Common Core Hammers the Final Death Nail in Education

Many of the most recent (and worst) “improvements” to our national education process have come under the misguided banner of reforms such as Common Core.  Its stated objective is to set forth a national K-12 content standard to be adopted by all states to drive education to become more standardized across the country.  Its supposed purpose is to impose more rigorous standards now so that our students will be prepared for competing in the global economy of the future.

 Taking a closer look, the true progressive objective here is the development of a more disposable workforce.  Common Core proponents seek to replace the previous American education system with a more standardized, “predictable” approach.  This approach prepares the next generation to become easily assignable cogs in a national or even global industrial system.

 As far as the rigorous standards, the current Common Core curriculum will make students less college-ready and force school systems to lower the bar of already deplorable expectations.  Many states actually had more rigorous criteria in place prior to adopting Common Core, and signing on to these new standards is more of a “Race to the Middle” (as frankly admitted by one drafter of the Common Core math standards).  Early adopters of this program – such as Kentucky – have shown no improvement over the past two years and have even gone backwards with 30 to 40-point drops in proficiency tests.

 Common Core impacts educators as well forcing good teachers to go from challenging students and truly educating to simply reciting and lecturing.  This is not something that inspires able people to become teachers or makes children eager to learn.  The pressure placed on both teachers and students to meet the standards imposed creates an environment that forces teachers to begin "teaching to the test” rather than focusing on fostering critical thinking skills.

 With these new “reforms” in place, teachers will focus even more time toward standardized test subject matter and classrooms will be filled with “dumbed-down” curriculum.  Worse yet, it holds good students hostage to the performance of the least-talented, and those eager children that entered school wanting to learn are relentlessly pounded into the submission of mediocrity.

 Ultimately, the result of such education is reduced national innovation, initiative, ingenuity and entrepreneurialism – the very skills and habits which made America the world’s economic leader and which are needed to keep the American economy on track.

 For the American public education system, Common Core is the proverbial nail in the coffin.  Everything it is publically billed to accomplish, it will not only fail at achieving, but it will destroy any remaining remnants of learning left in today’s classrooms.

 What would be the outcome if all education was instead liberal arts education with lessons of classical literature and religious texts permeating the curriculum?  Imagine the young inquisitive mind reading the great works of the past and expanding their culture and knowledge.  What would it look like if there were no national standards and American education was an extension of the home, church, and local community to not only help instill moral teachings but to challenge critical thinking and cultivate self-governing leaders?

 The answer is it would look like the first 250 years America’s founding.  It would foster well-rounded graduates and a self-governing, self-thinking society like the one that brought us the Constitution and Bill of Rights.  It would bring great innovation and a 5000-year leap from the societies that preceded it, and a moral and well-rounded culture.

 While methods changed – the structure of the school classroom certainly changed – a liberal arts education was always at the foundation of American schooling.  As a matter of fact, it was into the very late 1800’s that the use of classical literature was the only method for learning any subject. 

 It was not until the past century where government has tinkered, messed with, and manipulated the public school system – all the while creating more centralized control, becoming more specialized and skill-focused, and building a “conveyor belt” system that produced mind-numb robots.

 Self-afflicted, but after 100 years of government intervention there is a problem with education system today. The solution though is not more money, more training, more tests, and definitely not Common Core.  Instead of a single “common core” standard and centralization of our education, we need to de-centralize it.  Education is a family and a community issue, and we need to reclaim local control of educating our children.

 Secondly, one size does not fit all, and our exceptional students are not common.  Instead of a conveyor belt system to train our children, we need to free the education system and free the minds of the students.  We must again begin to “teach to learn” instead of “lecturing to recite.”  Teachers left to their own abilities will teach and inspire as they did for generations past.

 For a 250-year span that brought innovation and enlightenment, our foundation was a classical liberal arts education.  A nationalized Common Core standard in education will close the door on innovation and not only set us back but throw us forward into educational bondage.  If efforts do not occur to turn back the advancement of Common Core and nationalization of our education system, our children may not learn or ever again realize the liberties this country once offered its citizenry.

