Why are people so upset about Common Core?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Publish the standards. Let each system decide if they want to use them or not, and then let the teachers teach! Drop the rest of the requirements.

Here you go:

http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/
http://www.corestandards.org/Math/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I don't get it. I thought that the whole point of schools was to be a major influence on education.

That is why it needs to be at the local level where parents can control it.

Exactly. There is recent footage of a man in NH being ARRESTED for going over the 2 minute talk rule at a school board meeting at a library. They did not want him to talk about the book his 9th grade daughter was reading, which was on the list of advanced reading for Common Core. The book was Jody Picoult's "Nineteen Minutes. Want to read the passage he was objecting to? It's detailed here, along with the story and video: http://eagnews.org/new-hampshire-father-opposes-required-reading-of-pornographic-novel-in-9th-grade-english/

If you watch, you can see the policeman seemed hesitant and reluctant. He apparently told the man "He didn't want to do this".

It is INSANE a man can be ARRESTED at a meeting like this. Why does a school board need an officer there? Why are they feeling that parents will revolt against them?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't believe that there is as much wrong with the Common Core Standards, as there is something very wrong with the way the standards are being implemented, the push for data gathering, and the way the standards are driving the curriculum choices. I often hear the argument that Common Core is not a curriculum, it is a set of standards--however by default the current curriculum choices available to school districts in states who have chosen Common Core, all have to align with the Common Core Standards . Few publishers, whether they offer a solid educational product or not, can meet these very specific criteria. In addition, the states who have not adopted Common Core in name, have virtually adopted it anyhow due to their use of the Common Core aligned books.

With all that said, even though the problem is more with the implementation than the standards themselves, that doesn't mean that the standards are not also fraught with issues and problems. There seems to be a focus on non fiction texts to the detriment of learning classic literature and fictional works. Not only that, but many critics point out the lack of math preparation in the upper grades. It's all fine and well if your child happens to be in a gifted program, or in certain advanced classes, but if in general most kids won't be taking the proper math courses in general education they will be fully unprepared for careers that require upper level math. It really angers me that my child's math work and tests consist of question after question asking him to explain why he got a certain answer. The process of explaining how he knows something becomes meaningless after the first couple of times he demonstrated the concept, and sucks the joy out of mathematics for him. There is something to be gained from showing students different ways to approach a problem, but not making them do it over and over again if they have already mastered the concept. This is just one example of what has gone wrong with the standard driven curricula,and we all have our own biases. Also, in different grades or at different local schools kids might be doing different things. However, I have heard this particular complaint over and over, and I do think it is valid.

Also, common core has rolled in virtually hand in hand with increased standardized testing. While there has been too much emphasis on standardized testing in the past, it has really gotten out of hand. Students should be learning to enjoy the process of learning, to be developing skills over time and learning a new skill once they have mastered a particular content area. We should be more focused on teaching children, and making sure they learn a great deal, than we should on which method of testing we are going to use to measure their success. Districts keep spending money on all the standardized tests....and changing textbooks(virtual texts that is!) when we never needed new textbooks. We really needed less kids in a class and less teaching to the test.

I'll just share that my child, in second grade hasn't learned anything new in math that he didn't learn the year prior, at home. After experiencing one of the top school districts in the nation, I've decided that the problem isn't the particular school, but the brokenness of the entire system currently. Again, my bias. I will be pulling him out (along with some other parents) to start a private learning cooperative/homeschool hybrid in the Fall. Does that mean that his new classroom won't use any books/curricula that might be aligned to the Common Core? No, it certainly doesn't. But my child will actually be able to learn mathematics algorithms,and move on once he has mastered them. He won't be forced to sit and explain why 12 + 5 is 17 over and over again. That is certain and we will be very careful what books we choose, and how we implement them. And my child won't spend months out of the year learning factoids for a standardized test. He'll actually be learning to love learning. He'll be playing outside several times a day (he's 8, for goodness sakes!) going on numerous educational experiences, and receiving a rigorous education to boot. There is something seriously wrong with the public schools nationwide. A lot of the private schools are starting to implement Common Core, too. I highly recommend that everyone do more research on Common Core. Or, just research in general on the state of public education today. This is not a "political" issue as the media would have you think. The parents who are coming together to start a new learning co-op are diverse in political affiliations.

