File under: "Sheesh! This country!"

Common Core Math is Hard
Makes the Baby Jesus Cry

Some of you may know about this righteous movement to protect our children from being tested in schools. Apparently (and you wouldn't know this but...) testing kids causes a lot of anxiety and makes math "not fun" as Louis C.K. so knowlegeably informed us.

Then at some point, it became a tea party mantra, "No Common Core! It's heresy! It's federal intrusion in my life! It's communist!"

The NYTimes story here tells all.

So weaklings like Nikki Haley and Bobby Jindal "backed out" of the common-core assessments for the massively undereducated students in their already failing schools.

Well...I am happy to report that this run away from common, national standards is all political tomfoolery. You can sleep safely knowing that all the fools who don't want their precious children tested have been hoodwinked and the new tests are basically the same as the old tests. Instead of being called Common Core assessments, the new name is "South Carolina" assessments (97% the same as the Common Core assessments, and with a new, fresh palatable state name.

Same will soon go for the Louisiana assessments.

Welcome to the K-12 Prison Pipeline

But Matthew, it's about parents maintaining local control over their kid's education, darn it! We FEEL better when we think it's OUR tests for OUR kids, not a national baseline standard for what a 3rd grader should be able to DO with the reading they read.

Yo, ultimately, if ya can't read by 3rd grade to the level set by the social workers who know, your kids is headed down the prison pipeline, like it or not. 

Sorry, I realize facts hurts. So do tests.

*Yawn*

Why can't our kids compete with the Chinese or Singapore or—for goodness sakes— Finland!!!?...(and who knew I'd be asking questions like that in 2015!)...

It's our frail, frightened "concern" we have for our children's emotions around education. We want them to love reading. Nevermind if they even can...it's about love, not ability.

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