Teachers Declare Mutiny on Common Core

A child is precious, irreplaceable, and unique.  If you don’t think so, ask any mother or teacher.  I believe this is the reason why some of the biggest critics against national Common Core standards are not only moms but educators as well.  They understand best of all that children are unique – not common.

A good teacher is priceless, exceptional, and unparalleled.  If you don’t think so, ask anyone that has been influenced at some point in their life by that special teacher.  The one that challenged their students, made them think, and inspired young people.  These are some of the reasons why I am one of the biggest critics against Common Core.  We understand that teachers, too, are unique – not common. 

Most of the criticism about Common Core seems focused on the child, political motivations, data mining, cost, and the bureaucracy it will create.  While all of these are valid objections, it seems less attention has been given to the educators and the consequences for them.  I believe there is something of a misconception that all teachers are behind these policies and are pushing this reckless curriculum.  In truth, you are beginning to hear their voices.  Common Core directly and negatively impacts many of the qualified teachers, and this is why more and more of them are beginning to speak out.

They fear that Common Core national standards will create mediocrity in our students.  What impact do you think it will have in our educators as well?  A good teacher finds a way to inspire and teach, but this will grow more and more difficult under the pressure to “teach to the test” and taking the individuality out of their craft.  In a recent interview with teachers, they told FoxNews.com “the new education approach is turning their lessons into little more than data-dispensing sessions, and they fear their jobs are being marginalized.” - Teachers complain Common Core-linked lessons little more than scrip...posted December 8, 2013. 

Another big complaint is the push for a “conveyor belt” system to train our children.  What about the teachers?  Will they be transformed into “assembly line” workers of our youth?  With the new “reforms” in place, teachers focus all efforts toward standardized test subject matter and classrooms are filled with relentless drilling.  This is not something that inspires able people to become teachers or makes children eager to learn.  From the same FoxNews.com article, another teacher from New Jersey public school said “the rigid new instructions for teaching have left her and her colleagues feeling like robots.”  She went on to say, “All the teachers at my school, all we talk about is how we don’t teach anymore and we feel like robots just doing what we are told to teach and can’t have any creativity for the students to enjoy themselves.”

In the Washington Post, a public school teacher in Delaware recently wrote a letter published November 30, 2013 that added, “if you give a teacher a script, which may or may not have been written by educators, you in essence hobble that teacher and reduce the ability to detour from the script even slightly so as to make sure everyone ‘gets’ what's been done before moving on.”

For many teachers, the aspects of their profession that were once fun and led them to become deeply passionate about it have been replaced by simply being judged on how they adhere to the new standards.  We have created a disposable workforce to stamp out a production line of children, and once “exceptional” teachers are now only “satisfactory.”  The public school teacher from Delaware said it this way, “Standards-BASED education gets it all wrong.  They assume the best teaching and the best learning can be quantified with tests and data.  Yet, I’ve never once had a student compliment me on my academic knowledge or my data collection skills.  I’ve never had a student thank me for writing insightful test questions or for staying up late to write a stunning lesson plan.  But students HAVE thanked me for being there, for listening to them, for encouraging them, for believing in them even before they could believe in themselves.  Meeting our student’s academic needs begins with seeing them as human beings with worth and capability and gifting, not as research subjects.”

For an ample amount of reasons, national Common Core standards are bad for our children.  They are equally destructive to good teaching and exceptional educators.  Common Core holds the educator hostage while forcing good teachers to go from challenging students and truly educating to simply reciting and lecturing.  It puts pressure on national testing, which bullies educators to not only begin teaching to the test but – far worse – teaching to protect their jobs.  It is no problem for a teacher to adjust the pacing or style of a lesson, but to be handed a script – and often monitored to be sure there is no deviation – becomes a problem.  Common Core forces a continual narrowing of the freedom a teacher has in the classroom by adding burdensome requirements without direction on how they might accomplish them.

