Common Core Standards

What is Common Core and why should I care?  The standards can be read at www.corestandards.org.
Who would want to be handicapped by not being able to read or read effectively?  Who wants to be cheated out of their own money because they cannot count it?  The obvious answer is No One!

The problem is not with the standards but with the idea that all people can and should learn at the same rate and in the same way.  Another problem is the idea that the government can and should control this.
I have one friend who teaches and tells me not to worry as the teaching methods are much the same as the ones I use successfully in tutoring.  Another friend, who also teaches, is disgusted because the rules make it harder for her to teach successfully.  A third friend who teaches Special Needs is having wonderful success with this.  A fourth friend is ready to quit teaching because of the school politics caused by this kind of government confusion.  All of these are good, successful teachers.  Their students learn and score above average on the achievement tests.

Learning standards are good.  We do not need to stifle students and teachers by saying they are wrong if they do not learn or teach the same way.

The best way I can explain some of the problems of using common core is like having one student in your class on crutches and requiring all the students to use crutches because one student needs crutches.  Then when the student is well and no longer needs the crutches, the students are all still required to use crutches until graduation. This is because the people in authority who are making the rules cannot understand the crutches are no longer needed by the one student.

Just as we do not all wear the same size shoe, we do not all learn the same.  I see this in my tutoring. The biggest problem I see in my tutoring is that when a student is successful they can fly on their own and I have to find another student.