(01-16-2015, 07:34 PM)Naunet Wrote: The backlash has been unnecessarily exacerbated by adults who refuse to accept that maybe the way they learned things was not the best and are determined to keep their kids in the dark. It's honestly rather disturbing to me that a lot of the argument against Common Core standards boils down to, "I didn't need to know this, so neither does my kid." What a stagnant view of education! Education is a science, and as such the techniques used to deliver it will change over time - just as our understanding of the world changes over time. Everyone would be much better off if they accepted that fact.I can't presume to be in the parent's mind, but I'd be willing to wager (based on my own reaction to seeing Common Core the first time) that it was less "stubbornness" "wanting to keep kids in the dark" and more "good parent wanting to help a struggling child with their math homework, but can't because overly-complicated new rules and superfluous steps to what is a simple math problem."Â
Honestly, the guy with a BS in Electronics Engineering who couldn't understand that rather simple homework problem was likely suffering from his own stubbornness and preconceived notions of how things should work. I'm a teacher, so I don't really like calling people "stupid" (at least when it comes to how they understand things), but he was rather blind.
Which seems to be the heart of MOST of the arguments being made against Common Core by parents: they cannot help their children who are already struggling with Common Core with their homework. The parent is sitting there, they can see the simple solution that really only requires a bag of beans to demonstrate the logic of it, but the child is telling them that they have to do it this other way or they'll get it wrong.
The only solution schools that use Common Core have (if schools even acknowledge the issue -and- offer a solution) seems to be "Hey, Parents! Come in three days a week after school for the next couple months and we'll teach you Common Core, too!", which isn't a viable solution for most parents. And it's not a case of this not being viable because they're being stubborn, but because they have jobs -- they need to work to provide, and taking time off could mean the difference between keeping a job and losing that job.