Many parents and individuals have been speaking out loudly against Common Core, and it seems like we are just now starting to hear from teachers as well.  Maybe because it is just filtering in to the classrooms, or maybe they – like we – are now seeing that they have the most to lose from the implementation of these standards.  It is the educators that will be handcuffed and no longer permitted to do the job they once loved – teaching and inspiring our youth. 

It is my hope that more and more will speak out and that this gets repealed in each state – not from the outside but by those in the system fighting for our children.  Let those exceptional teachers stand up for the children they love and demand their classrooms back.  Rather than telling you what to teach, what to say, and measuring you on test data…why don’t we instead give a good teacher a reasonable class size, the pay they deserve, and the freedom to teach, and prove that exceptional teachers can indeed create plans of their own and carry them out to inspire students once again?

Tale of Two Standards

If ever there was a time when we should be emphasizing education (more than memorizing facts or training kids for specific jobs), if ever there was a time for the liberal arts and self-education, it is now!

 My worry is that the current administration’s enthusiasm for embracing Common Core is going the opposite direction toward a “one-size-fits-all” model and replacing any last bastions of liberal arts education with standardized information, data, and tests.  Common Core standards are truly the “wolf in sheep’s clothing” and are not only dangerous to the classrooms but dangerous to the child’s mind.  One of the so-called “improvements” to education under Common Core already requires over half the reading materials in grades 6-12 to consist of informational texts rather than classical literature.  According to the American Principles Project, "They de-emphasize the study of classic literature in favor of reading so-called 'informational texts,' such as government documents, court opinions, and technical manuals."

 The Common Core standards will replace classic literature with monotonous text and government propaganda.  The Common Core standards will replace knowledge and thinking with empty information.  The most despairing item of all is that Common Core standards will replace open minds with closed books.  Look at these two examples of recommended reading and be honest: which one would inspire ideas, inspire creativity, and inspire reading?

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only. There were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a plain face, on the throne of England; there were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a fair face, on the throne of France. In both countries it was clearer than crystal to the lords of the State preserves of loaves and fishes, that things in general were settled for ever. It was the year of Our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five. Spiritual revelations were conceded to England at that favored period, as at this. Mrs. Southcott had recently attained her five-and-twentieth blessed birthday, of whom a prophetic private in the Life Guards had heralded the sublime appearance by announcing that arrangements were made for the swallowing up of London and Westminster. water under an hour -- and even then somebody generally had to go after him. - “Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens

This manual contains the direct support and general support maintenance instructions for transmission model 3053A, transmission transfer models T– 136-21 and T-136-27, and power takeoff models WN-7-28, WND-7-28, and P-136-C. This manual includes procedures for disassembly, cleaning, inspection, repair, test, adjustment, and overhaul as authorized by the maintenance allocation chart. b. Appendix A gives a list of current and applicable references to the transmission, transfers, and power takeoffs used on the 2 l/2-ton, 6x6 series trucks, equipped with multifuel engines. c. Refer to TM 9-2520-246-34P for a listing of parts and special tools for the maintenance of the transmission, transmission transfers, and power takeoffs for the 2 l/2-ton, 6x6 series trucks. 1-2. GENERAL MAINTENANCE. General maintenance tasks relating to inspection care and maintenance of antifriction bearings are given in TM 9-214. Welding procedures that apply to this type of equipment are given in TM 9-237.For the lubrication of the transmission, transfers, and power takeoffs covered in this manual, refer to LO 9-2320-209-12/1. 1-3. TROUBLESHOOTING. Troubleshooting a fault within the transmission, transmission transfers, transmission power takeoff and transmission transfer power take–off is done as part of the repair procedures. - “Technical Manual for a transmission model 3053A” by author unknown

With half the reading materials consisting of informational texts, the above example is not far from skewed.  This is not advancement in education but is instead taking us even farther from the true education this country was founded on and which brought us liberty and innovation.  In time, as we continue down this path – either by intended or unintended consequences – reading becomes the search for facts instead of an adventure.  Books become just sentences on a page instead of literature and context and art that feeds the soul and challenges the mind.

 Common Core closes minds.

