Understanding Common Core

[Loss Leader]

It's a hoax.

With two children in grade school being taught with the common core, I believe pretty much everything you've written is nonsense. I have my problems with the common core and especially with the emphasis on testing, but the expansion of Microsoft isn't among them.


(My older son was given a table by the school district: an iPad.)

 

[AlaskaBushPilot]

If he does manage it, maybe he'll run those parasites administering the SAT and ACT out of business..

Bill Gates' stooge that was the architect of common core is now president of the College Board. They administer the SAT and AP tests.

I would not expect a professional educator such as yourself to be aware of much of anything going on in educational testing, especially when participating in a discussion board on that very thing though.

 

[AlaskaBushPilot]

With two children in grade school being taught with the common core, I believe pretty much everything you've written is nonsense. I have my problems with the common core and especially with the emphasis on testing, but the expansion of Microsoft isn't among them.


(My older son was given a table by the school district: an iPad.)

The main thrust you just verified, thank you. They can't take the test without the capability for online computerized technology.

 

[arthwollipot]

There is a long history of constitutional and statutory based court decisions that disallows the federal government from establishing national standards.

That's another thing Gates and the tech companies already knew.

That's merely pushing the question to another domain.

Why should this be so? Why should this not be overturned? What is the benefit of teaching two otherwise similar children different things?

 

[Loss Leader]

The main thrust you just verified, thank you. They can't take the test without the capability for online computerized technology.

None of my childrens' common core tests have ever been given on a computer or online. In fact, none of their tests of any sort have been given on computer. My older son has a tablet for school but that has nothing to do with common core. It's an accommodation made for his learning disability.

It's not even new. I knew a student who had an old-school PDA given to him by the district some fifteen years ago.

And while use of computers for homework is allowed, neither child has ever had an assignment which required a computer or the internet.

 

[marplots]

If implemented badly, yes. I see it as very telling that you don't trust a government organisation to be able to develop the best educational standards.

Where did I say that? So long as public education remains a benefit of living in our society, government is the proper level of organization. But standardization comes with a cost. It's an artifact of standardization. It also comes with benefits. It's no sin to recognize this.

 

[marplots]

Bill Gates' stooge that was the architect of common core is now president of the College Board. They administer the SAT and AP tests.

I would not expect a professional educator such as yourself to be aware of much of anything going on in educational testing, especially when participating in a discussion board on that very thing though.

I take it then that you would reject the SAT and AP for the same reasons you reject common core? It would seem to follow if it's all part of the same conspiracy.

 

[marplots]

The main thrust you just verified, thank you. They can't take the test without the capability for online computerized technology.

None of my childrens' common core tests have ever been given on a computer or online...

...And while use of computers for homework is allowed, neither child has ever had an assignment which required a computer or the internet.

These two posts seem at odds.

 

[Metullus]

None of my childrens' common core tests have ever been given on a computer or online. In fact, none of their tests of any sort have been given on computer. My older son has a tablet for school but that has nothing to do with common core. It's an accommodation made for his learning disability.

It's not even new. I knew a student who had an old-school PDA given to him by the district some fifteen years ago.

And while use of computers for homework is allowed, neither child has ever had an assignment which required a computer or the internet.

Our students don't generally use computers for homework or tests, but California has adopted the Smarter Balance Assessment which is an annual test for 3 - 11 grades which must be done on computers connected to the internet (arranging the required hardware has been a real challenge for us - we are a small cash-strapped rural K-8). The Smarter Balance Assessment is the official standardized test of the CC curriculum. I am guessing that this might be what ABP is complaining about.

 

[Meadmaker]

None of my childrens' common core tests have ever been given on a computer or online. In fact, none of their tests of any sort have been given on computer. My older son has a tablet for school but that has nothing to do with common core. It's an accommodation made for his learning disability.

It's not even new. I knew a student who had an old-school PDA given to him by the district some fifteen years ago.

And while use of computers for homework is allowed, neither child has ever had an assignment which required a computer or the internet.

I didn't catch how old your kids were. My son, currently sixteen, started getting assignments that would have been impossible to complete without a computer by the fifth grade at least. Possibly sooner.

 

[Loss Leader]

I didn't catch how old your kids were. My son, currently sixteen, started getting assignments that would have been impossible to complete without a computer by the fifth grade at least. Possibly sooner.

5th and 3rd. We've used a computer to type and print pictures for posters. There's a summer math program that children can sign up for. I also printed some Just-So stories for my older son to read. And, of course, their entire knowledge of human sexuality comes from Taylor Swift videos.

