Inside the Mammoth Backlash to Common Core - Mother Jones [View all]

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Inside the Mammoth Backlash to Common Core How a bipartisan education reform effort became the biggest conservative bogeyman since Obamacare.—By Tim Murphy | September/October 2014 Issue

ONE NIGHT LAST SEPTEMBER, a 46-year-old Veterans Administration research manager named Robert Small showed up at a public meeting with state education officials in Towson*, a Maryland suburb, with a pen, a notebook, and an ax to grind. Small had been doing some homework on the main topic of the event, a set of math and language arts standards called Common Core that had recently been introduced in schools across the country, including his kids'. Fresh from work in a crisp, checkered shirt, he stood up in an overflow crowd and channeled his inner Henry V. "I want to know how many parents here are aware that the goal of the Common Core standards isn't to prepare our children for world-class universities—it's to prepare them for community college!" An off-duty police officer approached, and Small began to shout. "You're sitting here like cattle!" Out came the handcuffs. "Hey, is this America?" Small bellowed, as he jostled with the officer. "Parents, you need to question these people! Do the research!"

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This contrasts to some of the ignorant BS I've noted coming from the keyboards of supposed educators and faux progressive advocates of education.