Read the classics and you will find it helps you learn new subjects and cultivate new concepts through one of the most common methods of learning – analogy.  Read technical manuals and you will find it helps you memorize information and regurgitate new facts through one of the most common methods of teaching today – tests.

 Common Core standards require the division of reading standards into approximately 50% fiction and other literature and 50% informational material.  For high school students, this ratio goes up to 70% technical papers, menus, and other similar material.

 Under the current Common Core standards, included is NO British literature (except a very little sample of Shakespeare).  This means:

               - No Dickens and “Tale of Two Cities”

               - No Paradise Lost

               - No Pride and Prejudice

               - No Jane Eyre

 Instead, we have (according to Common Core’s list of actual approved recommended texts:

               - Executive Order 13423:  issued by the U.S. General Services Administration

               - Working Knowledge: Electronic Stability Control

               - The Cost Conundrum: Health Care Costs in McAllen, Texas

 Common Core kills critical thinking.

Some legislators believe students should spend more time in English classes learning how to read informational texts, chiefly because that is the kind of reading they will do in college and daily life.  Ironically – in the Age of Information – what we know (or what information we have access to) does not equate to what we learn.  Kids are not putting this information together but are instead relying heavily on its accessibility.  It is stifling new ideas, and we are becoming a “wiki society” of facts instead of an innovative society of concepts.  As we strip classical liberal arts out of every aspect of school curriculum, kids will no longer learn critical thinking skills of how to put this overwhelming amount of disconnected information together.  In addition – by taking away creativity – children will have lost the thirst for knowledge and discoveries and will instead want the headlines and “cliff notes” of information.

 Kids today can easily find information.  Thinking, though, is a “standard” disciplined process of reviewing and analyzing information and situations – but as importantly – making a “judgment” based on observation, experience, reflection, and reasoning.  Like my mother (a retired school teacher) would say “you are not learning unless what goes in your head mixes up with everything else and comes back out for other purposes.”  The challenge for kids (and many adults) is not access to information but the challenge of making sense of it all, dealing with the complexity, finding connections, and evaluating and passing judgment on their own of the credibility of the information.  This comes from reading the classics, challenging kids’ minds, and encouraging self-education. 

 Common Core places us in bondage.

The philosophy of Common Core is to train children and to standardize what they are taught so that they are cogs in a machine and no longer thinking for themselves.  Stephanie Bell (a member of the Alabama State Board of Education) has been speaking up against the standards.  She said the standards were founded on the flawed idea that every child across America will "be on the same page at the same time."  She explains, "Every child is created (and I thank the Lord for this) we're all created different," she said.  Sadly, schools under this program – instead of a “race to the top” – will find themselves in a new “race to the middle.”  Many of the standards are less rigorous that what was in place prior and – through a one-size-fits-all approach – they will gradually breed everyone towards the center and mediocrity.

 It will hold good teachers hostage.  It forces a continual narrowing of the freedoms teachers have in the classroom by increasing burdensome requirements without direction on how they may accomplish them.  It puts pressure on national testing which bullies educators not only to begin teaching to test but (far worse) teaching to protect their jobs.

 It holds good students hostage to the performance of the least-talented, and those eager children that entered school wanting to learn are relentlessly pounded into the submission of mediocrity.  It forces a single standardized answer to an abstract art of reading comprehension and destroys creative thought.  It punishes originality and rewards conformity and stifles the child’s desire to read and learn.

The answer will not and should not come from Washington, D.C. or your state capital.  It is not in additional funding and further untested, untried regulations and standards.  The answer will come from the classrooms and from the homes.  Educators have been sold a set of goods that takes away their ability to teach.  Moms and parents have been stripped of their responsibility to impact their children’s education. 

 If things are to change, that change will begin in the classroom.  It will be the teachers and parents rising up and demanding their classrooms back.  Education does not need to be centralized but rather local.  Educating our youth is a family and community and local issue, and we need to fight together as educators and parents to once again make schooling local.  Concerned people of all political persuasions need to call for a complete revision of these damaging national standards.

