Anonymous wrote:

Huh? You do understand how democracy works. I have some beliefs and principles and I argue for them. If I do not believe in something, I cannot support it. It wastes money, time, and in the case of CC, it is even destructive. I'm not about to "move on" while billions of dollars are spent on something I believe to be a total waste. How is it that we fund less pressing problems in order to "move on" and talk about more pressing problems?? That's idiotic. It's no argument. I don't think you know a "strong argument" if it stares you in the face.

Anonymous wrote:

I was born and raised in the US, and it would be more accurate to describe me as a strong opponent of opponents of the Common Core standards.

What? Shouldn't this debate be about the standards themselves and their impact or lack thereof? Just because you don't like some people is not a principled reason to be for CC.

Are you serious? You're all about politics and not about policy?

Anonymous wrote:
So you're saying that standards are not relevant in education. As far as you're concerned, there shouldn't be any standards at all. Yes?


You have conflated their importance to a degree that is absurd.

This reminds me of Bush saying, "you're either for us or against us". Simplistic much?

I'm for what is going to help students the most. At this point the problem is not that we needed to change the standards (at least not where I am). Maybe somewhere these standards are going to really, really help. I don't see it. I think federal solutions are often so broad as to be worthless. Lots of money spent with little ROI. There are other problems that are more pressing than this. Yes, those problems are not easy to solve, but we need to look at them and think about how to start.


No, I was asking for clarification. So you think that there should be standards, but that there are more pressing problems than the quality or variability of the standards. In that case, I agree with you. We should focus our energies on those more pressing problems.

But this is actually a strong argument to stop fighting the Common Core standards. Take them as given, let them happen or not happen, and move on. Fighting the Common Core standards takes away from focusing energies on the more pressing problems.

Also, the Common Core standards are NOT a federal solution.

I was born and raised in the US, and it would be more accurate to describe me as a strong opponent of opponents of the Common Core standards.

So you're saying that standards are not relevant in education. As far as you're concerned, there shouldn't be any standards at all. Yes?

It's pretty obvious is you are a native born English speaker.

Anonymous wrote:

Either our kids are getting dumber or our schools are letting them down.

Or.......we test ALL our kids, while other countries only test their university bound kids.

Could you repeat one of his phrases where you thought the syntax sounded like it was not English and could you let us know which language you thought it was?

How did you know it was language interference and it was not just a mistake made by an English speaker (because you know we are pretty horrible due to our bad schooling)?

Anonymous wrote:

I'm not the previous poster, but you sound like you are trying to stereotype the other poster. Why? Can't you have a debate without trying to attack a person based on something like his first language (or would you use his race if you could see him)?

It was just curiosity. The poster is telling us that standards are the problem and is a strong supporter of Common Core. It sounds to me like she was not raised in the American system. What is bigoted about that?

I'm not the previous poster, but you sound like you are trying to stereotype the other poster. Why? Can't you have a debate without trying to attack a person based on something like his first language (or would you use his race if you could see him)?

Anonymous wrote:

As far as the PISA goes, we are competing against countries that:

give paid maternity leave as national policy (while we don't)

have free national preschool for all children

do not have nearly the percentage of immigrant children who don't speak their first language as we have

do not have nearly the income divide that we do

have had national health insurance for decades

give teachers more planning time and less instructional time on average (60% instructional vs. 80% instructional in the US)

only send in test scores from certain schools in their countries



So . . . after you take all of that into account and realize that we are not being compared to apples, we look pretty dang good.

We have some excellent public schools in America and some incredible students coming out of them. Go into those schools and check it out.

We do have some work to do in poorer areas of this country, but that work is not all inside the schools (by any stretch).

I have a friend in Australia. In Australia all babies are monitored from birth on. A community health nurse visits all homes regularly and has "meetings" for groups of new parents who live in the same area. The parents not only know each other from day one (and can support each other), they know how to take care of the children and keep them physically and mentally healthy. The nurse meanwhile can observe any problems early. Why can't we do this in the US? I think it would go a long way toward better outcomes.

American English. Why?


Your syntax does not sound like it.

American English. Why?


Your syntax does not sound like it.

The culture of those who do not really want to work. Our immigrants seem to do okay at menial jobs. Many of their kids succeed. Maybe is it the example of hard work.



I work with immigrants. They are not all doing "okay". Like anyone else, some of the kids succeed and some do not. It's a very mixed picture.

I am more liberal than the other poster, but I still don't believe that Common Core is any sort of answer to the problems "on the ground". It might help the bean counters, but it does zero for the real people who need help.