A wise educator from my days in secondary school once advised us to always question authority. In a culture where it's easy to perpetuate your own self-importance and self-appointed authority, people whose heads have bloated with ego then consider themselves to be an oracle of knowledge because they have a few likes on Facebook. Fortunately, most of these people have no pull in the real world (unless you count the right to vote), but their opinions do influence the multitudes of people who unfortunately, aside from pop culture, do not pay attention to current events. Lemmings such as these DO have substantial influence upon their community and their families and continue to perpetuate propaganda and the uninformed opinions of their quasi-conscious acquaintances. While the topic of common senseless people will always put me on a soap box (note to any future students who want me to veer away from assignments or hear my horrific stories from years of dealing with the public for minimum wage) these people are not the focus of my concern, but are certainly incorporated in it. Common Core is a newly issued state based set of standards for the subjects of math and language arts. These standards pose to alleviate the chances of falling behind for students who move from state-to-state, but more realistically and universally by unifying curriculum of all states to make the post-high school job market an even playing field. How? By creating benchmarks at every point in the student's career, the checkpoints will serve as a conference to check-up on their progress and see what needs to be focused on in their personal studies.
Idealistically speaking, the system sounds perfect and, hey, isn't that what educators should be doing in the first place; making sure that their students aren't falling behind? But how can we be sure that all teachers will comply with these standards; because the world is certainly not devoid of terrible teachers who are too protected and hidden by teacher unions. We can't regulate what teachers who weren't teaching before will be teaching under the new standard and this won't magically hold students more accountable for what they are or are not learning.
I haven't totally disregarded Common Core, but I just cannot begin to see how mass, uniformly regulated education is a good thing because the little people, in this case students, actually get overlooked!
Something that has recently raised concerns with the implementation of Common Core are the falling behind of the more advanced students; there is currently no program within the state standards for their education because these benchmarks don't allow for early advance. This isn't to say that there won't still be gifted classes offered, but for the more advanced student not in the gifted classroom, the teacher will be concerned more with the students who have not hit their benchmarks, and we've come full circle to No Child Left Behind.
My biggest concern with Common Core lies not within the voiced questionings above, but in the required curriculum. Districts have been told that they can still create their own plans according to what they would like their content to be, which I'm assuming pertains more to language arts than math, but the standards have required that 75% of what students read in school be non-fiction.
As someone whose degree emphasizes the importance of literature and the role of fiction in society and culture, my eyes popped out of my head. But, before gearing up my rant-and-rave-to-blow-off-the-steam engine ensued, I decided to research it a bit more. What did I find, but the statement from the Secretary of Education who could have regurgitated my rebuttal to this mandate to a tee. It reads "while fiction is a great way to express ones emotions and connect people together, it won't get you the corner office." WHAT? ARE YOU SERIOUS? Fiction is the common thread that triggers empathy and understanding for people or groups for which we wouldn't typically associate with. What this country needs, more than ever, is connection, understanding, and an element of unification. Fiction and the continually oh-so overlooked Arts helps us to understand history and people and development of our own language. If we don't teach them, who will?! What isn't covered at the secondary level, will now have to be covered at the collegiate level, and let me just emphasize that these PhDs will be far less than thrilled to have to cover how to annotate poetry or text or question why kids didn't read To Kill A Mockingbird and won't be able to connect any literature currently taught in classes to previously read works because they'll be reading high school fiction. College professors will now have to completely change their curriculum!
In order to make this regulation run smoothly, there needs to be an established, reputable set of non-fiction books that can be turned to, something not currently established. We cannot continue to trial and test books that have no sustenance or place amongst literature; this only causes students to lose interest in literature because they're reading bad literature! It's not as simple as turning to the tried and true favorites like Hamlet, The Adventures of Huck Finn, Dante's Inferno, or Of Mice and Men. Before changing the standards, we need to have an abundant selection of GOOD material to choose from.
I will put a positive plug in for CC because I do agree with one statement made by Mr. Secretary and the premise behind the language arts standards. Non-fition, narrative specifically, helps build up writing tremendously. One of the most overlooked and under-fulfilled skills of students today is the importance of being a good writer. We've heard for years in regards to math classes "When will I ever use this again?" and teachers spew out their cliched answers to which students continually disregard. I would like to profess from the highest mountain that EVERYBODY NEEDS TO KNOW HOW TO WRITE AND COMMUNICATE EFFECTIVELY!
I'm certainly not talking about writing creatively, but rather writing a research paper, an email, a report, what have you, even something as insignificant as 'FOR SALE' on back window of a car (I once witnessed a FER SALE sign). Yes folks, communication, GOOD, effective communication, is the one thing which must not be lost among our culture. So, I support the reasoning behind reading non-fiction! I do, however, suggest that we listen to those currently working in education and trust their judgements and value their opinions. As a junior in high school, we read 'The New Yorker' each day, but we still kept time for the literary fiction I fell in love with.
In recapitulation: no, fiction will probably not grant you the corner office; yes, writing and communication desperately needs more attention; yes, writing can be improved by reading narrative non-fiction; but, will this program be effective? Only time will tell.
Let not my thoughts disrupt your beliefs, for I neither condemn or condone an untested program not yet experience by myself; but in the mean time, keep your skepticism, ladies and gents, and let your questions lead you to the answers.
