Christel Swasey recently posted to her blog, “82 Teachers Talk Back to NEA, Debunk Common Core.” It links to an article the NEA posted entitled, “10 Things You Should Know About the Common Core“. The 82 responses Christel originally posted are now up to 185. I’m not going to copy paste all the comments but here are a few more recent ones I found encouraging. Almost all the comments are from teachers, but this first from a parent is spot on.

Vikki Rosich says:

Thank you to all of you teachers who have always been on the side of our kids! We parents appreciate you with a whole heart. Keep fighting Common Core from the inside out. We parents are trying to fight from the outside in. Eventually we will meet you in the middle!

shorttam says:

i am die-hard union, through and through. But THIS is exactly why unions are fading from the United States. Union leaders are incredibly out of touch with their rank and file members. They have been in leadership positions for so long, they have absolutely no clue what their members’ priorities and needs are. Sadly, NEA leaders are also so consumed with having a “seat at the table” that they are willing to sell not only their own souls, but the souls or their members and the students they serve as well. There is absolutely NO research that supports standards – any standards – as a method to increase student learning. There is absolutely NO research that supports the use of standardized testing – as a method to increase student learning. Our country is severely underfunding education and now spends millions and millions of those scarce resources on implementing standards and giving standardized tests. The premise that “standards” will equalize things for our student living in poverty is an incredibly laughable one. We’ve had “standards” for more than a decade. The inequities between students have INCREASED since the introduction of standards, and that is exactly what educated, logical people would expect to happen. I am disgusted with my union and an’t believe that now I not only have to fight anti-worker forces and anti-public education forces… but I also have to fight my union. NEA does NOT speak for me or any other teacher I know, on this issue and sadly, on many others too.

John Rockwell says:

Why is NEA endorsing something that is clearly NCLB all over again? CCSS cannot be separated from its testing arm. It might sound nice, but it will end the same way: we will be doing scripted teaching to a dumb test again, using standards and curriculum we didn’t want and didn’t create. The difference this time is that it will play into the national “debate” about the so-called failure of public schools and many good schools will be closed in place of selective charters. Those who don’t see this possible future clearly are bad students of history.

Sharon says:

SHAME ON YOU NEA!! I have not heard of a single teacher who supports the CC and I know a ton of teachers. You have just lost a lot of members with this article. I am a special educator of students with developmental disabilities. My students are assessed via New York StAte Alternate Assessment (NYSAA) which is now directly linked to the Common Core. The rigidity of the “extensions” our students must be assessed on are absolutely insane . How should we expect students with severe autism who have serious behavior and communication issues and IQs on the average of 40 to do things like add fractions or identify the “intention of the author” in a text…..etc etc. I could go on for days. Our students need to stop having their time wasted on such absurdities so that they may continue to work on the life skills they need to become more independent and self sufficient young men and women. Their teachers need to focus on how they will help their students achieve these goals. There is not a single teacher in my very large school in support of CC. Frankly they are all disgusted and dishearten and the climate has become downright depressing. Our students do not have the option to opt out, but you can be sure that my own child will.

StandingProud says:

“An NEA poll conducted in July by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research found that 75 percent of its members—teachers and education support professionals —supported the standards outright or supported “with reservations.”
Make up your data-mind. Is it “roughly two-thirds” or “75%”? And why did you leave out that only 26% of the 1200 surveyed ‘fully support’ CC$$.

WOW!!! You just turned 312 teachers into “MOST NEA MEMBERS”

After this Gates backed and funded fluff-piece of crap, that’s about all the members you will have left.
Oops. . . . looks like the union busting is working. . . from the top down
^^o^^

Dr. Duke Pesta, FreedomProject Education’s Academic Director and Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, gave testimony against the Common Core State Standards during a public hearing held on Wednesday, October 16th in Fond du Lac, WI.

Last month, Alisa Ellis and Renee Braddy were invited to speak at a conference in New York on Common Core. Here are their presentations.

Guest Post by Tammy Jensen who attended the Cedar City debate last week. Video will be posted soon.

