Time to scrap Common Core

Some things just shouldn’t be political.

For example, why have the issues of climate change and protecting the environment become politicized?

Is it because Al Gore was the face of environmental protection in the early 2000s? Is it because energy companies lobby and fund lots of Republican candidates? Is it because of the growing number of conservative media outlets, which promote an agenda instead of simply reporting the news?

Ten years ago, climate change was an accepted fact by the vast majority of Americans. Nowadays, lots of people pretend not to understand science.

Personally, I’d think the Christian Right would want to preserve God’s green earth.

For liberals, one of their babies is Common Core, an initiative begun about seven years ago and adopted by most states to set universal curriculum standards in English and math in schools at multiple grade levels. It requires frequent testing to gauge progress.

The English portion encompasses reading, writing, language, speaking and listening, and media and technology. The math portion includes practical mathematics and mathematical content (various forms of math).

It all sounds good on its face, right?

Most of my liberal friends are automatically in favor of Common Core. They think it uplifts education, which our country desperately needs to do, and they can’t understand why anyone would oppose it.

Most of my conservative friends are automatically against Common Core, believing it’s government interference in the classroom.

But I’ll tell you who really dislikes Common Core, and not for political reasons – teachers.

Show me a teacher and I’ll show you someone who hates Common Core.

As a reporter, I’ve covered education on-and-off for a long time, and I have yet to meet a teacher who likes Common Core. I have teachers in my family, and they all give Common Core a big, fat “F.”

One woman in my family retired from teaching early because, as she put it, “Common Core is ruining education.”

At Clay County School Board meetings, I’ve seen numerous teachers speak against it. One woman said her class had to learn long division before learning multiplication – all because of the standards and testing of Common Core.

Teachers hate Common Core because it removes real learning from the classroom. Instead of promoting critical thinking, creativity, ideas and depth of understanding, Common Core means rote “teaching to the test.”

The exasperated woman in my family who retired early? She said her life had become endless piles of testing and grading instead of teaching.

Also, most students I’ve talked with hate it. They feel like they’re only learning how to take tests, and the constant stream of tests are extremely stressful.

A primary criticism of the math curriculum (aside from concepts being taught out of order) are that students receive a broad but shallow knowledge of mathematics. Critics of the English curriculum cite a lack of free thought for students. And, overall, questions exist about the relevance of some of the material taught in Common Core.

Virginia, Texas and Alaska are the only states that haven’t adopted Common Core. Every other state has, either in part or in full.

Indiana, Oklahoma and South Carolina ended up repealing it.

It’s time for Florida to do the same.

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Email Christiaan DeFranco at chris@opcfla.com. Follow him on Twitter @cdefranco.