I wrote this post two days ago and it mysteriously disappeared when Blogspot had some difficulties. Since this is information that more people need to know about, I'm re-writing it, although it may not be identical to the original simply because I do not have the original saved on any other forum. Hopefully, this one will stay put!
First, if you're unfamiliar with Common Core Standards that were adopted in 2010 by all states except Texas and Alaska, then you can read my article on that here. Common Core Standards are the lead in to forcing all publicly funded schools into a National Standard where States, nor parents, have no say in what their children learn, when they learn it, or how they learn it. The Feds would run all educational systems as they see fit, and all children would learn the same thing, in the same way, regardless of what parents, or teachers, know is best for their students. How does Bill Gates tie into that you ask? Keep reading...
Since January 2008, the Gates Foundation has given more than 35 million dollars (35,000,000.00) to the Council of Chief School Officers and the National Governors Association, the two main organizations responsible for orchestrating Common Core Standards. He has also given 12.6 million to Achieve, Inc., and more than 1.4 million to The Fordham Institute. These are two of the three national education firms responsible for "independent" analysis of the standards. Doesn't sound "independent" to me. That sounds like a serious conflict of interest.
Why would the wealthiest man in the US care about the educational system across the country? Why would a corporation care what kind of curriculum students are using, you ask? (or you SHOULD) Well, where does his employee base come from? Ask yourself that question, and you'll begin to drift toward the answer. That should scare you, people.
Those that control what is taught, also control what is thought. Don't think for one minute that Bill Gates is unaware of that statement. The basic tenet being bantered around is that since States can't make all people equal, then the Feds surely can. I suppose history isn't a part of the standards they are reviewing? History clearly shows that any time the federal government becomes involved, standards reduce dramatically. Literacy rates alone have dropped 20% since the inception of the Dept. of Education.
Education was intentionally left to the States via the Constitution. Education was SPECIFICALLY removed from the federal government simply because it opens the door to tyranny. It removes individual states from having the right to determine what their students learn, how they learn it and when. By giving control of all education to the federal government, we make it impossible for parents, or teachers, to have any control of their students and children. If you think having a meeting with the superintendent is tough, try having a meeting with federal bureaucrat in Washington, D.C. about what your child is learning!
By privatizing education, and that IS what national standards do, we really remove pluralism from our educational system. We remove a child's right to become what they want to become, regardless of what a teleprompter reading bureaucrat spews out at you. Engage your brain, people! Children do not learn the same way nor should they be expected to. Some are mechanically inclined, some academically inclined, and some are neither. By forcing schools into a position to adopt National Standards, we are turning our kids over to a corrupt political and corporate machine that has no bigger goal than to make them economic tools. Ask yourself again why Bill Gates is investing 100's of millions of dollars to pass this standard.
By having a National Standard, we are forced into a position of our children's test scores becoming National knowledge. This is where Gates is heading. He is well aware that once National Standards are in place, children's standardization will be complete. He will have access to a list of all potential employees who will best suit his business model. Our children will officially be nothing more than economic tools of the State, and education will be nothing more than what an elect few determine youth should learn.
Power in education needs to be DE-centralized, not more centralized. Our education was the strongest in the entire world until the federal government stepped in. Now, we are being told that if they tell us what to think, learn and be, we'll be better off. What history tells us is that while it sounds good on paper, it is a disaster waiting to happen. Public school has become nothing more than a government monopoly and it is failing. To suggest that that can be fixed by MORE regulation and intrusion by the government should be very suspect to all parents with school aged children.
Bill Gates recently "invested" another 20 million to "help" one of the largest publishers of textbooks come up with new ways to "teach" students. I was unaware that the Gates Foundation was now an educational "expert" who had any more basis than you or I to interfere with textbooks in the classrooms, regardless of the amount of money he has. Frankly, I think Gates needs to be taken in for evaluation. However, the powers that we have elected sold their souls to money decades ago, and that's really all they care about. Unfortunately, that means our children can be pimped out to the highest bidder.
I could go on for days about the failed "School of the Future" that Microsoft built in Philly, or the many ex-Gates Foundation employees on Obama's Education Dept. payroll, but you can do your own research there. I urge you to investigate this for yourself. What are that many ex-Gates Foundation employees doing there? I was unaware that philanthropic organizations were also educational experts. Evidently, Obama hires educational experts for different reasons than education.
The crux of my argument is this: We have a diverse population and a diverse and pluralistic society. We have learned the hard way that government doesn't "fix" anything and frankly, it wasn't designed to. We know that money talks. Bill Gates has a LOT of money. Our children deserve better than some one size fits all standard that only benefits the corporate hogs and bureaucrats sitting on Capital Hill. Anything that negates them controlling every single thing that students learn is a good thing. Shouldn't we strongly question anything that calls for a complete monopoly and the control of that monopoly being run by the very people in power to push the monopoly? Certainly in our children's education? In any other situation, the government demands that a monopoly be torn down. But, in this instance, the very minds of our youth are at stake and they want to control that. No way!
