Common Core, or Why Parents Drink

Common Core is not our friend. In fact, if I may blunt, it sucks.
S. U. C. K. S.

Hear me out on this one.  Cause I’m living this nightmare.  I have first-hand experience, and with it, the battle scars, the gray hair, and the high blood pressure to go along with it.

Now, I have quite a few friends who are teachers, including my own sister. Some of them may find Common Core helpful; truthfully, I didn’t ask them. So this rant is purely from a parent point of view.  In fact, let’s narrow it down to just THIS parent’s point of view.  So here goes.

My child learns differently from your kid, and your kid learns differently from someone else’s.  Our kids aren’t made cookie-cutter, so why should we teach them that way?  Education isn’t factory work, churning out identical graduates.  Learning should be fluid and flexible, allowing for different abilities and different personalities.

Look, I get the concept of Common Core: each child is offered the same opportunity; every child learns the same information at the same time; lessons are designed to help students prepare for college and beyond.  Sounds great. But does it work? Not in my house.

Before Common Core, my child was an A/B student.  She was able to complete her assignments with minimal effort.  Yes, I know these were the “easy” first few years of education – before the harder work and the hormones kicked in.  But a kid doesn’t have a complete reversal of ability in two years time.  We are struggling now in all subjects. I try to help with math, but the methods now are so bizarre, even I can’t follow them. English is minimally better, and Science and Social Studies are just luck of the draw.

Our kid doesn’t learn well by rote; the multiplication tables were torture.  Lectures and tests about dates and names are certain failures. But give her something that allows for imagination and she excels!  Give her some freedom and she soars!  Let her be her own quirky self and she can rule the world!!

So here we are, at the end of 6th grade, trying to decide what to do next. We’ve tried private school and public school. We’ve tried helping her pass and letting her fail.  What’s left? Home school?  Will this be any better?  When she was a toddler and we realized she had advanced thinking skills, we never thought we’d be trying to just pass.

So, Common Core, we hate you. I’m sure you help some students, but you’re failing mine.

P.S. To lighten the mood, please read these hilarious tweets! Every. One. Is. Life.

http://www.scarymommy.com/funny-parenting-tweets-about-homework-and-common-core/?utm_source=FB