Thursday, February 06, 2014

The Father of "Common Core" v. Fr. Joe

Archdiocesan officials like Fr. Joe Shimek half-apologize for using Common Core, claiming that the Catholic schools will 'build upon' the base mandated by C.C.

Fr. Joe and the Archdiocese conveniently forget the identity of the father of "Common Core," Bill Ayers.

When one begins with Marxist theory, it is not possible to "build upon" it to arrive at a Catholic education.  It is also impossible to arrive at an understanding of Western civilization--which happens to be composed of Aristotelian/Thomistic/Augustinian philosophy at its foundation.

...Former Senior Policy Advisor to the Department of Education and member of the California Mathematics Framework Committee, Ze’ev Wurman, testified that the Common Core overlooks basic skills, lowers college readiness standards, and offers “verbose and imprecise guidance,”[vii] while dictating that geometry be taught by an experimental method that was tested on Soviet math prodigies in the 1950s—and failed.

In English classes, teachers will reduce the amount of time spent teaching their subject of literature to only 50 percent, and then to 30 percent in high school, a move criticized by education reform professor Sandra Stotsky. Replacing literature will be “informational texts” like  nonfiction books, computer manuals, IRS forms, and original documents, like court decisions and the Declaration of Independence. Documents, like the Declaration, however, are taught in a manner that downplays their significance. Overall, students will be losing a sense of a national and cultural heritage that is acquired through a systematic reading of classical literature and study of history....

When the Archdiocese administers 'outcome tests', they will be the 'outcomes' required by Common Core, unless the Archdiocese also creates its own tests.  And later, the chilluns will be attempting to enter college using tests designed to meet "Common Core" standards.

So how's that going to work, exactly, Fr. Joe?

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