The Common Core Standards

The premise put forth which helped to "sell" the Common Core Standards was that they would bring about a shift in emphasis away from so much mindless memorization and move toward deeper thinking. This is an appealing idea. The process by which these new goals were arrived at is now however being called into question. It is important to look closely at who was involved in the design process, and who was excluded. It is also critical that we consider the merits of making education a competitive activity rather than one which is nurturing. Life IS competitive, but when we place too much emphasis competition and keeping score, we guarantee that there will be a few winners and many, many losers. Everyone learns- EVERYONE, in different ways and at different speeds, but we do learn. The saddest aspect of mainstream education is that far too many students come to believe that they can not learn.