Fundamental Questions About the Common Core Standards
15th November 2013
Steve Sailer is not afraid to ask the obvious questions.
Why do the Common Core educational standards (e.g., a list of what needs to be taught in each grade dreamed up by David Coleman) need to be common across the country? Why is it crucially important that 45 states upend what they’re doing to jump on board this untested bandwagon? Wouldn’t it make more sense to test Dave’s brainstorm in one state to see if it actually works before betting the country on it?
Well, no. Those who believe in the Factory Model of Schooling will always believe in the Factory Model of Schooling even when the circumstances that made the Factory Model of Schooling a good idea have long vanished, simply because they believe that what was good for Henry Ford and won World War II is how it ought to be forevermore. Such people, for example, join Unions.
The only argument I’ve heard for why a Common Core being must be almost nationally common is that it would be nice for students who suddenly move from one state to another to find their new school is exactly where their old school left off. But how important is this?
The French minister of education is famously proud that in every school in the country the nine-year-olds are reading the same page at the same moment. Is this better or worse than a more federal system like Germany’s? Off hand, the results don’t seem all that different. The differing approaches seems more to reflect the French state’s obsession with centralization in case they want to put together an army big enough invade Russia again. In contrast, German federalism reflects their interest in decentralization so they aren’t tempted to put together an army big enough to invade Russia again.
Personally, I’d live to see both France and Germany invade Russia again. Perhaps they’d do it right this time. The way things are going, it would be French and German Muslims fighting Russian Muslims, and what’s not to like about that?
America is just finishing up a colossal failure called No Child Left Behind, a plan dreamed up by President Bush and Senator Kennedy that mandated that every public school student in America score “proficient” in reading and math by next May. It was obvious from the get-go that it would never work, but it was wildly popular within the education industry for many years because it justified no end of conferences, meetings, pet projects, days out of the classroom to get “professional development,” and all the other things that are more fun than teaching other people’s children day after day after day.
Remember: Every government program involves lots of government workers spending taxpayer money on hiring more government workers, with a lot left over to Spread The Wealth Around to the non-government worker friends of the government workers. To paraphrase the hoary cliché about e-commerce: If you’re not the one getting government money, then you’re the one paying for it.