From a teacher: Don't ditch Common Core
Published April 26, 2014
Remarks by Nancy Gardner, English teacher Mooresville Senior High, published in Charlotte Observer, April 25, 2014
"My name is Nancy Gardner..and I teach Senior English students at Mooresville Senior High School. I am a renewed National Board Certi?ed Teacher whose leadership is rooted in my work with the Center for Teaching Quality.
I started teaching in 1974. I am preparing seniors for a very different world now in 2014 - some 40 years later.
Three things my students in 2014 do well:
1. multi task on their devices
2. live in the present
3. take Multiple Choice tests.
Three things students in 2014 struggle with:
1. Problem solving
2. Critical reading and writing
3. Perseverance.
These 3 skills are the heart and soul of the Common Core literacy standards. The standards outline what my seniors need to know and be able to do to be successful in a rapidly changing world. They don’t tell me how to teach or what to teach--that’s my job.
My students can Google facts and ?gures all day, but if they haven't mastered literacy skills, they won't be ready for the future. It's my job to help students learn to read like detectives and write like private investigators. It's my job to make them read closely, think deeply, and communicate clearly.
The Common Core standards help me focus on the skills these seniors need to be ready for the next part of their lives. Whether my students eventually diagnose what is wrong with my heart or with the engine in my car, they will be critical thinkers and problem solvers. The Common Core helps me do my job, so my students will be able to do theirs."
April 26, 2014 at 9:54 am
Norm Kellly says:
So, can we conclude from YOUR words that for the majority of 40 years as a teacher, where Common Core didn't exist, you failed at your job? You were incapable of teaching critical thinking skills to your students? Until common core came along, kids simply didn't know how to solve problems.
I graduated from high school shortly after the author started teaching. After high school I attended college because I fell in love with computers and decided to get a degree so I could get the job I wanted. I also distinctly remember thinking, as my first semester in college was coming to a close, that my high school had simply not prepared me for the college experience. Needless to say, at the time I couldn't put my finger on what was missing.
Since common core has come along and I've taken the time to check it out online, in detail, I've determined what was missing in my high school education. Also, reading editorials such as the one from this teacher, I have come to realize that if only common core had existed when I went to high school, I would have been better prepared for college and the real world. Without common core, my high school teachers, and probably before that, were simply unprepared to teach critical thinking skills.
Does my story sound absurd? It should. Cuz it is absurd. And made up.
If common core exists as a goal, where certain topics are to be mastered, then common core is good. But when common core becomes the curriculum, and how the subject is taught, when the subject is taught, and common sense isn't part of the equation, then common core MUST be replaced. Common core, nor any other curriculum standard, should dictate the steps taken to get an answer, like on a math problem. Don't teach my kids a long convoluted method to do simple addition or subtraction. Having a standard that does not allow flexibility for the student, and for the teacher, simply turns out robots, not critical thinkers. If common core is a set of goals that allow a teacher to better prepare a lesson plan, then this could be a good thing. But if common core becomes a set of deadlines, where a specific topic must be taught a specific way with specific references or sources of information, and specific days in the calendar year for each topic, with only 1 acceptable answer, then common core isn't teaching critical thinking. At this point common core becomes the indoctrination scheme that some appear to fear from the central planners.
The idea behind a standard in education is to make sure that whether my kid attends school in Wake County or Dare County, they are actually getting an education and not a very expensive baby sitting service. A set of state standards should provide guidance for each district, and each teacher, as to what lesson is to be learned during each school year. This should allow for teaching critical thinking skills, logic, the ability to write a sentence/paragraph, with flexibility for the teacher to gear it toward the specific kids in the specific classroom. Not every kid learns the same way; there must be flexibility for the teacher. Forcing a teacher to teach addition/subtraction with certain steps involved, where it's more complicated than it needs to be because that's the way 'the test' expects it to be done, is no more useful than the existing 'teach to the test' standard that's been used in Wake County for years. Also, unless school systems stop doing social promotion, the standard will continue to not matter. I know, Wake leaders tell us all the time there is no social promotion. They also tell us they don't teach to the test. Does anyone still believe that lie? How about keeping your insurance if you like it. Did you believe that lie also? If you believe these lies, then you also support common core without knowing why.
April 27, 2014 at 9:02 am
Richard Bunce says:
OK, I see it now, they teach to the test because otherwise they do not know what to teach... Free the parents from government schools now!
