Critical Thinking and the Common Core - Snake Oil Salesmanship At Its Best!

Betty Peters is a member of the Alabama State School Board.  Unlike a majority of those on the Oklahoma State School Board, Betty is a longtime educator who knows well the dangers of the Common Core.  She has been listening to both sides of the issue for several years now.

Betty and I (Jenni) are on an email network together where a larger number of us every day are discussing the pitfalls of the Common Core.

One discussion recently, involved the Common Core PROPONENTS necessity to blather about how the Common Core standards will produce "critical thinking" in students.  How a set of standards is going to produce critical thinking has always been a bone of contention among us OPPONENTS, as this seems to be one of those 'lines' proponents say without any possible way of backing up the comment.  It's the line of a snake oil salesman who needs to sell the product, but knowing it won't work, has to come up with more and more interesting 'sales pitches' to do the job for him, knowing that people who buy the product can't refute his claims until they buy it and use it themselves.

There is no difference between selling snake oil and selling the Common Core.

Betty Peters' recent comments about critical thinking, made me ask for permission to reprint because, unlike the Common Core snake oil salesmen, her comments made sense!

I would expect that we will not understand how Common Core proponents define “critical thinking” until the assessments are in place. What’s included in the  assessments will be what is taught, and we know they will be assessing “critical thinking” skills. They have said so any times.  Critical thinking as explained in AL by the former Dean of Education at UA is not about knowing facts.  In fact he stated he does not want facts to be taught or assessed since he wants critical thinking.  Apparently  as  long as someone can access info, he can think critically about it, as defined by the Goals 2000/STW/NCLB/CCSSI gurus. 

Even in 1st grade when students are beginning to read (decode) and don’t know very much, textbooks such as the supplemental writing ones from Zaner Bloser  include assignments such as writing a persuasive letter using your “voice” to convince the town council to build a park, etc.  This requires no knowledge of facts.  The more I look at these books (I have studied  some of the ones we recently approved in AL), the more strongly I believe there will be no books to look at anyway—everything will soon be online inside the students’ computers where the information can be changed if someone does get caught indoctrinating. 

I have heard some state DOEs are already smirking about this—no troublesome busy-bodies can interfere with textbook selection if there are no textbooks.  One needs some background knowledge of Marxist terms such as critical theory to decipher what is being said or written today.   Many younger people, including educators and journalists and even elected officials,  do not even know what Marxism is!  It’s like Orwell's 1984—with lots of confusing jargon  which the Left defines and the public thinks it understands but actually does not. 

In our last board meeting, I pointed out what I had found in the Zaner Bloser books and that I felt we must rework our textbook committees to include more scrutiny of content and the inclusion of more k-2 content specialists to insure we are using age appropriate materials.  One of the ZB test booklets for the teachers had a question which required the student to locate the adjective and there was no adjective in that sentence.  This was for first graders. 

This is why I try to obtain the teachers’ editions of all textbooks.  I conclude we need to redirect our attention from standards to assessments and curriculum and textbooks; we do need to focus on the ELA exemplars which are published on the Common Core website.  And remember; all sorts of mischief can now be done via the ELA literacy readings in SS, science, etc. 

One AL school system is using Howard’s Zinn’s history book this way.  The English teachers may not  know much  about Zinn but they will be teaching it in 11th grade.  That book never could have made it through the SS textbook committee.  

I will give the CCSSI proponents credit for using their critical thinking skills when they came up with the ELA etc. standards.  You can now teach ANYTHING in the ELA classes, from wiring houses to Howard Zinn’s vantage point on American history to how to put on condoms.

Ahhhh....The Joy of Sameness

My friend Betty Peters, state school board member in Alabama, sent me this video this morning.  The video is from Madison City, Alabama extolling the virtues of their adoption of the Common Core State Standards.  Oh please watch it, it's only 6 something minutes.  Then, see if I'm just way off base on my commentary below.

Okay...humor me here...if this is such a great idea, why, at 2:09 on the video do you see the following on the 'blackboard', 

“In small groups take two to three minutes to brainstorm a lot of rumors you have heard and/or “burning questions that you hear about CCS.”

Why do we have to debunk rumors about standards to put them into practice?

 

At 2:20 listen to all the 'teams' Madison Ciy has/is having to train to prepare teachers and students for the standards. 

Why? If these standards are so great, shouldn't they be common sense to trained teachers?  Shouldn't teachers simply know how to teach standards that should be 'common' to all children in the course of their education?

Why do districts have to pay to teach teachers to teach all over again? 

Not only that, but every school has their own plan for rolling the Common Core out. How are they "common" then? How are schools all on the same page? How will they all take the same tests?  How in the world do you get a number of schools in a district all with individual numbers of teachers supposedly teaching the exact same thing at the exact same time.  Wow.  The odds of that are something akin to putting watch parts in a watch, shaking it and having it turn into a working watch!

Madison City has had to contract with Learning Focused - a private company - to train all Madison City teachers to 'roll out', 'unpack' and 'unwrap' these standards. I wonder how much that cost? Learning Focused has a huge variety of things the district can purchase to help 'roll out', 'unpack' and 'unwrap' these standards...

At 4:03 it is interesting to note that as the woman is explaining how wonderful the Common Core State Standards are, there is NEVER a time she breaks with the given vocabulary of teaching students what they need to 

"know, understand, and do "after you [teachers] 'unwrap' and 'unpack' the standards. 

Really? 

About the 'assessments'...We call them tests - assessments make JUDGEMENTS about someone...is that what we're trying to do here?  Judge children?

