justplainbil

Just Plain Bill

What might be at the “core” of resistance to Common Core

The questions of what school children should be taught and what teachers should be accountable for teaching are once again being hashed out in the public square.

“Wise” from my many years of teaching in public schools, institutions of higher learning, and corporate training and development, I have an opinion that I feel is worth sharing. Although my observation may not be as robust and scientific as all the chatter we’ve been hearing, I believe it belongs in the discussion. 

My opinion focuses on the impractical, extreme time demand put on teachers for creating new learning activities to match new learning objectives. Lessons and methods used year after year by experienced teachers are now obsolete, or soon will be, because they are based on now outdated curriculum standards because of the world in which we live. Think for just a moment of the preschooler tapping and sliding fingers across her tablet. Technology hastened the demise of traditional needs to teach handwriting and math to name just two examples. Tools replacing penmanship and multiplication memorization are literally at a student’s fingertips. 

I clearly remember that the learning activities my children experienced over a 20-year period involved many well-worn exercises (even to a point the copies were barely legible). They reflected little change generation-to-generation, between the youngest and oldest, for completing their public school requirements.

In short, the “core” of resistance to Common Core may be the requirement that teachers stop using exercises and materials they had developed over the years. For many, those lessons represent their best professional efforts and now they are required to spend an enormous amount of time and labor creating new learning activities – time they do not have! It’s a lot of work and I am speaking with the voice of experience. I still invest at least eight hours for every one hour of instruction I produce in the world of corporate training for adult learners.

Not sure how to address this basic “core” of resistance, except to provide ready-made and proven materials to the modern teacher charged with teaching a whole new way, to a whole new set of objectives, in a whole new world. This surely treads on the sacred ground of all good teachers…creating their own customized materials. Perhaps a paid “working sabbatical”, such as a full year of learning activity development just for teachers? It’s part of a solution that may be impossible to even consider, with Common Core mired in politics (e.g. big government vs. state rights) and enforced by financial “incentives”.

Sounds like a conundrum, eh?

Heaps of credit and thanks to my awesome editor, friend,

and fellow educator, Allyn Geer, for enriching my post.