 English curriculum must look at not only stopping the dangerous advancement of these new Common Core standards but bringing back classics and liberal arts education into the classroom and children’s experience.  Teachers need to be given the freedom to teach and students need to be given the freedom to discover new worlds, times, and people through literature.  If ever there was a time when we should be emphasizing education (more than memorizing facts or training kids for specific jobs), if ever there was a time for the liberal arts and self-education, it is now!

Kentuckians Make Stand against Common Core

On Monday the Kentucky interim Joint Committee on Education meet to discuss Common Core and meet with need resistance.


We want to thank, Kentuckians Against Common Core, those that came out spent the day standing up for the educational rights and protection of your children. Please take a moment to read Steve Shreeve’s comments and to educate yourself on the top-down, one size fits all, government takeover of our education system, known as Common Core. Please help us take a stand, join Kentuckians against Common Core and put a Stop to Common Core in Kentucky!


Kentucky SB-1 Review

As a father of four school-aged children, I am here to voice my concern about the implementation of SB-1 and, particularly, with Common Core. I have a bachelors' degree in Electrical Engineering with two minors in Mathematics and Physics. I have a Masters Degree in Business Administration. Four years of doctorate studies in Medical School rounded out my diverse background in technology, business, and healthcare. I also lived abroad and am fluent in Spanish.

I bring to your attention three fatal flaws in Common Core: 1) poor content, 2) no privacy, and 3) high costs. I urge you to review the increasing evidence online from a litany of sources, across numerous states, from folks of all political persuasions, which reveals Common Core for what it is: a top-down, one size fits all, government takeover of our education system.

How do you define freedom and force? I suggest that freedom is the absence of coercion. It’s not that we can do whatever we want, but that we are not forced into doing what we do not want. George Washington said, “Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.” The loss of freedom by increased coercion and force are central to this hearing today and Common Core reflects this painfully recurring theme. First, proponents claim Common Core leads to creativity and innovation. It does just the opposite. In fact, it is utterly anti-intellectual to think that standardizing knowledge is going to lead to creativity and innovation. Even Doctor Holliday’s recent blog post after his thrilling Washington, DC conference visit funded by the Gates Foundation, stated: “One of the most striking things we learned came from the Chinese delegation. China (Shanghai) is well known for being number one in math and reading … However, China is not very happy with its education system. The Chinese are pushing for more creativity and problem solving skills for students.” So, even our State Commissioner realizes that this level of standardization reduces creativity and innovation.

Second, Common Core’s associated databases and sharing of student academic, behavioral, medical, and familial information with entities outside of the school and school district, in conjunction with recent bombshell reports of government encroachment on personal privacy rights creates grave concerns in my mind. I have been bounced around to twelve people from teachers to school administrators to district personnel in IT and administration to state administrators over the past 3 months trying to simply get a summary of the information stored on my children. To date, I have nothing. Yet, this information seamlessly flows between unknown entities and is processed behind the scenes for the “benefit” of my child. Where are my rights as a parent regarding this information? Third, how much does all this cost? What happens when the stimulus funding runs out? My children routinely come home with requests for donations of the most basic items, such as tissue paper or hand sanitizer, but Common Core cost increases take this to a whole new level. An analysis by the State of Alabama found that Common Core implementation increases costs by nearly 10 times. Just this past week, the Oldham County School District announced that 50 employees, including 30 teachers, have to be let go. The money simply is not there. Just wait until Common Core really ramps up. Do not yield our freedom and submit to the servitude that comes with the drug of funding for these programs.

The father of the American Revolution, Sam Adams, dealt with similar issues and made his point thus, “If ye love money better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”

Esteemed ladies and gentlemen, do not abrogate your responsibility to preserve the sovereignty of the Commonwealth of Kentucky or the rights of parents of Kentucky’s school aged children. SB-1 was designed to empower Kentucky to control its educational future. Common Core stifles that goal and yields control. One legislator recently informed me, he was completely unaware of Common Core when SB-1 passed. If it’s so wonderful, why was it brought in the back door? Please, do your homework and put a halt to the madness of Common Core.


Steve Shreeve
La Grange, KY



Thank you Kim & Steve for this update