Is Canada buying into the insanity?

[Chris James]

Here's a question for Gee, our north of the border disorder explainer. WTF, Gee, I thought you guys had more common sense then this?

http://now.msn.com/kids-banned-from-touching-each-other-in-canadian-kindergarten

I can see the fanatics in America believing that holding hands leads to pregnancy. (Those who believe that are going to have a real surprise when they get married, LOL)

But contact is a very natural trait in most species. A touch can convey so many meanings and so with rules like this children will be forced to withhold their emotions and that can't be good. These zero tolerance people need to be retrained in common sense, and perhaps get a refresher course in intelligent thought.

[DesDownunder]

I suppose touching yourself will soon be illegal too.

[The Pecman]

I suppose touching yourself will soon be illegal too.

That means I'll get the electric chair!

[Gee Whillickers]

Don't forget, this is the country that brought you a school that banned all types of balls for use during recess after a child got a minor injury after being hit in the face with one. Today, the mayor of one of our largest cities (Toronto) finally admitted what everyone has known for months given the evidence, that he has indeed smoked crack cocaine. And he is still refusing to resign. (It's actually far worse than that, his known associates are shady types and gang members, and there are plenty of suspicions about his involvement in somebody dying due to their possibly having possession of the video that showed the mayor involved in drug use.)

Yes, we have lots of nice things about our country, but don't for a second think it's some progressive paradise up here. We have idiots, wingnuts, psychos, and assholes along with the best (and worst) of them. Sigh.

The school that banned balls had to recind the ban after a matter of days due to wonderful public backlash, thankfully. The mayor will no doubt fall on his sword, willingly or unwillingly soon enough--he's an amazingly self-destructive and mentally unstable man--and I suspect this kindergarten will think better of this decision awfully quickly. At least I hope so.

I can imagine the public backlash they are about to get, I feel for their poor phone people over the next few days. Also, these are kindergartners. Thsi is completely, utterly, and totally impossible to enforce. It just can't happen.

But, yeah, sorry about ruining everyone's picture of the socialist paradise up here. It just ain't so. Not even close.

[DesDownunder]

Banning balls...No touching...public backlashing...(kinky.) ..Here, let me help with that,

At least with the balls being banned they won't get crushed with all that falling on your own sword..

[colinian]

They wouldn't have dared to ban the balls I played with, I tell you! Hey, that's baseballs!

Colin

[Cole Parker]

Come on, Colin. They couldn't have been that big!

C

[EleCivil]

I taught in a school that tried to have that rule.

It wasn't enforced by any teachers, because it was stupid.

Likewise, they tried to ban tag, racing, and any sort of "chasing game" at recess.

Again, it was never enforced, because it was stupid.

As professionals trained in child development, the faculty made the decision (completely off the books) to ignore stupid rules and pay lip service to them when the school board members decided to poke around. It's not the best system, but it worked for us.

[Cole Parker]

Next they'll say all 10 year olds now have to be 12.

Then insist the teachers enforce it.

C

[EleCivil]

Next they'll say all 10 year olds now have to be 12.

Then insist the teachers enforce it.

C

Haha. Funny you should mention it...

You know those standardized tests that American kids tend to fail?

The new Common Core standards (the nationwide standards upon which the tests will be based) will increase the difficulty of the tests by about two grade levels.

And they'll insist that teachers enforce it.

Whatever, man. I already teach above grade level. Bring it, State Department of Education - I ain't flinchin'.

[Guest Dabeagle]

In speaking to another parent yesterday, she said that the Common Core changes the standard of teaching to the 'middle of the pack' where more kids are, to the top of the pack. It's going to hurt a lot of kids - or challenge a lot more of them to move up.

[JamesSavik]

Back in the eighties, Mississippi schools tried a horror story called the Common Body of Knowledge (aka CBOK).

It was a dismal failure. It seems that the knowledge that makes people special is un-common.

[Cole Parker]

I spoke to a 4th grade teacher I know about this. She said not only are they legislating unreasonable changes in Common Core, but that the teachers have been instructed to teach to the new standards when there's been no training in them, and no one really knows what is required or what to do. The administration is no help at all; they don't know what's needed either. This teacher said she's just going to keep doing what she always has until someone can provide some specifics.

So it seems a case of the usual: the government is getting involved in public education in a purely philosophical way and leaving the details to someone else, and the someone else hasn't boarded the train yet.

There's another wholly frightening move in math instruction, possibly part of the new Common Core. Anyone remember New Math? The math instructional system that ruined a whole generation of kids until someone realized kids in high school couldn't multiply or divide any longer and they abandoned it? Well, now they're also incorporating a new math system where a more philosophical approach to basic functions is being mandated. I didn't get a good feel for exactly what it was because this teacher isn't strong in math, at least in this new system she's now supposed to be teaching, again with no training. But it involves breaking numbers down into their largest factors and performing functions using the factors. What this will do, of course, is slow everything down and make math a nightmare for kids whose brains aren't at the cognitive level to do more than follow by rote instructions in math.

