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Common Core, Common Core Standards, Curriculum, Dumbing Down, Education, Math, Our Kid's Future, Schools, Students, Teachers, Teaching, Testing
Shock Video: The New Common Core Obama Math Standard: “3 x 4 = 11”
by Mac Slavo
Common Core Math
Earlier this year President Obama detailed his new educational initiatives aimed at “closing America’s school readiness gap.” As with all things Obama, it seems that “readiness” is yet another doublespeak term that suggests exactly the opposite of the traditional definition.
At a recent school meeting in Grayslake, Illinois curriculum director, Amanda August discusses the new federally mandated Common Core education standards, which are currently being implemented into school districts across the nation.
Here’s how we’re readying America’s children for a highly competitive globalized marketplace:
Under the new Common Core… even if students say 3 X 4 equals 11, if they are able to explain their reasoning, and explain how they came up with their answer in words and in oral explanations, and they show it in a picture — even when they get final number wrong, then “3 x 4 equals 11”, even though THAT isn’t true. “We’re focusing on the how and why.”
It’s no matter if a student comes to the conclusion that 3 x 4 = 11. So long as they can explain how they made this erroneous determination they go home with an ‘A’.
Watch.
Though “experts” argue that the new Common Core standards will improve our education system and prepare America’s children for a brave new world, a study conducted by none other than Common Core shows just how far we’ve fallen at America’s pedagogic institutions:
- One in four high schoolers think Columbus discovered the New World after 1750.
- On the multiple choice test, less than half of high school students knew when the Civil War was fought. They didn’t even need to know exact dates, just that it was sometime between 1850 and 1900.
- Only 60% of students knew that WWI was fought between 1900 and 1950 — they only had to guess the half century!
- 40% of students could not identify the name of the ocean on the eastern side of the United States.
- Nearly 60% of students could not identify the two major political parties.
- When asked who is in charge of the Executive Branch of the United States, 70% of high school students got the wrong answer.
- Fully 75% of high school students failed to identify the First President of the United States.
Not convinced that implementing Common Core will “dumb down” our public schools?
Watch the following video from Lunch Scholars, which asks typical American high school students to answer a series of common questions covering topics such as American history, geography, and politics.
- In which war did our country win its independence?
- Who is the Vice President?
- Which countries border the U.S.?
- How many stars on the flag of the United States?
- Can you name a country starting with the letter “U” ?
AFTER THE DRAMATIC DROP IN ‘COMMON CORE EDUCATED’ STUDENT’S TEST SCORES AROUND THE NATION, CONCERNED PARENTS ASKED THE IMPLEMENTERS OF FLORIDA’S COMMON CORE: “Should we be worried if our child dropped in performance on this year’s FCAT?”
THE IMPLEMENTERS OF COMMON CORE TOLD THOSE PARENTS: “Because the FCAT 2.0 is based on more demanding content standards and the achievement standards are more rigorous, scores may appear lower on the new scale than on the previous scale for certain grades and subjects.
“Please know that this is an effort to prepare your student for success after high school, in college, in the workplace, and in life. Raising standards and measuring students’ progress toward the standards is the right thing to do.”
Read the question and answer sheet put out by Florida Common Core educators for concerned parents HERE.
So…according to the Common Core educators in Florida, expecting your child to KNOW THE NAMES OF THE TWO MAJOR POLITICAL PARTIES IN THE THE UNITED STATES is too rigorous and demanding for children educated under Common Core to master in a couple of years?!
Common Core’s Question and Answer Sheet, in my opinion, “talked down” to valid parental concerns.
Basically, concerned parents were told, “Common Core is the “right thing to do? Trust us.”
“Trust us.” That has worked out so well so far. What could possibly go wrong?