And to Bill Gates: If you want to control someones education, stick to your own daughters. Keep your hands, and your money, off MY children. You will never determine what they learn, how they learn, when they learn or at what level they learn. Every decent parent on the planet should be concerned about this. It's THAT big of a deal, people!
I'll be writing more on the project based learning and outcome that these standards are leaning toward later. That's right...the testing they are leaning toward forcing all public schools into are ALL project based learning models. Again, economic tools of the State. I keep looking around for Orwell to show up any moment...
Showing posts with label National Standards. Show all posts
Showing posts with label National Standards. Show all posts
Friday, May 13, 2011
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Common Core Standards
I intend to use this post on Common Core Standards as a building block for an upcoming series on Race to the Top and National Standards in our public school system. If you've never heard of Common Core Standards, don't feel bad, most people haven't and there's a reason for that. It's been primarily discussed behind closed doors and tied to federal funding that is intentionally tied to other bills so that the average person can't find it. If people understood Common Core Standards, the government would be in hot water and they know it. If people understood National Standards, the government would be experiencing something very similar to Egypt's current situation, and they know it. If you've never heard of either of these take overs, listen up. If you live in any of the 50 States, other than Alaska and Texas, your State legislators have already sold you out, but there is still hope. However, you'll have to be willing to fight....and that is the part that worries me. Apathy...the big killer of liberty and equality.
Common Core Standard tenets began as Goals 2000 and was former President Clinton's pet education project. Through loud opposition, Goals 2000 was eventually dead because of the federal intrusion upon education that came with it. However, a rose by any other name is still a rose. Common Core Standards are nothing more than Goals 2000 with a new name and President Obama has no intention of stopping here. Common Core standards were adopted by the afore mentioned states just last year, 2010. They were bribed to do so with federal money. I would even go so far as saying that they were forced to do so during a very difficult economic time and that was intentional.
Common Core Standards stated goal is to "...establish clear and consistent goals for learning that will prepare America’s children for success in college and work." They claim that they are doing this by having common English and Math curriculums taught through-out the United States. They also claim that this is a "state led initiative" and that states governors worked together to create these standards. When did Governors became educational "experts"? When did Governors have the right to determine what schools teach?
Who elected these people to determine "standards" for our children? I don't remember any such discussion, do you? Who elected anyone to take away each state's sovereign right to educate their citizens as they see fit? By taking away state sovereignty in education, we've allowed our children's education to become nothing more than a way for the government to use our children as economic tools. That is NOT education and the primary reason our schools are in such a sad shape...I digress.
Here's the tricky part: National funding is tied to Common Core Standards. Any state who does (did) not adopt these standards, but chooses to opt out and give local governments and parents their Constitutional right to choose curriculums and what their students learn, also forgoes the right to receive federal funding that is "supposedly" set aside specifically for education. So "our" tax money will only be given to "our" children in their educational endeavours if we go the way the Federal government chooses for us? If states choose for their institutionalized learning to be left to the parents, they forgo their own federal educational tax dollars being spent on...well, education. We can all see the slippery slope there, right? Please, tell me you can see the slope!
I also think it's noteworthy that education is NOT mentioned in the Constitution. Our founding fathers understood CLEARLY that Common Standards issued by a federal government meant that the federal government was in charge of what is taught, when it is taught and how it is taught. This program is nothing more than a set-up for National Standards. This is nothing more than the first step in a federal take-over of education. Since federal intrusion, and billions of federal dollars, have been in the public school system, our test scores have dropped dramatically and our graduation rates have plummeted. We won't even bother to cover the massive amounts of illiteracy seen in compulsory schooling. Yet, they are still throwing billions of tax dollars into a system that is not working for the students! THE STUDENTS! That is educations goal. Not the teachers, not the NEA, not the legislators, and not the states. The children's education is what education should be about. Nothing more and nothing less.
Children are not designed to be economic tools. They are not designed to all work the same, nor learn the same. Common Core standards are nothing more than a way to cull the students who would work best for large corporations into one lumped group and be able to recognize them and shape them in whatever way the government sees fit. This is the system that China uses, and one that President Obama is a huge fan of. For more info on that, see here.
National control of curriculum is nothing more than a national control of ideas. Think about that statement and let it sink it. Parents and students are the ones with the most to lose or gain by having a well educated child. Ask yourself what the government has to gain by establishing Common Core or National Standards? Ask yourself to name one program that the government has ever run successfully. It's imperative that this information gets out to the general public, and this little blog can only do so much. Talk about it, look it up, send people here...whatever you have to do to get the word moving.