“You’re looking at me as though I’m weird. My [Goodness]! Are you so out of touch with most of America, most of which believes in the Devil? I mean, Jesus Christ believed in the Devil! It’s in the Gospels! You travel in circles that are so, so removed from mainstream America that you are appalled that anybody would believe in the Devil! Most of mankind has believed in the Devil, for all of history. Many more intelligent people than you or me have believed in the Devil.”

This is a quote of indignation from Antonin Scalia, Justice of the Supreme Court last week when an incredulous New York Times reporter heard his response to a discussion of heaven and hell and responded with an air of intellectual superiority.

Late last night, as I was driving home under a beautiful starlit sky, my own thoughts brought Scalia’s comments back to my mind. I was returning from a Common Core debate where a dedicated and to me impressive Superintendent defended Iron County using Common Core. She had a colleague with her, explaining the Common Core curriculum. I left respecting the individuals who took part in the debate. I approached the gentleman afterward and said,

“You didn’t convince me that the Core was good, but you convinced me that YOU are good.”

So much so, that on the way home, I had to ask myself, “Why do I so wholly disagree with his stance? Why do I hear really fantastic sounding words and objectives, but I can’t seem to overcome the deep knot in the pit of my stomach whenever Common Core is praised as the next great thing for our kids?”

My answer in this conversation was surprising, even to myself. The root, the bottom line, the “core” of my opinion lies in the fact that I believe in the Devil. I really do. Not the cute little red man on the shoulder of cartoons, not the vague stories of yesteryear when those old fashioned people were superstitious, and not the scary ghoulish monster sometimes portrayed on Halloween – though there is likely truth to all these portrayals.

I believe in a being of eloquence, cunning, patience, persuasion, seduction, and excellence in his craft, which is a lust to control the souls of mankind.

There was a gentleman there. He was crazy – it was an obvious fact! He didn’t have a fancy suit on, and he could’ve used a haircut and a shave – not to mention his baggy jeans and t-shirt. He came to the microphone and started to speak, pouring out concepts paid for in heavy study, yet mixed with deep frustration and perhaps fear – yes, as his ramblings went on, it was fear, fear for his country, fear for his children. The moderator hurried him along, and his frustration built until he blurted out, “I don’t want my children being brainwashed with communism!”

I happened to glance at the Superintendent who burst out with incredulous mirth at this statement. And I thought of a time in my life when I felt similar to her, but more on that later. What I wanted to ask her was,

“Ma’am, do you even know what communism philosophy is? Have you read the writings of Marx – deeply? Do you understand the difference in basic principles between Lenin and say, George Washington. Do you know what ideas prepared fertile soil for the extermination of over 20 million people? In knowing these things, then can you see where and how our current principles of government line up with these ideologies? If so, then what’s so funny?”

(By the way, if she hasn’t read these things, it’s understandable. Mrs. Dulaney has obviously been spending her time in pursuit of excellence in her field. She knows her job, and works it well. This question is more of an invitation that perhaps there are things going on that we all would do well to understand – thoroughly. Because these things, if not known can (AND HAVE THROUGH OUT HISTORY), undermined ALL other worthy pursuits in society.

If I knew she was still listening, I would go on,

There’s a guy in the Book of Mormon, which is one of my religious texts, named Mormon, and I don’t know if he wore the proverbial “Rolex” of his day, but it doesn’t sound like he was all that popular with the leaders of his society. Maybe he looked a bit more like that crazy guy that stood up…I don’t know, but he said that he was sending a letter through time to you and me. In that letter he speaks of “secret combinations”… extensively. He said, that the secret plans helped power hungry people obtain kingdoms and great glory. I don’t know exactly what Mormon was talking about when he says kingdoms and great glory, but it sounds impressive, …I bet it looks impressive too – I’ve spent much of my life being impressed by this sort of thing — in fact it’s a pretty hard habit to break. But back to secret combinations…

He said they were had among all people and have caused the destruction of his people and the people of Nephi (another civilization), following with the observation that the nation of the gentiles (that’s us) would be in danger of the exact —-same —- fate. He says, “WHEN, (not if, WHEN) ye shall see these things come among you that ye shall awake to a sense of your awful situation.”