Good for you!! LOVE this post!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't like Common core, but this mess about the holocaust denial has nothing to do with it.

When a district states the paper was to meet common core standards, you have an issue. Clearly, the district didn't understand Common Core. Why is that?

I once had a kindergartener take a marker and write FUK and DAM on the bathroom walls. His behavior demonstrated mastery of the following Common Core standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.K.1.A
Print many upper- and lowercase letters.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.K.2.C
Write a letter or letters for most consonant and short-vowel sounds (phonemes).

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.K.2.D
Spell simple words phonetically, drawing on knowledge of sound-letter relationships.

That doesn't mean that the behavior was OK or that the standards are bad. It simply means that it's a teacher's job to teach their students when and how to apply their skills.

A student who can read papers by holocaust deniers and historians, decide which one they agree with, and write an essay explaining their argument while citing specific evidence from that text, is in fact demonstrating mastery of the CCSS. So, in that sense that district is right. This assignment does meet the CCSS. That doesn't make it in any way appropriate. There are, after all, many other topics a student can write about to demonstrate mastery of the same standard, just as there are many other words and surfaces my kindergarten could have used to demonstrate his prowess at spelling and handwriting.

They were given 3 reference books - all supported the hoax theory

And your point is.....?

That's kind of not unbiased research if the research materials were restricted to one side...

I'm the poster above, and I'll say that I didn't read the article in detail. It's quite possible that in addition to involving totally inappropriate content, that other aspects of the assignment were badly done. I think the fact that this assignment was chosen doesn't speak well for the intelligence of the teacher or curriculum developer who wrote it, so it wouldn't surprise me if the didn't balance the number of articles on both sides. It's also possible (although unlikely given the intelligence thing) that the kids had already studied the Holocaust in depth and so had access to additional sources from their research.

Nonetheless the topic and readings were totally inappropriate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I don't get it. I thought that the whole point of schools was to be a major influence on education.

That is why it needs to be at the local level where parents can control it.

Exactly. There is recent footage of a man in NH being ARRESTED for going over the 2 minute talk rule at a school board meeting at a library. They did not want him to talk about the book his 9th grade daughter was reading, which was on the list of advanced reading for Common Core. The book was Jody Picoult's "Nineteen Minutes. Want to read the passage he was objecting to? It's detailed here, along with the story and video: http://eagnews.org/new-hampshire-father-opposes-required-reading-of-pornographic-novel-in-9th-grade-english/

If you watch, you can see the policeman seemed hesitant and reluctant. He apparently told the man "He didn't want to do this".

It is INSANE a man can be ARRESTED at a meeting like this. Why does a school board need an officer there? Why are they feeling that parents will revolt against them?

The curriculum (which books are assigned, which materials are used" IS being decided at the local level.

That particular book has been used at that particular school since 2007 BTW. Common Core does not proscribe which books students must read. That is a curricular decision, made by the school district.

Now, to avoid a particular school district selecting a "bad" book, perhaps you would like a national curriculum? So school districts don't risk selecting controversial books, as this school district apparently did? Right now we do not have a national curriculum; Common Core is not a curriculum. But people keep posting examples of schools choosing bad books, and making bad assignments. Maybe schools can't be trusted to make these kinds of curricular decisions?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I don't get it. I thought that the whole point of schools was to be a major influence on education.

That is why it needs to be at the local level where parents can control it.

Exactly. There is recent footage of a man in NH being ARRESTED for going over the 2 minute talk rule at a school board meeting at a library. They did not want him to talk about the book his 9th grade daughter was reading, which was on the list of advanced reading for Common Core. The book was Jody Picoult's "Nineteen Minutes. Want to read the passage he was objecting to? It's detailed here, along with the story and video: http://eagnews.org/new-hampshire-father-opposes-required-reading-of-pornographic-novel-in-9th-grade-english/

If you watch, you can see the policeman seemed hesitant and reluctant. He apparently told the man "He didn't want to do this".

