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Health & Fitness

The A's, B's....Wait...The D's and F's of Common Core

Last week at the Watertown Public Library Dr. Sandra Stotsky, who was on the validation committee and voted "no" on Common Core educational standards, joined with Dr. Jamie Goss of the Pioneer Institute and Mary Anne Aliegro of The Liberty Chalkboard to protest the implementation of Common Core in our public and private school systems.  Invited to this event to give the pro's of Common Core was Dr. Mitchell Chester of elementary and secondary education in Massachusetts but for reasons unknown to this author, Dr. Chester failed to attend this most important meeting.  I was happy to see one member of Medford's government, City Councilor Robert Penta, in the audience taking notes and asking questions.  I hope other members of the Medford City Council, the Medford School Committee, State Rep Paul Donato, State Senator Pat Jehlen or Medford's Mayor will come to speak about this topic on Thursday, March 20th, 7 p.m. at Medford High School in the Little Theatre during a public hearing on Common Core that all are welcome to attend. 

In short, Common Core is a nationalized implementation of educational curriculum that will serve to undermine and replace current standards that have served the students, faculty, and parents of Massachusetts well in the past.  Common Core is a massive educational bureaucracy that will dumb down curriculum standards, invade privacies, serve political, not educational, agendas, and leave students, our children, ill equipped to compete as complex, challenged, rigorous, and fervent intellectuals. 

Some examples of Common Core standards are as follows:

1) Students get credit for providing the wrong answers so long as they show how they arrived at the wrong answer.  This may be good for self esteem, but in the real world, nobody patronizes businesses run by those who answer the question of what does 2 + 2 = ? with a reply of 7.  Nor does this educational practice make our future generations competitive on the international stage. 

2) A homework assignment on Cape Cod instructed students in 7th and 8th grade levels to make a list of all incoming mail to their house, who the mail came from, and to whom the mail was addressed.  This is only the tip of the iceberg of privacy invasions by Common Core standards and it only gets worse when one studies the other methods used by Common Core now being considered for implementation in Medford, and other towns of Massachusetts, public and private schools. 

3) Facial expression video monitoring and detection equipment, heart and breathing rate special mouse devices installed into computers, and other technologically advanced instruments all designed to determine, predict, and then control behavior of students are a part of Common Core.  What does this have to do with preparing students for higher education, careers, or life in the competitive market of the real world? 

Five states have flat out rejected implementing Common Core.  Twenty-two other states now have legislation to purge Common Core from their educational systems.  Medford specifically, and Massachusetts at large, should join these states in refusing to implement Common Core because it is a national, not local, educational power grab that will dumb down students, program behavior, and invade privacies. 

To learn more about Common Core I strongly suggest people visit the following website:  http://libertychalkboard.org/Video--CommonCore.html

Here is Jane Robbins of the American Principals Project in part 1 of a 5 part brief tutorial about Common Core that every educator, student, and parent should watch to become informed with the facts and reasons why Common Core standards are no standards that should be adopted and implemented by our public and private school systems:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coRNJluF2O4 

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