He also notes that these secret combinations…

· Seek to overcome the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries.
· It’s ABOVE you. (not gangs in CA, ABOVE you in power)
· Built to get power and gain.
· Built up by the devil.

Built up by the devil. I believe in that guy, and I believe Mormon when he says that there will be a nasty plan that could threaten the agency of the whole world.

So back to when I thought like Mrs. Dulaney.

I have a friend that I realized was starting to go crazy about 10 years ago. I told her so, many times over the course of a few years. She didn’t LOOK crazy though, so I stayed friends with her. At that time, I was petrified with how I “looked”. I sure as heck didn’t want to be WEIRD, so I lectured my friend whenever the topic started making any sort of sense or made me the least bit uncomfortable.

One trip, however, changed everything. She happened to show me irrefutable evidence that all was not well with our government. (At the time George Bush was the president.) I couldn’t reason it away. I went through sort of a mourning time in coming to recognize that what I thought was sound, true, good, STABLE, might not be. However, I had to know more, I had to understand. For the next 3 years I studied. I studied the writings of Marx, current affairs, the writings of Whittaker Chambers, the writings of Ronald Reagan, the writings of Hitler, ancient philosophies of Plato, Aristotle, and Machiavelli. I studied the founding of America – what ideas produced freedom, which in the big scheme of things, HARDLY EVER HAPPENS. I asked why it hardly happens! I don’t entirely understand what drove me to inhale the amount I studied, but I wasn’t closed to hearing any viewpoint.

Currently I realize that I am a baby with my studies, I hardly know a thing, however, I know enough to see that all is not well. It’s disturbing when you hear your government officials saying things that sound more like the “bad guys” you’ve read, than the “good guys”. I learned that when government does things that don’t make sense, it is not because they are stupid or incompetent. It is because they have a different agenda. The more I unearthed that agenda the more everything started making sense.

One day I was reading my religious text and there it was! Oh my gosh, I’d never SEEN it before! All my studying took me to the 4 points outlined by Mormon when he claims that “he saw our day”. Oh, my gosh, 1-check… 2-check… 3—big CHECK, (there is POWER and a big pot of money to be had), and 4 – check – because I believe in that guy.

1· Seek to overcome the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries.
2· It’s ABOVE you. (not gangs in CA, ABOVE you in power)
3· Built to get power and gain.
4· Built up by the devil.

What does this have to do with Common Core? Everything. Alisa Ellis spelled it out in precise and researched terms last night. I refer you to her for a more in depth study of the facts and figures, the trails and back roads. (Pay attention to the power and gain parts)

The devil, for all his faults, has a most beautifully effective virtue. Patience.

His plan has been laid for all ages, creeds, races, and genders. Americans have been wise to protect their children from the rigors of society for most of it’s history. Great is the spiritual prize of him/her who has governance and power over children. It’s a sacred trust, always known by intuitive mothers and fathers. What is the rationale to change that structure now? What is the motivation, besides dollars, to rush to the bureaucratic lords of government and business with outstretched arms, trusting that they have the best interests in mind for our children?

Those that understand the basic tenets of socialist philosophy can easily see it seeping into our national discourse. When studying educated societies that allowed the horrific scenes of the 20th century to be perpetrated on their neighbors and associates, one wonders how it could be possible. In the most simplistic terms, I think it’s because they didn’t believe in the devil, and so, they didn’t educate themselves on his plan, prepare for his tactics, or the fruits of those tactics. By the time it was fully unleashed, it was too late to organize and gain strength for good through unity.

Taking us back to the debate last night, when I observe good – very good people bursting into laughter at the mere association of common core with communism, I wonder if the core of the problem is that we just really don’t believe in the Devil. Yah, we might SAY we do, but not really.