It is INSANE a man can be ARRESTED at a meeting like this. Why does a school board need an officer there? Why are they feeling that parents will revolt against them?

If a school board in New Hampshire had a man arrested for talking too long about a book the school system decided to include in the curriculum, then obviously that must be the fault of the Common Core standards (plus also Arne Duncan and Pearson. Follow the money.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

The curriculum (which books are assigned, which materials are used" IS being decided at the local level.

That particular book has been used at that particular school since 2007 BTW. Common Core does not proscribe which books students must read. That is a curricular decision, made by the school district.

Now, to avoid a particular school district selecting a "bad" book, perhaps you would like a national curriculum? So school districts don't risk selecting controversial books, as this school district apparently did? Right now we do not have a national curriculum; Common Core is not a curriculum. But people keep posting examples of schools choosing bad books, and making bad assignments. Maybe schools can't be trusted to make these kinds of curricular decisions?

Yes, I'm tickled by people using examples of local school districts messing up to argue for local control of schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I'm the poster above, and I'll say that I didn't read the article in detail. It's quite possible that in addition to involving totally inappropriate content, that other aspects of the assignment were badly done. I think the fact that this assignment was chosen doesn't speak well for the intelligence of the teacher or curriculum developer who wrote it, so it wouldn't surprise me if the didn't balance the number of articles on both sides. It's also possible (although unlikely given the intelligence thing) that the kids had already studied the Holocaust in depth and so had access to additional sources from their research.

Nonetheless the topic and readings were totally inappropriate.

Here's a link to the actual assignment. I just skimmed it but the materials provided don't seem like they were heavily geared towards "Holocaust was a hoax" and the assignment seems to be well intended, although far too complex for most 8th graders.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/222266515/Rialto-Unified-Holocaust-Essay-Assignment

(As a teacher, I shudder to think that as assignment I wrote, with good intentions, would be plastered all over the internet for viral criticism, but I guess that's the world we live in these days. Seeing people comment on all these assignments makes me feel it would be far safer to never create my own materials and just stick to the safety of published curricula.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I don't get it. I thought that the whole point of schools was to be a major influence on education.

That is why it needs to be at the local level where parents can control it.

Exactly. There is recent footage of a man in NH being ARRESTED for going over the 2 minute talk rule at a school board meeting at a library. They did not want him to talk about the book his 9th grade daughter was reading, which was on the list of advanced reading for Common Core. The book was Jody Picoult's "Nineteen Minutes. Want to read the passage he was objecting to? It's detailed here, along with the story and video: http://eagnews.org/new-hampshire-father-opposes-required-reading-of-pornographic-novel-in-9th-grade-english/

If you watch, you can see the policeman seemed hesitant and reluctant. He apparently told the man "He didn't want to do this".

It is INSANE a man can be ARRESTED at a meeting like this. Why does a school board need an officer there? Why are they feeling that parents will revolt against them?

If a school board in New Hampshire had a man arrested for talking too long about a book the school system decided to include in the curriculum, then obviously that must be the fault of the Common Core standards (plus also Arne Duncan and Pearson. Follow the money.)

But.... Common Core! Follow the money. Probably, Pearson published the book, you know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I'm the poster above, and I'll say that I didn't read the article in detail. It's quite possible that in addition to involving totally inappropriate content, that other aspects of the assignment were badly done. I think the fact that this assignment was chosen doesn't speak well for the intelligence of the teacher or curriculum developer who wrote it, so it wouldn't surprise me if the didn't balance the number of articles on both sides. It's also possible (although unlikely given the intelligence thing) that the kids had already studied the Holocaust in depth and so had access to additional sources from their research.

Nonetheless the topic and readings were totally inappropriate.

