Common Core and Arne Duncan: Rotten To The Core
With a slew of failures in the spotlight over the past few weeks, one of Obama’s other “legacies” has also come under extreme criticism: Common Core. Common Core’s alleged mission is to create a national standard in various school subjects such as Reading and Math. Standardized testing and assessment “benchmarks” of both the student and school are to be used to determine the program’s success.
According to the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) the program has been adopted by 46 states, excluding Texas, Alaska, Nebraska, Virginia. Some states have only adopted some of Common Core’s standards, like Minnesota. Although the education initiative has won praise from the Obama administration, liberals nationwide, and education “experts,” Common Core has received enormous backlash from Conservatives, parents, and the most notorious of the bunch, white suburban moms.
As if this administration wasn’t in enough hot water with the Obamacare cluster, the US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan responded by insulting the critics of this education plan, labeling them as “white suburban moms – who all of a sudden – their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were and their school isn’t quite as good as they thought they were, and that’s pretty scary.”
Actually, jackass, what’s “pretty scary” are the racist and sexist words that so effortlessly spewed from your mouth when a TelePrompTer isn’t used. Mr. Duncan, perhaps you could have just exaggerated the program’s “benefits” or embellished some white lies here and there like your boss does. Better yet, can’t you market something to Americans that actually works or that isn’t a clear pathway to Socialism?
Why is it so difficult for this administration to just produce and release a product that’s actually worth a damn and is at least half as effective as it claims to be? If Mr. Duncan had done that, he wouldn’t have had to get all racist and sexist on American moms. Not to mention offending the “non” brilliant kids out there. Much like almost every cabinet member of the Obama Administration, Duncan’s response is to maliciously attack his critics without truly examining why these people might feel the way they do. He cannot have a civil, open debate about pressing issues and concerns that parents have and how they coincide with the country’s educational interests, or “standards” as they like to call them. Keep in mind, Mr. Duncan, you work for us.
Secondly, aside from lashing out at this group like a rattlesnake, Duncan dared using the now popular race card. Why must every issue get the race card thrown at it? And not just race in general, but whites. Why are white people faulted with any trace of negativity thrown at the liberal agenda or this administration? Why is a white man insulting white women and using their race against them when they disagree with him? Isn’t that … racism? Is Duncan THAT passionate about education and attached to Common Core that he takes personal offense at any objectivity and cries race? You’d think that living in big, bad Chicago would have given little Arne a tougher skin than this. Can’t it just be about the kids, Arne?
So why are all these “white suburban moms” in an uproar about Common Core? Well, let’s make a list. Not only did the federal government create a set of “guidelines” and “standards” for our children to meet, they’ve managed to throw a little of their own agenda in the mix and pay states in grants to adopt them. Several schools have been found to have liberal agenda propaganda within the curriculum. TheBlaze ran an article in September about a textbook in South Carolina which interprets the Second Amendment and Third Amendment (as opposed to actually reading the Constitution) as “[granting] citizens the right to bear arms as members of a militia of citizen-soldiers and prevent the government from housing troops in private homes in peacetime.” Um … not quite. No wonder young people have no clue what the Second Amendment actually means.
Kids, it means the RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS. You are not members of a “citizen militia” … yet. As a citizen of the United States of America you are afforded the right to keep and bear arms. As in, yes, guns. Why? Because you want to be able to protect yourself and your family should someone decide to pull a nutty and threaten your life or safety. Not only can guns save your life, they can save your freedom. The government knows that without protection, you are totally and completely theirs. Just read up a bit on Germany in the 1930s and you’ll understand why.
And while we’re on the subject of submission to government, according to Fox News, Pearson Education created and disseminated English teaching materials which asks students to rearrange and recreate sentences using possessive nouns. Some of those sentences include “The commands of government officials must be obeyed by all” and “The wants of an individual are less important than the well-being of the nation.” Not only is this wholly inaccurate, it’s propaganda. Angry yet?
The bottom line in this debate is that our education should not be a one-size-fits-all. There are a multitude of factors that determine a student’s motivation, progress, and accomplishments and this system is just as flawed as Obamacare — and everyone is calling that one. We cannot turn a blind eye to this progressive agenda and trust this administration with our children’s future.
Image: Courtesy of: http://www.flickr.com/photos/free-photos/3409642414/