Common Core or Standardized Mediocrity

What is the most fundamental relationship in the universe? If you ask a theoretical physicist, you will get one answer, and if you ask a humanist philosopher, you will get another. Neither will have any bearing on your daily life.  What is the point of either of these positions? There is no point. It only means that we are not want of food, shelter or security.  We are safe and secure enough that as a civilization we can spent our time contemplating pointless abstract concepts.

If you are hungry or homeless, you will not be able to consider any of this theoretical garbage. You will be worrying where your next meal is coming or where you are going to sleep that night. When your basic needs are not being met, then, all is lost except the essentials necessary for survival. Too often this is the situation for many of my students who are deemed less than competent when measured on state standardized tests.

Too often they are too busy struggling with basic needs to worry about how to analyze Edgar Allen Poe or which culture inquiry should be used when reading Amy Tan. Furthermore, Medieval British Literature review has no connection to their world, thus, relevancy is lost as well as a class full of young, vibrant minds. As an educator the Common Core is not the answer for everyone. The idea that one size fits all is absurd.

The federal and state‘s idea that Common Core aligned with Smarter Balance will solve the problems plaguing our schools are completing erroneous. These theoreticians and politicians have no understanding as to the elemental flaw in their thinking. Instead of attacking the central issue (basic needs not being met), they are pretending to solve a problem that does not exist as they imagined.

The changes that are being forced on public schools are destroying intellectual creativity, flexibility and initiative, thus, limiting the possibilities for future generations. If the point of all this reform is to create a permanent underclass damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead. However, if we are to help the next generation to succeed, this is exactly the wrong way to confront the problem.

Standardization creates mediocrity and this is where testing institutions and politicians are pushing public schools. If you work in a private school or a charter school, none of this homogeny is required as part of your curriculum. Innovative ideas are desired in these institutions while the same kind of ideas are given lip service in public school where teachers are forced to teach larger and larger classes while being told to raise test scores or else. All of this in lieu of inventive thinking beyond a testing box.

Public school teachers’ jobs are on the line if their students do not demonstrate measurable, consistent growth, on standardized tests, furthermore, if this happens, these same educators are deemed ineffective because they were unable to inspire those youngsters under their supervision to outperform the targets set by their state, district, school and department when filling in the blanks. This has nothing to do with thinking on your feet or thinking abstractly. It has everything to do with filling in the correct blank because everyone knows that life is black and white and that there is only one right answer.

The thought of learning for the sake of learning no longer fits in this new schema because students need to be focused on the endgame just as their teachers are required to do in this latest educational paradigm. In this new world order, students are considered to be weak of mind if they are seen as daydreamers or have no clear plans as they head off into the world following high school graduation.

The idea of finding yourself without an authority figure giving you and your future a stamp of approval is absurd in today’s public school culture. Educators of all ilk be it public or private stand as godlike figures pointing their charges in the correct direction. If you are the good student that knuckles under to the powers that be, then, your future will blossom as the lotus does, begging to be plucked and place upon the mantle to be admired until it is no longer viable.

In many ways, educationally, we are now on the path to become more Chinese than the Chinese in that we now demand lockstep in our public schools by adopting common core curriculum and tying monies for financially strapped school districts. The federal government’s use of money to lure states and school districts to adopt this curriculum is akin to blackmail.

If you are for the standardization of education, mediocrity, uninspired teaching, then, this standards based curriculum is all you can ask and more. Katy bar the doors because there will be a feeding frenzy as states stampede to the front of the line with no idea why they are doing it except that there is money to be pocketed.

Republican Death Knoll

What I find most frightening about the Republican Party is not the lies that they tell, but the insidious way they are destroying the party from within. They seem to be engaged in an incestuous relationship, and believe that this is the way to win back the Senate and the White House through alienating hard working Americans that do not fit their idea of what it is to be American.

The alleged mainstream wing of the Republican Party encourages, no begs for the most despicable fringe elements to be recognized, and will allow them to say the most outrageous things so that they can massage these outliers and bust their poll numbers in state and local elections. The majority of the country is disgusted by these hateful, local displays egged on by federally elected officials through their acts of indifference and insolence. Check You Tube and watch as Tennessee Republicans representatives agree with some of the most egregiously false and divisive statements made at public meetings.

This is the way that the fringe works. They make the most shameful comments and their shrill voices bring them attention and momentary adulation, but in the end it leaves their candidate sitting on the sideline looking for a new job. These strident voices leave the vast majority of Americans shaking their heads and thinking that these people need to be on the Maury Povich Show where their behavior can be viewed by a contemptuous audience ready for blood.

Therefore, one by one serious, thoughtful and reasonable Republicans are being forced out of their party such as Charlie Crist in Florida and being replace with the likes of the Ted Cruzes of the world. This is a destructive event for democracy. For democracy to work in America, we need to have two strong parties whose ideas may be different, but they are able to work together to reach comprise for the betterment of the country.

Demagoguery by our Republican brethren has taken on a life of its own in that these alleged leaders makes use of popular prejudices, false claims and promises in order to gain power for the sake of power and not the common good of Americans. Make an internet search and see how leaders from Mitch McConnell to Rand Paul make up facts to exploit fear in their constituents as a means of keeping or gaining leverage in their upcoming political fights.

The newest inner party fight is over inequality and in this case rhetoric and not action is at the forefront of the Republican stance, however, they cannot even get on the same page and are fighting each other as much as they are fighting the Democrats. This demonstrates the heart of the Republican problem: their inability to work together. If they are unable to work together, how can Americans expect them to work with the Democrats to solve our nation’s problems?

It is this Republican on Republican infighting that is tearing the party apart. This new extremism can be seen in Michigan. How can Democrats and Republicans work with anyone whose first words out of her mouth are to attack people for their sexual orientation, and say they should be thrown out of the Republican Party as a woman in Michigan did in her speech to be elected to the state RNC? This demonstrates callous, insensitivity and bigotry that are at the heart of the NEW Republican Party.

This behavior shows how narrow and restrictive the Republican Party has become, moreover, within their legislative districts, this conduct is seen as admirable. Whenever you find people that believe the way you do, you can say and do anything that matches their disposition. Conversely, if you want to expand your prospects, you must go beyond your comfort zone to seek consensus with others that may or may not believe the way you do.  This seems so obvious, but to nearsighted politicians like the Tea Party Republicans this idea is kryptonite.

This is the heart of the problem for the Republicans. They are at a crossroads that will determine their fate on the national level, but if they cave in to the demands of ignorance and hate, their destiny is sealed for decades to come. The death knoll for the Republican Party is beginning to ring. Will there be anyone that is willing stand up against this vile bigotry to set this once proud party back on track as a viable alternative to the Democrats? I think not; like the Whig Party, they too will fade into oblivion.