 

[fuelair]

5th and 3rd. We've used a computer to type and print pictures for posters. There's a summer math program that children can sign up for. I also printed some Just-So stories for my older son to read. And, of course, their entire knowledge of human sexuality comes from Taylor Swift videos.

I think you mean Miley Cyrus on that last!!!

 

[Meadmaker]

5th and 3rd. We've used a computer to type and print pictures for posters. There's a summer math program that children can sign up for. I also printed some Just-So stories for my older son to read. And, of course, their entire knowledge of human sexuality comes from Taylor Swift videos.

I'm pretty sure it was in fifth grade that he started getting assignments that involved "look up on the internet". The annoying thing was that they also emphasized the importance of internet safety, so they made sure to say you should do this with your parents. Great. I had actually already completed the fifth grade some time back. I wasn't keen on getting homework assignments.

I know that by sixth grade he got those sorts of assignments.

And in seventh grade, I found the first evidence of searching for porn on the computer.

 

[Beerina]

They have lied in saying a child cannot understand why 9 + 2 = 11 unless he first understands that 9+1 is ten, which is one unit of tens and the left-over 1 is one additional unit of ones. That is a lie. You can understand it perfectly well without needing to know about base 10 vs. other base number systems as a first grader. That is why the only mathematician on the committee resigned in protest and does speeches against common core now.

I kind of like this idea -- but I agree it needs testing to prove it is a good way for the general student, as opposed to more advanced kids. I figured this kind of junk out on my own and wish someone could have taught me. In 2nd grade they taught us base 8 and other bases and the ones, tens, hundreds columns, and I never saw it again in formal education until computer science in college.

 

[Aepervius]

To take your example about learning 9 + 2. I learned mathematics (actually, arithmetic) using Cuisenaire rods. Using these, it's not only essential that you learn that 9 + 1 = 10, it's impossible to learn anything without learning that too, because in order to get 9, you first have to divide your 10 up into ten ones (or a five, two twos and a one) so that you could take one away.

I have no idea what you are talking about sound fascinating.

The way I distinctly (*) remember learning about addition and subtraction was much more mundane.

We learned to count 1,2,3,4,5 etc.... And then we were told that adding is only going to skip number , e.g. 9+2 is actually 9+1+1 etc... And subtracting is actually counting in reverse e.g. 9-2 is actually 9.->8->7. Multiplication was only multiple addition and division was only to find out "how many" of a number you would need to have a multiplication of two numbers using the division/rest method.

I have no idea what those rods and cuisenard things are but will try to look up on youtube.

(*) I knew how to count before going to school and even multiply so other kids asked me to help which is why it still stays so vivid

 

[psionl0]

I learned mathematics (actually, arithmetic) using Cuisenaire rods.

Anecdotally, I heard that for a time during the 1960s, many schools believed that cuisenaire rods could replace rote learning in arithmetic. Although these rods continued to be used for many years, it didn't take long for schools to reintroduce rote learning again as well.

In the mean time, a number of school kids ended up leaving school with the maths skills of a modern child.

 

[arthwollipot]

Anecdotally, I heard that for a time during the 1960s, many schools believed that cuisenaire rods could replace rote learning in arithmetic. Although these rods continued to be used for many years, it didn't take long for schools to reintroduce rote learning again as well.

In the mean time, a number of school kids ended up leaving school with the maths skills of a modern child.

Well, to be fair, I also learned the times tables by rote. So I guess it was a blended approach.

 

[Jango]

I like the 3 x 4 = 11 video that made the rounds recently. But Common Core is part of a larger problem known as public education. It is yet another area that requires great reform but is nowhere to be seen.

 

[MikeG]

.......That proves the fundamental deceit with Gates and all the other profiteers.......

......cash cows for profiteers........ That's what is important to Gates and these other plunderers.......

.........t doesn't require lining Bill Gate's pocket.

Perhaps you missed the news. Bill Gates has retired from the software industry.

Before you accuse him of profiteering, you should perhaps show how any money from this exercise ends up in Gates' pocket.

 

[Guybrush Threepwood]

Perhaps you missed the news. Bill Gates has retired from the software industry.

Before you accuse him of profiteering, you should perhaps show how any money from this exercise ends up in Gates' pocket.

While I agree the OP is a hysterical CT, I don't think posting 5 year old announcements of Bill Gates retirement really refutes it.

I think Bill Gates is still quite interested in the profitability of Microsoft.