I think the name of this educational program fits as it makes our students common. It’s common because our Federal Government created it with no insight into the unique needs of each community. They think they know better than the local boards of education as to what students need to learn. A cookie cutter approach to something so critical to the success of our country is dangerous. Fortunately the majority are now saying Common Core should be discontinued.
I lived on a farm in Quapaw, Oklahoma and there were no white collar jobs available; I needed to know those things that would help me gain employment where I lived…common core would’ve ruined me and my community.
I was a member of FFA (Future Farmers of America), and VO-AG (Vocational Agriculture). I took courses in welding and surveying all of which made me valuable where I lived and our department of education knew the curriculum necessary to get me there. Our Federal Government didn’t have a clue as to our local needs.
A few things to think about:
· There are courses like geography that could be much shorter than they are now. Why don’t they break some of the classes into two different courses; have the curriculum spent on one area like geography in the first half of the school year and the second half of the year spent on another course; this would be extremely easy to accomplish and students would love the variety.
· I think Calculus and Trigonometry doesn’t need to be taught in high school. If someone decides to be an engineer then he or she could take these courses in college which is by far a better place to learn because students would know they need it. Probably 95% of a high schools waste time with it when their time could be better spent on getting students extremely proficient in subjects like American History, Civics, U.S. Constitution, English, Excel, Project Management, Statistics, and Writing.
· These are two things that might be totally ridiculous but I can’t help but wonder. 1) With how important the areas above are does it make sense to continue band? I know a child in band generally have better character than average students but is it worth the time spent? 2) Does it make sense to have high school students start school at 10:00 a.m. and run until 5:00 p.m.? These kids often use their computers until mid-night because of social media. It doesn’t matter when they go to bed they’ll still end up staying up late. This causes a severe case of sleep deprivation which means their ability to retain information in each class goes down dramatically; they can be in class but not get anything out of it. There are reports galore about the negative impact of sleep deprivation. I do understand these ideas are way out there and I’m not committed to them; I just threw them out to get people thinking.
American History is critical for young people to know where they came from…this will help them appreciate our country more.
Civics gives ground work to how our country is supposed to operate and each of our responsibilities to be good U.S. citizens.
Our U.S. Constitution (101 & 201) should receive a massive amount of attention for obvious reasons including how they can get more engaged in politics…they need to become watchdogs in order to help protect our freedoms. They can’t help protect us if they don’t understand the laws.
English is critical as it seems like young people no longer care about it and it will dictate their success.
Excel and Statistics play a huge role in most companies so being extremely proficient at them would help young people make a great difference as soon as he or she enters the job market.
In one way or another every employee in white collar jobs will be involved in project management. Learning communications, critical thinking, establishing priorities, etc., could make or break someone’s career.
Let’s face it the way kids are writing now isn’t how they’ll need to write when they get into the real world.
What it boils down to is we need to prepare our high school students for their futures and ours; what we’re teaching now with courses like Calculus and Trigonometry doesn’t do this. With this in mind the above areas are critical so it only makes sense to give them added focus.
There are more courses that could be considered to remove and even add but it would be up to local school boards. The fact is we don’t need students who are common. We don’t need an educational system that is geared towards the Teachers’ Union because nothing is more important than preparing our kids to compete in a global economy and to do this we need a system that is geared towards helping our students succeed period.
I lived on a farm in Quapaw, Oklahoma and there were no white collar jobs available; I needed to know those things that would help me gain employment where I lived…common core would’ve ruined me and my community.
I was a member of FFA (Future Farmers of America), and VO-AG (Vocational Agriculture). I took courses in welding and surveying all of which made me valuable where I lived and our department of education knew the curriculum necessary to get me there. Our Federal Government didn’t have a clue as to our local needs.
A few things to think about:
· There are courses like geography that could be much shorter than they are now. Why don’t they break some of the classes into two different courses; have the curriculum spent on one area like geography in the first half of the school year and the second half of the year spent on another course; this would be extremely easy to accomplish and students would love the variety.
· I think Calculus and Trigonometry doesn’t need to be taught in high school. If someone decides to be an engineer then he or she could take these courses in college which is by far a better place to learn because students would know they need it. Probably 95% of a high schools waste time with it when their time could be better spent on getting students extremely proficient in subjects like American History, Civics, U.S. Constitution, English, Excel, Project Management, Statistics, and Writing.
· These are two things that might be totally ridiculous but I can’t help but wonder. 1) With how important the areas above are does it make sense to continue band? I know a child in band generally have better character than average students but is it worth the time spent? 2) Does it make sense to have high school students start school at 10:00 a.m. and run until 5:00 p.m.? These kids often use their computers until mid-night because of social media. It doesn’t matter when they go to bed they’ll still end up staying up late. This causes a severe case of sleep deprivation which means their ability to retain information in each class goes down dramatically; they can be in class but not get anything out of it. There are reports galore about the negative impact of sleep deprivation. I do understand these ideas are way out there and I’m not committed to them; I just threw them out to get people thinking.
American History is critical for young people to know where they came from…this will help them appreciate our country more.
Civics gives ground work to how our country is supposed to operate and each of our responsibilities to be good U.S. citizens.
Our U.S. Constitution (101 & 201) should receive a massive amount of attention for obvious reasons including how they can get more engaged in politics…they need to become watchdogs in order to help protect our freedoms. They can’t help protect us if they don’t understand the laws.
English is critical as it seems like young people no longer care about it and it will dictate their success.
Excel and Statistics play a huge role in most companies so being extremely proficient at them would help young people make a great difference as soon as he or she enters the job market.
In one way or another every employee in white collar jobs will be involved in project management. Learning communications, critical thinking, establishing priorities, etc., could make or break someone’s career.
Let’s face it the way kids are writing now isn’t how they’ll need to write when they get into the real world.
What it boils down to is we need to prepare our high school students for their futures and ours; what we’re teaching now with courses like Calculus and Trigonometry doesn’t do this. With this in mind the above areas are critical so it only makes sense to give them added focus.
There are more courses that could be considered to remove and even add but it would be up to local school boards. The fact is we don’t need students who are common. We don’t need an educational system that is geared towards the Teachers’ Union because nothing is more important than preparing our kids to compete in a global economy and to do this we need a system that is geared towards helping our students succeed period.
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