C

[colinian]

The Contra Costa Times ran an excellent article on: Common Core, A New Way of Teaching. There were some excellent references with links. Go take a look at these and learn about what the Common Core is all about. I can't find the article online (except for subscribers), so here are a few excerpts:

...concern about dismal U.S. student achieve­ment, even among those labeled “proficient” on some tests, prompted states in 2008 to launch an initiative to modernize and share standards. Now 45 states and the District of Columbia will share K-12 goals set in the Common Core, which challenges teachers to offer more relevant, practical and rigorous lessons, and students to solve problems and think critically. A years-long project led by the National Governors Association and the Coun­cil of Chief State School Of­ficers, the new standards are based on research on how students learn best and what’s needed to pre­pare them for college and work.

New standardized tests will debut in the spring, so schools are training teach­ers, educating parents and purchasing materials and technology for the com­puter-­only tests. Fueled by $1.25 billion from the state (this part is talking about California) for the tran­sition, a cadre of consul­tants and innovator teach­ers is showing colleagues how to rethink lessons and methods. The standards cover only English and math, but they spread responsibility for literacy to teachers of other subjects. Schools are free to decide what and how to teach, but their success will be measured on tests common to many states.

While some teachers don’t yet grasp Common Core’s changes, most wel­come California’s decision to jettison its exhaustive list of grade-by-grade stan­dards.

Here's the source for information about what the Common Core standards are, view the curriculum, tools available for helping teachers teach Common Core standards in all grades, information about professional development programs, and a lot more:
http://commoncore.org/

For information about new K-12 standards and the state tests, or to see sample lessons, go to:
www.corestandards.org
https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos?page=1&categories=topics_common-core&load=1
www.cde.CA.gov/ci/cc
http://smarterbalanced.org

To see which states have adopted Common Core, go to
www.corestandards.org/in-the-states

Here's an article how California is preparing for the Common Core standards
www.mercurynews.com/education/ci_24489847/california-prepares-common-core-standards

Here's an article that describes a few Common Core standards
www.mercurynews.com/education/ci_24489843/sample-common-core-standards?source=pkg

One of our neighbors is an elementary school teacher here in Berkeley. She says she is excited about switching to Common Core for her fourth and fifth grade students. She says the Berkeley schools district has been working with the teachers by providing Common Core training, much of which is online. What she says sounds good to me.

Colin

[Cole Parker]

I'm sure some school districts are more organized and farther ahead of the curve than others. Some teachers are being hung out to dry.

[JamesSavik]

If there is a common body of knowledge, isn't there a corresponding common body of ignorance?

[Merkin]

If there is a common body of knowledge, isn't there a corresponding common body of ignorance?

What a great concept (and story idea)! Maybe we should establish "Standards of Dumb Down" for certain situations and professions... i.e.,

"Gary doesn't know his ass from his elbow."

"Wonderful! Let's nominate him to run for governor."

[Cole Parker]

They already do that. They don't call them the Dumb Downs, however. They call them the primaries.

C

[EleCivil]

I'm sure some school districts are more organized and farther ahead of the curve than others. Some teachers are being hung out to dry.

This is true.

Common Core Standards are not a terrible idea - in fact, I like the idea. It's similar to something E.D. Hirsch proposed back in the 90's in his book The Schools We Need (good read if you're into Ed. Policy, by the way).

Nothing wrong with the standards or even the theory behind the standards. The issue is in the implementation. Some districts/LEAs are ahead of the game, some are way behind, and some are on the ground spinning in circles like Curly. As we've seen from the Affordable Care Act, nationwide initiatives tend to break down when the entire nation is not on the same page.

My current state is way behind - I have no idea if CCS will be in place within the next couple years, and neither do any of the other teachers. My previous state was ahead - we were already running off of Common Core when I left (even though the current CC standards may not end up being the actual CC standards).

Still, changes to the standards will not solve the biggest problem, which is testing.

When I taught reading, I was told not to teach reading - I was to teach test prep. When I taught math, I was told not to teach math - I was to teach test prep. We spent so much time teaching kids how to take tests and then running them through practice tests that we were barely teaching content (except for when I locked the door, pulled the shades, and brought out the actual BOOKS, which is, of course, a firing offense).

It's one of the reasons I moved to teaching science - it's not a tested subject at my grade level, so I actually get to TEACH, rather than run test-prep sessions all day. If you want to save education, kill the tests.

[Jeff Ellis]

It's not entireley relevent, maybe not at all so, but

One of my favorite teachers at about 16 was the one who faced with teaching a mind-numbing radio based Social Studies course, had a solution. He sat a reliable boy where he could watch the approach to the classroom and re-tuned the radio to an excellent "History of Jazz" course by Benny Green. That was a good year for music education.

They tried again the following year with a more compliant teacher... the class acquired a plug with its terminals short-circuited. That teacher happily concluded that there was something wrong with the radio and let us do our homework instead... There are solutions to dumb ideas out there.