Well...the 'assessments' have to be changed because, 

"You can't have knowledge recall questions when you're trying to teach something at the application level." 

Really. You can teach a child to think by GIVING THEM A TEST - or assessing them into knowledge? What education model says that - anywhere? Ever? 

"You really have to think about that problem based learning so that kids are applying the content." 

Bells should be going off here because none of this makes any sense other than in the realm of, 

"how many education buzzwords can I get in one sentence so that I can sound like I know what I'm talking about?" 

Maybe parents and taxpayers don't like the Common Core because there's so much talking over one's head!  It all seems so covered under the phrase,

"Baffle them with bull#$%"

At 5:07. Madison expects their students to be 'doers'. 

This is constructivist/progressive teaching. It's what ROPE has always said about Common Core! It is Constructivist at heart. 

Really think about this...how can you expect children to be self directed or teach one another important concepts and master methods of learning when many young kids can't even put their shirts on the right way without instruction? 

If children are going to be 'doers' and teach one another, why the HECK are we paying teachers? Let's just let children mill around in a gym for a day with one or two supervising 'wardens' and call that education! It would sure be a heck of a lot cheaper than all this tripe!

What is "college and career ready" and "21st Century standards" and "life ready"? What do these terms mean?  What is all this nonsense?  Did the Greatest Generation have to have be "college and career ready" for application of "21st Century Standards" in order to be "life ready"?  If not, how then did they become the Greatest Generation?

My favorite comment comes at 5:50. 

"[Teachers] if you don't like what we're doing here, get out. We'll find someone to replace you." 

Wow! That's friendly! So, 

"If you don't like it, lump it!"

is the new Common Core implementation cheer leading cry? 

If you're a teacher and you aren't passionate about turning all our schools into little homogeneity factories, scrap your teaching certificate and get out of Madison City, Alabama. 

Fortunately, our instructor here closes using every CCSS buzzword ever invented in an effort to make sure she has gotten everyone fired up about the standards.

If you don't see the problems here, I don't know how to make it plainer other than this blog posted here yesterday by Diane Ravitch, "How to Evaluate a Dentist".  I guess if you don't see it after that - GET OUT and I'll find someone who does to REPLACE YOU.

Common Core - Yet ANOTHER Link to Progressive, Global, Socialists!

Today I found this article, "District Leaders Get Dose of Teaching Common Core". I thought - great, I'll get a look at what many teachers are telling me behind the backs of their superintendents - that it's going to be nearly impossible with all the other stuff they have to do!

Yes, the article touched on the difficulties of getting teachers 'ramped up' to teaching in entirely different way, but it was even more surprising when I saw this,

Gathered for a leadership-network meeting facilitated by the Aspen Institute, the chief academic officers of the 14 participating districts expressed praise for the approach, but deep concerns as well, about providing the type of professional development necessary to deliver it well in their districts. To preserve the frank, problem-sharing nature of the meeting, the Aspen Institute asked that Education Week not quote district leaders by name.

 Huh? Why would they not want to be quoted? What is the Aspen Institute anyway? What do THEY have to do with Common Core?

Ahh, I love Betty Peters, my friend from the Alabama State School Board who put THIS article in my inbox today, "Aspen Institute Avalanche". This article talks about how the Institute was going to hire Ron Schiller - NPR's (now former) Foundation President - before James O'Keefe caught on him on tape calling conservatives, Republicans and Tea-Party members "racist" and "gun-toting" - among other things. That's not the issue, however. The issue is the following paragraphs,

In August 2004, according to this article in the liberal New Yorker, “a clandestine summit meeting took place at the Aspen Institute, in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. The participants, all Democrats, were sworn to secrecy” and included five billionaires who “shared a common goal: to use their fortunes to engineer the defeat of President George W. Bush in the 2004 election.” The wealthiest of these “hard-core partisans” was George Soros, who had been a “leading crusader for campaign-finance reform.

Soros, through his Open Society Institute, provides support for the Aspen Institute, which runs various activities in support of its stated mission of “foster[ing] enlightened leadership and open-minded dialogue.” Among these activities are its “Justice and Society Seminars,” which often have federal judges as participants. The Aspen Institute has waived the steep seminar fee (currently up to $6,950) for participating federal judges, and also has covered their expenses for travel, lodging, and meals.

Well sure, in this era of Republicans touting really nothing more than warmed-over PROGRESSIVE education 'reform' nonsense, THIS takes the cake!

In fact, if you really have any illusions that ASPEN Institute might just be misunderstood, please note their project called, "Project New Beginning" or PNB. Please note that the very first member of the project is listed as, "American Charities for Palestine".

Sadly, many of Oklahoma's (and America's) 'conservative' leadership (Sean Burrage, Glenn Coffee) have been recipients of the Rodel Fellowship - our own Mickey Edwards is in fact its Director. Here is what the scholarship claims,

The Aspen Institute-Rodel Fellowships in Public Leadership program seeks to enhance our democracy by identifying and bringing together the nation's most promising young political leaders to explore, through study and conversation, the underlying values and principles of western democracy, the relationship between individuals and their community, and the responsibilities of public leadership; to support and inspire political leaders committed to sustaining the vision of a political system based on thoughtful and civil bipartisan dialogue; and to help America's brightest young leaders achieve their fullest potential in public service.

Clearly, yet another effort/organization in which Republicans have tangled themselves without either awareness or care.

Clearly just another reason to STOP THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS INITIATIVE!

PS: here's a little bit from one Bible-believing organization on why the Aspen Institute is so insidiously bad.
PSS: here's a little bit from Axiom for Liberty about how Aspen Institute is involved in identifying American citizens as TERRORISTS