“The country’s largest teachers union is no longer a cheerleader for Common Core national education standards.
In a letter to the National Education Association’s 3 million members, President Dennis Van Roekel issued a sharp critique of Common Core. It marks the first time NEA has voiced concerns about the standards, a key initiative of the Obama Administration.”
Our obligation as a nation, and my obligation as an educator, is to help children achieve their potential, participate in our democracy and propel our economy forward. In today’s world, that means our students must be prepared to compete—not on the basis of their test-taking skills, but on their ability to solve problems, analyze and apply knowledge, and work with others.
So, what if I told you there is a way to transform the very DNA of teaching and learning to move away from rote memorization and endless test-prep, and toward problem solving, critical thinking and teamwork—things I know many of you have been advocating for years? And what if I told you there is a way to do that not a generation from now, but for students today, who will be the employees you’ll hire tomorrow?
In these are the potential to do that.
These are the Common Core State Standards for Math and English language arts that have been adopted by the District of Columbia and 45 states, including New York. The pages within these binders lay out the kind of learning I have seen in classrooms in Finland, Singapore and other top-performing systems throughout the world. These standards establish high expectations for all students, regardless of whether they’re from Bed-Stuy or Beverly Hills, Bay Shore, Long Island, or Birmingham, Ala.
Before I get to the importance of these binders, let me do a one-minute advertorial for the AFT.”
Weingarten has done a 180 from where she was last year and said this last week:
“The union head proposed at least one year of field testing for the standards, as a matter ofresponsibility. She claimed that teachers and parents “must be a part of this.”
Weingarten addressed her home state of New York because, in her words, “they simply don’t get it in Washington.”
Weingarten’s statement acknowledges it is the parents and local leaders within the states who will bear the burden of Common Core. Parents have the most at stake over the education of their children, and should have a seat at the table when it comes to establishing the content taught in local schools. This is precisely why groups from across the spectrum are fighting against the centralization that Common Core represents. It strips control from the people who have the most at stake in the education endeavor: parents and taxpayers.”
It is a powerful reminder that when we refuse to walk in the truth and get lazy about our responsibilities to be witnesses of God at all times and in all places, that the spirit of the Lord will not always strive with us.
Sometimes it is easy to think that we can just continue on living a lie, sticking our fingers in our ears and yelling when the truth is presented to us over and over again.
But when the Lord gives us opportunity after opportunity to embrace the truth and we pridefully march on thinking that we can just have it our own way, at times, some who profess to be followers of Christ, get left behind. And Heavenly Father does not expect those who have embraced the truth to always share with those who refuse to.
It makes me think of a talk that the Prophet President Ezra Taft Benson gave during General Conference…He said:
“To love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength is all-consuming and all-encompassing. It is no lukewarm endeavor. It is total commitment of our very being—physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually—to a love of the Lord.”
President Benson also quoted the Savior in Matthew chapter ten when he said that those who love Father or Mother more than the Savior are not worthy of him.
“The Lord said, “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Matt. 10:37). One of the most difficult tests of all is when you have to choose between pleasing God or pleasing someone you love or respect—particularly a family member.”
A final scripture used in this talk was one from The Book of Mormon which talks about how it appears that the wicked have everything going for them for a time, but eventually the lies, sins, pain, agony, and rejection of the truth tellers will catch up with them and they will experience eternal torment for their choices during mortality.
“In the meantime the wicked think they are getting away with something. The Book of Mormon teaches that the wicked “have joy in their works for a season, [but] by and by the end cometh, and they are hewn down and cast into the fire, from whence there is no return” (3 Ne. 27:11).”
I have always loved this parable.
