The Education “Problem” – Tina B's World

The Education “Problem”

8 Comments / Lesson Learned, School / By

NOTE: I’m not looking for an argument here. We are all concerned about these standards. We’re all frustrated: parents, children and educators alike. I’m just sharing my opinions. I respect that not everyone will agree with me and you’re entitled to your opinion on the subject I will discuss..

At the last PTA meeting, our school’s principal and assistant principal gave an awesome presentation on the dreaded Common Core standards. We’re all in the same boat here. Rolling out an unfinished curriculum to unsuspecting students and parents through untrained educators was, to put it in nice terms, a pretty stupid thing to do. I feel if they were going to completely overhaul the learning system, they should have started at the Kindergarten level. It should NOT be all levels that were subject to change. You shouldn’t have kids that have been learning one way for years be forced to change their way of thinking to keep up. Kids are failing. They’re struggling. As parents, we’re frustrated and angry because our little scholars aren’t feeling so scholarly at the moment. In fact, their self esteem is plummeting at an alarming rate.

One thing we can NOT do, however, is blame our own district educators. One parent chose to attack the principal and accuse her of “not doing her job” and causing more work for them now.

NOPE!

It’s not like our principal said “Hmm. How can I screw with ALL my students’ education processes at once?” It came down from the state. It’s not a matter of them ‘not doing their jobs’.. they were given NEW jobs without being told exactly how these jobs would unfold.

I praise the principal for how she handled this woman. She shut her down and said she wasn’t even going to entertain someone who went there.  The sad part is this parent was looking for someone to blame and won’t bother going to her local representatives to protest. She wanted a face. She wanted blood at that moment.

Our teachers and administrators are as frustrated as we are, if not more so. We have to deal with just our kid(s). They have to deal with all the teacher frustration as well as the parents like this woman, who just want to yell at someone about it. They are also the ones who are deciding how to proceed with all this new information.

The bottom line is, this Common Core isn’t going anywhere. We need to stop letting our frustrations boil over. Our kids are having a hard enough time as it is. They don’t need us getting crazy over it.

8 thoughts on “The Education “Problem””

  1. Brittany

    Very nice! Not that parents should just sit idly by if there is a serious problem, but throwing the book at the teachers and principals isn’t going to help anything.

    And here, they did start by implementing the program in just kindergarten the first year, then with 1st grade the next, on up so no students had to switch. I haven’t had a chance to teach it yet, because it hadn’t reached my grade yet when I was teaching.

    Reply
    1. Tina B

      I WISH they had done that, go grade by grade or something else. This was a complete educational fail on a state and federal level.

      Reply
  2. Rhonda

    I really enjoyed your post. I believe the idea behind common core is a good idea. Our family moved across the country when my son was entering 1st grade. I was assured by his old school he was right on target, exactly where he should be. Right after the school year started, the new school told me he was very behind in reading. I was so frustrated by the different guidelines the schools had, and how he could be starting out behind, just because we moved. Different schools, different guidelines. I do believe if common core was in place everywhere at that point, we would have had no surprises.

    However, I have problems with the common core process also. My son (still) struggles with reading and due to their integrated learning style, math is becoming a challenge as well. Too much reading in math. Too many story problems for him to have to sift through.

    I have many times felt so frustrated by the system that I’ve wanted to yell, “It’s not fair! You’re setting my kid (and many others) up for failure, not success!” I never have lashed out an anyone in the school system though. It’s never the messengers fault, and they need to come up with a plan to help the kids, not have to defuse angry parents. I believe we should all try to be part of the solution, not adding to the problem.

    Reply
    1. Tina B

      I think the process is ridiculous! The way this whole thing rolled out was crazy. They just threw it at us and said “Here. Deal with it.” That’s why my post was in defense of the administrators. I almost feel bad for them having to deal with all this.
      I’m frustrated because I felt absolutely STUPID because I had to google Mini’s homework one night. She said “Mommy get off your phone” and I had to tell her to hang on. I was confused.

      Reply
  3. Danielle

    I have heard and seen some crazy things from this “wonderful” new system. I think it is the most ridiculous thing EVER.

    That said, you are right. The teachers and admins should not get the brunt of the frustration. I believe most (not all) are just as frustrated with this program as the rest.

    As for “here to stay” I think this is where parents, teachers and administrators need to come together and fight this through proper channels. We should not have to stand for this. It is not education but the dumbing down of our children.

    Reply
    1. Tina B

      I completely agree! I’m not a fan of this at all. These people speak from a script when they talk and these “town hall meetings” where people can air their grievances are a joke. The people just keep saying the same things over and over. That’s why I think that it doesn’t matter what we do, it’s not going anywhere.

      Reply
  4. Missy Homemaker

    I feel extremely lucky to be living in a state that doesn’t require homeschoolers to abide by common core. We won’t be using their standards or curriculum.

    Reply
    1. Tina B

      I don’t know about the homeschoolers in NY. I haven’t checked about their standards. I would think they would have to be right there, but homeschoolers get a break around here. I would know, I had to redo ninth grade because of it!

      Reply

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