Here's a link to the actual assignment. I just skimmed it but the materials provided don't seem like they were heavily geared towards "Holocaust was a hoax" and the assignment seems to be well intended, although far too complex for most 8th graders.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/222266515/Rialto-Unified-Holocaust-Essay-Assignment

(As a teacher, I shudder to think that as assignment I wrote, with good intentions, would be plastered all over the internet for viral criticism, but I guess that's the world we live in these days. Seeing people comment on all these assignments makes me feel it would be far safer to never create my own materials and just stick to the safety of published curricula.)

PP again. I think the fault of Common Core is that it is encouraging teachers to try new thing, to reach too high and push their students too far, too fast.

Teachers see the standard as asking kids to think and evaluate critically... and they look for actual issues that require people to evaluate information. Well, real life issues are messy and not easy to read about sometimes. In designing materials to make kids need to be critical thinkers, they will sometimes make errors in judgment.

Far better for them to let the professionals (i.e. textbook publishers such as Pearson) thoughtfully select appropriate reading materials and assignments for the kids, and bind them all into one book or software package, for easy lesson planning.

(Hint -- that last paragraph was snark, for the snark impaired.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

This is one of the things the Common Core seeks to address. If standards are aligned with what students actually need to know then students who were well taught will be successful on the test and in life. Common Core standards go further than many states' previous standards at describing higher level skills that are actually useful in real life such as argumentative essays rather than "_BCRs", and specifying the contexts in which students should be able to demonstrate skills such as the kind of content (science, history), genre, and text complexity.

That is a huge IF. A bigger IF is the test. And, please tell me, which class would you rather teach under these circumstances? GT or Title I?

I'm the PP you're addressing, just getting back to DCUM.

I'd want to teach Title 1 special ed, because that's what I've always taught and that's where my heart lies. Common Core doesn't change my feelings about that.

I also think that the notion that we should lower standards for Title 1 kids, or because of Title 1 kids, is both offensive and dangerous. To use Common Core jargon, for many years huge numbers of low income kids of color have left school without being "college and career ready". We see the results of this in our society every day. Part of the problems was standards that focused on isolated rote skills, and not on higher level thinking, text complexity, and applications to content. This meant that a teacher could do their job, and teach the standards, and the child could perform on those standards, and still not be ready. Kids from higher SES didn't have this problem because their schools went above and beyond the standards, and because they got more enrichment outside of school.

The new CCSS come closer to outlining what kids actually need. Does that mean that providing it to Title 1 schools will be in any way easy? No, this is a huge undertaking and no one has mastered it. But that doesn't mean the target should change. Setting benchmarks that don't prepare kids for success in life, would be giving up. Our society can't afford that and our kids can't afford that. We need to try, and an important step in trying is to establish the goal line.

Will I be able to move every kid in my Title 1 program across that goal line next year? Probably not. B I'm also not in a tested grade, but if I were, I wouldn't be particularly worried about the performance issue. My kids' scores will be compared to other kids with similar scores to set projections. If the test is hard kids will struggle across the board, and while I'm not sure that all my kids will pass, I'm confident that I can move them as far or farther than the teachers whose kids they'll be compared to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't like Common core, but this mess about the holocaust denial has nothing to do with it.

When a district states the paper was to meet common core standards, you have an issue. Clearly, the district didn't understand Common Core. Why is that?

I once had a kindergartener take a marker and write FUK and DAM on the bathroom walls. His behavior demonstrated mastery of the following Common Core standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.K.1.A
Print many upper- and lowercase letters.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.K.2.C
Write a letter or letters for most consonant and short-vowel sounds (phonemes).

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.K.2.D
Spell simple words phonetically, drawing on knowledge of sound-letter relationships.

That doesn't mean that the behavior was OK or that the standards are bad. It simply means that it's a teacher's job to teach their students when and how to apply their skills.

A student who can read papers by holocaust deniers and historians, decide which one they agree with, and write an essay explaining their argument while citing specific evidence from that text, is in fact demonstrating mastery of the CCSS. So, in that sense that district is right. This assignment does meet the CCSS. That doesn't make it in any way appropriate. There are, after all, many other topics a student can write about to demonstrate mastery of the same standard, just as there are many other words and surfaces my kindergarten could have used to demonstrate his prowess at spelling and handwriting.

