Parents Warned: Big Brother Owns Your Children

Several opponents of Common Core have argued the standards set a bar that “dumbs down” what children need to learn, omitting key standards like proficiency in reading, writing, arithmetic, basic historical knowledge and exposure to classic literature.

Sandra Stotsky, professor emerita at the University of Arkansas, actually sat on the Common Core Validation Committee, but eventually refused to validate the standards, because, she said, the math standards fail to prepare students for college-level math classes and the English standards take classic literature study off the rich menu for young minds in favor of more bland and ineffective “informational” texts and disconnected excerpts.

“We are a very naive people,” Stotsky later told Breitbart News. “Everyone was willing to believe that the Common Core standards are ‘rigorous,’ ‘competitive,’ ‘internationally benchmarked’ and ‘research-based.’ They are not.”

In a Wall Street Journal editorial written last month, Stotsky continued, “I know the Common Core buzz words, from ‘deeper learning’ and ‘critical thinking’ to ‘fewer, clearer, and higher standards.’ It all sounds impressive, but I’m worried that the students who study under these standards won’t receive anywhere near the quality of education that children in the U.S. did even a few years ago.”

Others object to the content of Common Core, like shockingly graphic books listed as “exemplars” for study.

Common Core Appendix B, for example, states that “the following text samples primarily serve to exemplify the level of complexity and quality the standards require. … The choices should serve as useful guideposts in helping educators select texts of similar complexity, quality and range for their own classrooms.”

Yet Linda Harvey, founder of Mission: America, revealed at EPC one of the exemplars is Toni Morrison novel “The Bluest Eye,” which is a disturbing tale of a daughter being raped by her father and then being befriended by a pedophile. Even more disturbing, the book portrays the rape scene from the viewpoint of the rapist.

Another exemplar text, listed for ninth graders is “Mother of Monsters,” a story in which a mother displays the virtue of “individuality” by intentionally deforming her own unborn children while pregnant.

Teachers in Newburgh, N.Y., where the Common Core exemplar “Black Swan Green” was scheduled to be used, pushed their district to return 6,000 copies of the book to the publisher, complaining that it contained “passages using inappropriate language and visual imagery that most people would consider pornographic.”

When asked at EPC when it would be time for parents to get outraged over the sexual content of Common Core’s recommended readings, Harvey responded, “It’s time to get angry now. The only thing that’s going to fix this is if dads go to the schoolhouse with pitchforks.”

More at: