Common Core has recently been referred to by a friend of mine who is deeply in-the-know as “the most successful astroturf campaign in the history of this country.” This friend is not prone to exaggeration.
The left has had a history of tip-toeing into, and taking over, those institutions most vital to defending freedom — from our schools to our religious institutions, nothing is off-limits. Count the Illinois Catholic Church as having been bamboozled by Common Core. After reading the laudatory press release the superintendents of the Catholic Dioceses in Illinois released August 19, it is right to conclude they’ve been compromised, as well. They write:
It is within the environment of the Common Core Catholic Identity Initiative that we maintain the integrity of our mission and to the expectations of those whom we serve. In themselves, Common Core State Standards are not a curriculum. They do not dictate our curriculum, instructional methodologies, sequence of topics or materials used. What the Common Core does establish are clear, measurable goals and outcomes for what our students should know, understand, or be able to do at the end of a grade or course of study.
Witness in this statement the dissolution of any perception that Catholic schools are protected from the educational war in which our children are the prize. Their statement is part of a larger movement of local dioceses signing onto a national “Common Core Catholic Identity Initiative,” which you can read more about here.
If you’re like me — or like I used to be — your eyes are glossing over at the term, “Common Core.” Snap out of it.
Common Core, now adopted by 45 states and DC, is a set of national standards and goals related on the surface to English and math that have far-reaching implications into who controls curriculum (teachers teaching to the national test), along with implementing data-mining for a jaw-dropping universe of facts provided to the federal government about your children and you. Can I implore you to watch this video of a Common Core creator celebrating the collaboration with Obama’s data team and how to use data to achieve political ends?
Common Core has dismal quality, puts us behind other countries, views teaching as job training and not the development of our children’s minds, and has backers that would make your head swim were you to conduct even a perfunctory search.
I am well over 30 years old at this point, but I’m not too old to give my mother a shameless plug. Back when I was just a wee one, she fought almost singlehandedly to stave off an earlier iteration of Common Core, called at that time “Goals 2000.” She allied with Phyllis Schlafly in their successful fight, and in doing so had a front-row seat to who is behind Common Core (beta).
My mother’s blog has a rundown of the basics of Common Core, and what you need to know. She did a better job of itemizing the dizzying infrastructure than I could do, linked here.
Alternatively, I suggest this lecture. It seems dry at first, but it’s anything but. Like War and Peace, give it a few minutes (chapters) and you won’t be able to turn away:
Common Core is not about education and it’s not about raising standards, although it is about our children. Just not in the way you’d like or that would leave you sleeping well at night. And it is time for Americans* to engage. (*Legislators — conservative governors with presidential aspirations — I’m talking to you, too.)
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