They were given 3 reference books - all supported the hoax theory

And your point is.....?

That's kind of not unbiased research if the research materials were restricted to one side...

I'm the poster above, and I'll say that I didn't read the article in detail. It's quite possible that in addition to involving totally inappropriate content, that other aspects of the assignment were badly done. I think the fact that this assignment was chosen doesn't speak well for the intelligence of the teacher or curriculum developer who wrote it, so it wouldn't surprise me if the didn't balance the number of articles on both sides. It's also possible (although unlikely given the intelligence thing) that the kids had already studied the Holocaust in depth and so had access to additional sources from their research.

Nonetheless the topic and readings were totally inappropriate.

Agreed. I don't believe that these were additional resources. I believe they were restricted to those resources, which makes it all the more heinous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I don't get it. I thought that the whole point of schools was to be a major influence on education.

That is why it needs to be at the local level where parents can control it.

Exactly. There is recent footage of a man in NH being ARRESTED for going over the 2 minute talk rule at a school board meeting at a library. They did not want him to talk about the book his 9th grade daughter was reading, which was on the list of advanced reading for Common Core. The book was Jody Picoult's "Nineteen Minutes. Want to read the passage he was objecting to? It's detailed here, along with the story and video: http://eagnews.org/new-hampshire-father-opposes-required-reading-of-pornographic-novel-in-9th-grade-english/

If you watch, you can see the policeman seemed hesitant and reluctant. He apparently told the man "He didn't want to do this".

It is INSANE a man can be ARRESTED at a meeting like this. Why does a school board need an officer there? Why are they feeling that parents will revolt against them?

The curriculum (which books are assigned, which materials are used" IS being decided at the local level.

That particular book has been used at that particular school since 2007 BTW. Common Core does not proscribe which books students must read. That is a curricular decision, made by the school district.

Now, to avoid a particular school district selecting a "bad" book, perhaps you would like a national curriculum? So school districts don't risk selecting controversial books, as this school district apparently did? Right now we do not have a national curriculum; Common Core is not a curriculum. But people keep posting examples of schools choosing bad books, and making bad assignments. Maybe schools can't be trusted to make these kinds of curricular decisions?

I point to Common Core, because the school is blaming Common Core. As long as schools keep pointing to Common Core as the reasons for their decision, something is very wrong up the chain. I fully believe that Common Core was developed to give the school districts license to push an agenda. And I believe, after seeing samples of the tests and curricula approved for Common Core, that it goes much farther up the chain than local level. You cannot separate the developers of the standards from the curriculum. In doing so, you are proving to me time and again, that you have no idea what it means to work in anything else BUT government. When the implementation fails, the standards fail. That's how it works. Spending time in a private corporation will show you how breaks in the chain during implementation usually points back to poorly defined standards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I don't get it. I thought that the whole point of schools was to be a major influence on education.

That is why it needs to be at the local level where parents can control it.

Exactly. There is recent footage of a man in NH being ARRESTED for going over the 2 minute talk rule at a school board meeting at a library. They did not want him to talk about the book his 9th grade daughter was reading, which was on the list of advanced reading for Common Core. The book was Jody Picoult's "Nineteen Minutes. Want to read the passage he was objecting to? It's detailed here, along with the story and video: http://eagnews.org/new-hampshire-father-opposes-required-reading-of-pornographic-novel-in-9th-grade-english/

If you watch, you can see the policeman seemed hesitant and reluctant. He apparently told the man "He didn't want to do this".

It is INSANE a man can be ARRESTED at a meeting like this. Why does a school board need an officer there? Why are they feeling that parents will revolt against them?

Here's the of 9th grade fiction texts that Common Core provides. These are described as examples, to give teachers and districts a sense of the kinds of texts to select, and are not required, but you'll notice that there is no Jodi Picoult on the list. It's a pretty traditional list. Please excuse the page numbers, they direct you as to where, in appendix B, you can find sample texts from the books listed below.

