

“The Arizona Board of Education has voted to approve new education standards to replace the Common Core State Standards,” Education Week reports, “But the changes are minor rather than a full-scale repudiation of the state-led effort to set standards for what students should know in English/language arts and mathematics.”

The prominent change in the standards is the addition of cursive writing lessons through fifth grade, an element that Common Core does not provide. In addition, Arizona’s standards will now require younger students to study the concepts of time and money, and to spell frequently used words.

“These new standards represent the final step in the repeal and replacement of the common core in Arizona, and they reflect the thoughts and recommendations of thousands of Arizona citizens,” said state schools superintendent Diane Douglas in a press release. Continue reading →

The Common Core was expected to be a ubiquitous subject on the campaign trail in 2016. The education standards had, over time, become a political football as conservatives condemned them as federal overreach.

It’s so far hardly been the case. Governors in the race, like Jeb Bush, have backed away from using the term because of its negative connotation among the electorate, even if he still stands by the standards. Should he gain traction moving into the presidential primary it might become more relevant as early-voting states — and other governors, like Chris Christie — grapple with the standards.

Several Republican presidential candidates have backed away from the term, but not the standards. Why?

Continue reading →

~ Foreword ~
Each and every *innovative improvement* the *education guru’s* have put forth has proven to downgrade real education. But then I don’t think any of these new plans were ever intended to IMPROVE education – the goal being to indoctrinate not educate – and it has been more than successful.

Back when I was in grade school – the teachers dressed like teachers not another student. They didn’t have sex with the students – they actually taught the students how to read – write – do math – speak properly – be self disciplined – and to THINK. Tests were given each week on what had been taught that week and if you didn’t pass then you had to repeat the lessons. Students weren’t passed to the next grade until they mastered the grade they were in. Oh, and the parents were kept informed of how the student was doing. Continue reading →

The more parents of public school students learn about Barack Obama’s Common Core education agenda, the less they like it.

A new national poll from Gallup reports:

“The overall proportion of public school parents who report having heard at least a little about the new standards has not changed appreciably since April, now at 73%.

However, nearly half (49%) of public school parents now say they have heard a great deal or fair amount about the new standards, up from 38% in April.

“The data suggest that this increase in awareness has led to an increase in negativity, given the seven-percentage-point increase in those viewing the standards negatively and the two-point decrease in those viewing them positively.”

While greater public awareness has not improved Common Core support among Democrat-leaning parents, increased awareness has reduced support among Republican-leaning parents. Continue reading →

How parents and teachers are divided over the value of cursive in a digital age

The reintroduction of cursive handwriting lessons in North Carolina public schools has caused surprise unrest.

State representative, Pat Hurley who was behind the move, told Today this morning that she has received a number of ‘personal’ complaints from educators and parents.

One father-of-two telephoned her to tell her that handwriting is a ‘total waste of time’, while a teacher complained that ‘these children will never use it in their lifetime.’

Before the bill, elementary schools were not required to teach cursive. Continue reading →

We wanted proof Common Core has serious shortcomings, and now we have it. A professor of Renaissance English Literature and the Development of Western Civilization at Providence College has begun the process of dissecting student essays promoted as examples of what CC strives for in its standards and subsequent influence on curricula.

Anthony Esolen says the best essay of the bunch has no integrity, just a mechanical spouting of information that contradicts itself. And this essay was subject to teacher reviews. The professor says his disagreement with the essay doesn’t have to do with organization or style as these are done well, but with the truth. He asserts that the more “mechanical” writing becomes, the closer it moves to providing an incubator for lies. Continue reading →

We wanted proof Common Core has serious shortcomings, and now we have it. A professor of Renaissance English Literature and the Development of Western Civilization at Providence College has begun the process of dissecting student essays promoted as examples of what CC strives for in its standards and subsequent influence on curricula.

Anthony Esolen says the best essay of the bunch has no integrity, just a mechanical spouting of information that contradicts itself. And this essay was subject to teacher reviews. The professor says his disagreement with the essay doesn’t have to do with organization or style as these are done well, but with the truth. He asserts that the more “mechanical” writing becomes, the closer it moves to providing an incubator for lies. Continue reading →

… receives rapturous applause from audience after articulate speech that stuns forum

A teacher from New York has branded education reforms and new tests for children ‘child abuse’.

Speaking at a forum on Common Core at Ward Melville High School, the unnamed woman blasted the reforms, saying that 70 per cent of children had failed the new tests.

She told New York state education commissioner John King that ‘hundreds of thousands of mommies’ were going to refuse to have their children tested because ‘mommies in New York don’t abuse their children.’ Continue reading →

The new national education standards adopted by 45 States and the District of Columbia (Arizona is one of the 45) and now slipping into America’s schools are a collectivist’s dream.

Called Common Core, it is an attempt to create a Federally controlled education system designed to turn children into mind-numbed drones devoid of imagination and inculcated with a progressive culture of redistributionist economics, social justice, the mainstreaming of perverted lifestyles, secular humanism and radical environmentalism. It is a one-size-fits-all scheme that will dumb down students to the lowest common denominator. Continue reading →

The new national education standards adopted by 45 States and the District of Columbia (Arizona is one of the 45) and now slipping into America’s schools are a collectivist’s dream.

Called Common Core, it is an attempt to create a Federally controlled education system designed to turn children into mind-numbed drones devoid of imagination and inculcated with a progressive culture of redistributionist economics, social justice, the mainstreaming of perverted lifestyles, secular humanism and radical environmentalism. It is a one-size-fits-all scheme that will dumb down students to the lowest common denominator. Continue reading →