Is Common Core Ruining Your Child’s Life?

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The Old Way Vs. The New Way

Is common core ruining your child’s life?
Welcome to the age of hyper-parenting and pressurized schools. What can we do to return the child to childhood?

The New Way: Parenting as product development
Micromanagement impedes a child’s ability to learn on their own.
Hyper-parenting involves wanting to give our children “perfect” childhoods.
Sports
Music
Art
Scouting
Languages
Vacations
Church
The goal is to be the best. But we’re sacrificing depth for breadth.
–Why?

Consumerism:
We want perfect teeth, perfect vacations, a perfect home, and perfect kids.

Lack of Confidence:
Less Children +
At an older age
= Less Chances to Parent

Entire industries thrive on parents fears…
(helmets for toddlers; guides on how to make your child a genius)

Competition:
Globalization means you have to be top notch to get ahead.
Other parent: “What do you mean your child doesn’t have a tutor?!”

Slow parenting doesn’t have to mean slower development, it’s just proceeding at a natural pace.
Decompress:
Leave behind your wi-fi, to-do’s, and routine.
Car camping or renting a back-country hut

Take unstructured time:
Where kids have to be creative to find something to do.

Children need time to :
Read
Write
Think
Dream
Draw
Build
Create
Pretend

Play is the most natural way to learn…
And promotes self awareness.

Learn the Difference Between “Eustress” and Distress

Eustress = natural level of stress to feel as we confront life.
Ex. loving soccer and feeling pressure during a game.
Distress = stress to the point that a child feels overwhelmed.
Ex. Being physically stressed during a soccer game because of the four events you did before hand.

But even when you take steps to de-stress your kid’s life at home, common core threatens to destroy your kid’s childhood at school.

Old Way vs. New Way:

Kindergarten lesson on Frog and Toad Together:

Old Student Task:
Retell the story’s events (beginning, middle, and end)
Identify characters and setting

Common Core Task:
Compare and contrast Frog and Toad’s adventures and experiences.
Collaborate with classmates to determine comparisons.

2nd and 3rd grade lesson on Charlotte’s Web:

Old Student Task:
Who is telling the story?
How does Charlotte feel at the end?
How do you know?

Common Core Task:
What is your point of view about Wilbur?
How is it different from Fern’s point of view about Wilbur?
How is it different from the narrator’s point of view?

2nd and 3rd grade lesson on Apollo 11 (spaceship):

Old Student Task:
What is the spacecraft called?
What are the names of the three astronauts?

Common Core Task:
What is the author trying to convey when he says,”these men are dressed for colder, stranger places. They walk with stiff awkward steps…?”
What makes the voyage an important historical event?

Common Core was meant to elevate higher level thinking, but simply raising the bar doesn’t help more kids succeed.
By forcing a harder curriculum:
Many students fall even farther behind
–>
Get discouraged
–>
And drop out

New York was the first large state to implement common core

Under old standards:
[% children meeting standards]
Math: 65%
Reading:55%

Under common core:
Math: 55.1%
Reading: 31.1%

Leaving:
Students demoralized to tears
Teachers un-prepared

Dehumanizing In NY:
5th grade teachers follow a new, 500 page scripted curriculum.

Case study: Algebra

Algebra is taught in the 8th grade under Common Core
(a plateau in child brain development)
Making it much harder to deal with and retain new concepts

Rationale: Students with algebra have more options when they graduate, and the earlier one takes algebra, the more advanced courses they can take before college.
Some kids might be able t take algebra in the 8th grade–> but should we force everyone to?

In Real Life: Algebra at too early of an age turns kids off to math, and often becomes a cited reason for dropping out, ultimately leaving kids with less options.

8th grade Algebra proficiency levels plummeting:
New Mexico: 43%
Tennessee: 39%
West Virginia: 35%
Oklahoma: 33%
In the real world, how many times will an employer ask you for a proof of the quadratic equation?
It’s important to push activities that are developmentally correct.

The aim of common core is to increase stem proficiencies and higher level thinking.

Then why do many of America’s most well-educated parents:
Home school
Or send kids to:
Waldorf schools
Montessori schools

Where there is ample time to play, and flexibility for children’s developmental differences?

Citations:

1. http://excelined.org/common-core-toolkit/old-standards-v-common-core-a-side-by-side-comparison-of-english-language-arts-2/
2. http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/08/what-is-slow-parenting/
3. http://www.outsideonline.com/blog/outdoor-adventure/less-is-more-5-ways-to-raise-active-kids-without-the-rush.html
4. http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200303/are-we-pushing-our-kids-too-hard
5. http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2013/08/as_predicted_scores_plunge_on_tough_new_state_english_and_math_tests.html#incart_river
6. http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2013/08/new_yorks_test-score_plunge_leaves_parents_to_wonder_is_my_child_on_track.html
7. http://ourfuture.org/20130508/why-we-need-a-moratorium-on-the-high-stakes-of-common-core-testing