The Actual Common Core Standards wrote:
Homer. The Odyssey ..........................................................................................................101
Ovid. Metamorphoses .......................................................................................................101
Gogol, Nikolai. “The Nose.” .............................................................................................102
De Voltaire, F. A. M. Candide, Or The Optimist ......................................................103
Turgenev, Ivan. Fathers and Sons ................................................................................104
Henry, O. “The Gift of the Magi.” ..................................................................................104
Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis ...............................................................................105
Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath ......................................................................105
Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451 ......................................................................................106
Olsen, Tillie. “I Stand Here Ironing.” ............................................................................106
Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart ...............................................................................107
Lee, Harper. To Kill A Mockingbird ...............................................................................107
Shaara, Michael. The Killer Angels...............................................................................108
Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club ........................................................................................108
Álvarez, Julia. In the Time of the Butterflies ...........................................................108
Zusak, Marcus. The Book Thief .....................................................................................109

As far as enforcing time limits, most public forums have rules about doing so. Were the police in this case overzealous in enforcing this issue (that is unrelated to CCSS)? Possibly, but the question of how one enforces rules of order in public forums is totally separate from Common Core.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't like Common core, but this mess about the holocaust denial has nothing to do with it.

When a district states the paper was to meet common core standards, you have an issue. Clearly, the district didn't understand Common Core. Why is that?

I once had a kindergartener take a marker and write FUK and DAM on the bathroom walls. His behavior demonstrated mastery of the following Common Core standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.K.1.A
Print many upper- and lowercase letters.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.K.2.C
Write a letter or letters for most consonant and short-vowel sounds (phonemes).

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.K.2.D
Spell simple words phonetically, drawing on knowledge of sound-letter relationships.

That doesn't mean that the behavior was OK or that the standards are bad. It simply means that it's a teacher's job to teach their students when and how to apply their skills.

A student who can read papers by holocaust deniers and historians, decide which one they agree with, and write an essay explaining their argument while citing specific evidence from that text, is in fact demonstrating mastery of the CCSS. So, in that sense that district is right. This assignment does meet the CCSS. That doesn't make it in any way appropriate. There are, after all, many other topics a student can write about to demonstrate mastery of the same standard, just as there are many other words and surfaces my kindergarten could have used to demonstrate his prowess at spelling and handwriting.

They were given 3 reference books - all supported the hoax theory

And your point is.....?

That's kind of not unbiased research if the research materials were restricted to one side...

I'm the poster above, and I'll say that I didn't read the article in detail. It's quite possible that in addition to involving totally inappropriate content, that other aspects of the assignment were badly done. I think the fact that this assignment was chosen doesn't speak well for the intelligence of the teacher or curriculum developer who wrote it, so it wouldn't surprise me if the didn't balance the number of articles on both sides. It's also possible (although unlikely given the intelligence thing) that the kids had already studied the Holocaust in depth and so had access to additional sources from their research.

Nonetheless the topic and readings were totally inappropriate.

Agreed. I don't believe that these were additional resources. I believe they were restricted to those resources, which makes it all the more heinous.

I'm the PP above you, and looked more carefully. The fact that the assignment describes the resources as "credible" is pretty awful. I had hoped that, at least, students would have been directed to think critically about whether the resource were believable.

It's an awful assignment. There's really no way to make an assignment that involves giving kids racist propaganda to read appropriate. The fact that we're debating the details of the assignment is a little beside the point. At my grade level, I've got standards about having kids describe a picture. If I gave my kids Playboy as opposed to Ezra Jack Keats (which is what I usually use) for this assignment, I would deserve to be fired, regardless of whether I wrote the directions for the assignment well. This assignment is similarly bad. There's no way that better wording, or a greater variety of resources would fix it.

But the CCSS aren't where I look to decide which books or topics to use. As a teacher, I still need to use judgement and my knowledge of child development and common sense. Just like it's not that hard to find appropriate pictures to describe, it's not that hard to find historical topics to debate where there are credible, non-hate based arguments on both sides.