It’s starting to look like New York, that bastion of right-wing extremists, err…, may be the first state to throw off Common Core. Having fully embraced it in all it’s glory, they’ve now seen first hand the damage it can cause to children. Here’s some clips.

http://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/education/item/17577-new-york-revolts-against-common-core

Now, after listening to an outraged public in a series of 11 forums held across New York, state lawmakers are getting ready to file a bill that would slam the brakes on the scheme. In a phone interview with The New American, New York State Assemblyman Al Graf, a member of the Assembly Education Committee, explained that the coalition of legislators had no choice but to take action to stop the “disaster” that Common Core has foisted on the state. “This is state-sponsored child abuse,” he said.

Dr. Gary Thompson would agree.

Among other problems with the controversial standards, Graf cited wildly inappropriate material, massive costs, the devastating impact on teachers and students, and more. “If you wanted to destroy public education, this is what you would do,” he said. “Teaching is a skill. Teaching is an art form. What they are doing here is turning teachers into hall monitors.”

When will Utah teachers and schools speak out? It took Alpine School District years of complaints from parents before they started teaching the times tables and long division to children again. There’s a reason why there are more charter schools in ASD per capita than any other district… Common Core will create a push for alternate education, but this time it’ll be home school and private school to escape the nonsense.

The material is often highly inappropriate, the lawmaker continued. “Explain to me why a first grader has to point out ancient Mesopotamia on a globe or explain their contributions to modern civilization — they’re six,” Graf said, citing a broad range of examples illustrating that the controversial standards appear to have been poorly thought out — at the very least. “But you know there are a lot of people making money on all this.”

Bingo!

Graf, who represents a Long Island district, also told The New American that Common Core fails to take into account children with disabilities. One special-education teacher who spoke out during the forums held across New York, for example, told lawmakers about the disasters she has experienced under the new education scheme. The kids were being tested on material they never learned and, sitting still for 90 minutes to take the new tests, were deeply confused. One distraught child was even caught stabbing himself with a pencil under the desk during the test.

“She was breaking into tears testifying about this,” Graf said about the special-education teacher who shared the story. “I have parents pouring their hearts out telling me how their kids are coming home and don’t want to go to school anymore. I have kids that loved math and now hate math.” Some teachers who testified, knowing that they could be putting their careers in jeopardy, told lawmakers that they just “couldn’t sit there and let them do this to these children.”

Dr. Gary Thompson and Ed Flint should have no problem supporting themselves in the future. Deja Vu. I think I just wrote that.