ALL parents should be concerned about this, but homeschooling families probably more so than most. We have, by definition, exercised our right to educate our children away from government intrusion and teach them in the way they learn best, at a pace they learn best and what they need to know to achieve wisdom and knowledge. We have, by our very definition, dedicated ourselves to raising well-educated children and by all accounts are doing a stellar job pretty much across the board and across all racial, religious, or cultural lines.
National standards will take away our rights, just like it did parents who choose institutionalized schooling, to decide what curriculum we use, what our children are taught, and at what pace they are "allowed" to learn it. We will be required by the federal government to teach whatever they deem worthy of thought. Whatever they deem worthy for our children to learn will be what our children will be taught. If you think getting a teacher, principal, superintendent, or local school board to listen to you is tough, just wait until you have to travel to Washington, D.C. to discuss your child's education....best of luck with that. This alone is reason for all of us to stand up, and fight the good fight.
Common Core Standard tenets began as Goals 2000 and was former President Clinton's pet education project. Through loud opposition, Goals 2000 was eventually dead because of the federal intrusion upon education that came with it. However, a rose by any other name is still a rose. Common Core Standards are nothing more than Goals 2000 with a new name and President Obama has no intention of stopping here. Common Core standards were adopted by the afore mentioned states just last year, 2010. They were bribed to do so with federal money. I would even go so far as saying that they were forced to do so during a very difficult economic time and that was intentional.
Common Core Standards stated goal is to "...establish clear and consistent goals for learning that will prepare America’s children for success in college and work." They claim that they are doing this by having common English and Math curriculums taught through-out the United States. They also claim that this is a "state led initiative" and that states governors worked together to create these standards. When did Governors became educational "experts"? When did Governors have the right to determine what schools teach?
Who elected these people to determine "standards" for our children? I don't remember any such discussion, do you? Who elected anyone to take away each state's sovereign right to educate their citizens as they see fit? By taking away state sovereignty in education, we've allowed our children's education to become nothing more than a way for the government to use our children as economic tools. That is NOT education and the primary reason our schools are in such a sad shape...I digress.
Here's the tricky part: National funding is tied to Common Core Standards. Any state who does (did) not adopt these standards, but chooses to opt out and give local governments and parents their Constitutional right to choose curriculums and what their students learn, also forgoes the right to receive federal funding that is "supposedly" set aside specifically for education. So "our" tax money will only be given to "our" children in their educational endeavours if we go the way the Federal government chooses for us? If states choose for their institutionalized learning to be left to the parents, they forgo their own federal educational tax dollars being spent on...well, education. We can all see the slippery slope there, right? Please, tell me you can see the slope!
I also think it's noteworthy that education is NOT mentioned in the Constitution. Our founding fathers understood CLEARLY that Common Standards issued by a federal government meant that the federal government was in charge of what is taught, when it is taught and how it is taught. This program is nothing more than a set-up for National Standards. This is nothing more than the first step in a federal take-over of education. Since federal intrusion, and billions of federal dollars, have been in the public school system, our test scores have dropped dramatically and our graduation rates have plummeted. We won't even bother to cover the massive amounts of illiteracy seen in compulsory schooling. Yet, they are still throwing billions of tax dollars into a system that is not working for the students! THE STUDENTS! That is educations goal. Not the teachers, not the NEA, not the legislators, and not the states. The children's education is what education should be about. Nothing more and nothing less.
Children are not designed to be economic tools. They are not designed to all work the same, nor learn the same. Common Core standards are nothing more than a way to cull the students who would work best for large corporations into one lumped group and be able to recognize them and shape them in whatever way the government sees fit. This is the system that China uses, and one that President Obama is a huge fan of. For more info on that, see here.
National control of curriculum is nothing more than a national control of ideas. Think about that statement and let it sink it. Parents and students are the ones with the most to lose or gain by having a well educated child. Ask yourself what the government has to gain by establishing Common Core or National Standards? Ask yourself to name one program that the government has ever run successfully. It's imperative that this information gets out to the general public, and this little blog can only do so much. Talk about it, look it up, send people here...whatever you have to do to get the word moving.
ALL parents should be concerned about this, but homeschooling families probably more so than most. We have, by definition, exercised our right to educate our children away from government intrusion and teach them in the way they learn best, at a pace they learn best and what they need to know to achieve wisdom and knowledge. We have, by our very definition, dedicated ourselves to raising well-educated children and by all accounts are doing a stellar job pretty much across the board and across all racial, religious, or cultural lines.
National standards will take away our rights, just like it did parents who choose institutionalized schooling, to decide what curriculum we use, what our children are taught, and at what pace they are "allowed" to learn it. We will be required by the federal government to teach whatever they deem worthy of thought. Whatever they deem worthy for our children to learn will be what our children will be taught. If you think getting a teacher, principal, superintendent, or local school board to listen to you is tough, just wait until you have to travel to Washington, D.C. to discuss your child's education....best of luck with that. This alone is reason for all of us to stand up, and fight the good fight.
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