Just over a year ago, two state school board members told me Utah would never adopt Common Core science or social studies standards and we would only go as far as math and ELA. Here’s a bit of disturbing news on the science standards front…Brett Moulding, former Utah state office of education curriculum director, is the lead author on the science standards writing team. Now is Utah really going to turn down standards written by Mr. Moulding? I’m not sure when Mr. Moulding was appointed, but there has been a review of these Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) a while back, showing that they weren’t actually going to teach science, but more of an appreciation for science. They aren’t about creating technology, but more geared toward consuming technology (link). Utah must avoid adopting these science standards, and root ourselves in solid science standards and curriculum.
The new Common Core Social Studies standards (CCSSS) have been released as well. Page 31 of the document starts off the Civics section with a catastrophic blunder.
CIVICSIN A CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRACY, productive civic engagement requires knowledge of the history, principles, and foundations of our American democracy, and the ability to participate in civic and democratic processes.
Article 4, section 4 of the U.S. Constitution guarantees every state in the country a republican form of government, and protection from both foreign and domestic intrusion on that form of government. The United States is a Constitutional Republic, not a Democracy. The Founding Fathers were very opposed to Democracies because they led to mob rule.
Now in all fairness, these CCSSS DO actually mention the word republic a couple times in the document (unlike Utah’s current K-12 history standards), however, the way they portray it is even more alarming. (markup by me)
INTRODUCTIONIN THE COLLEGE, CAREER, AND CIVIC LIFE (C3) FRAMEWORK FOR SOCIAL STUDIES STATE STANDARDS, THE CALL FOR STUDENTS TO BECOME MORE PREPARED FOR THE CHALLENGES OF COLLEGE AND CAREER IS UNITED WITH A THIRD CRITICAL ELEMENT: PREPARATION FOR CIVIC LIFE. ADVOCATES OF CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION CROSS THE POLITICAL SPECTRUM, BUT THEY ARE BOUND BY A COMMON BELIEF THAT OUR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC WILL NOT SUSTAIN UNLESS STUDENTS ARE AWARE OF THEIR CHANGING CULTURAL AND PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENTS; KNOW THE PAST; READ, WRITE, AND THINK DEEPLY; AND ACT IN WAYS THAT PROMOTE THE COMMON GOOD. THERE WILL ALWAYS BE DIFFERING PERSPECTIVES ON THESE OBJECTIVES. THE GOAL OF KNOWLEDGEABLE, THINKING, AND ACTIVE CITIZENS,HOWEVER, IS UNIVERSAL.
So in other words, in order for our “Democratic” (not Constitutional) Republic to survive, we have to embrace a changing culture (slouching toward Gomorrah), changing physical environments (global climate change?), and promote the common good (socialism). Sidebar: Some people will have differing opinions, but the intelligent people have achieved universal agreement on these things.
Dang, and I thought to maintain our Constitutional Republic it took having a solid and unchanging foundation of principles rooted in freedom. Just goes to show how little I know…
If you didn’t think our country was in trouble with Common Core ELA assignments teaching kids to think like Nazi’s and erase the Bill of Rights, I’m rapidly losing hope in the sanity of educrats and politicians that blindly follow them. I haven’t reviewed much of these standards, but based on this quick glance, if states start adopting these standards, goodbye lady liberty.
CCSS is a ‘Living Document’. In other words, after these ‘Standards’ are embedded into our educational system, they will slowly morph into what the Educrats and their Corporate Elitists THINK our Children should learn. Hello Socialism.
http://www.killcommoncore.com
Oddly, I attended our districts CC teacher training session for ELA, and the presenter kept saying, “we are getting students ready to participate in our democratic society” the first time, I thought it was a slip….but after about the eighth time, I realized, that WAS the message. Oh. Boy.
As Ezra T. Benson heard from the Russian leader. We will feed you small doses of socialism until one day you wake up and find out you have it. Most people don’t want to be bothered to do anything until it directly affects them. Agenda 21 is breathing down your throat and 80% of Utah does not even know what it is. Take 5 minutes on the internet and find out along with common core.