Time for Congress to Investigate Bill Gates’ Role in Common Core by Diane Ravitch
https://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/06/09-1
A new Washington Post story by Lyndsey Layton about how Bill Gates’ funded the Common Core revolution is startling. His role and the role of the U.S. Department of Education in drafting and coercing almost every state to adopt the Common Core standards should be investigated by Congress.
The idea that the richest man in America can purchase and — working closely with the U.S. Department of Education — impose new and untested academic standards on the nation’s public schools is a national scandal. A congressional investigation is warranted. The close involvement of Education Secretary Arne Duncan raises questions about whether the federal government overstepped its legal role in public education.
Thanks to the story in The Washington Post and to diligent bloggers, we now know that one very rich man bought the enthusiastic support of interest groups on the left and right to campaign for the Common Core. Who knew that American education was for sale? Who knew that federalism could so easily be dismissed as a relic of history? Who knew that Gates and Duncan, working as partners, could destroy state and local control of education?
The revelation that education policy was shaped by one unelected man — who underwrote dozens of groups and was allied with the secretary of education, whose staff was laced with Gates’ allies — is ample reason for congressional hearings.
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I was not taught "the one-size-fits-all method" of teaching, whatever that means. From my personal experience, and multiple encounters with instructors on various levels, including the community college where I taught before I moved home, I know that most educators learn to assess how each student learns, then to explore methods that most facilitate each child's ability to grasp the subject matter. Furthermore, I've had the distinct honor of having students share with me their methods of solving different expressions, which has given me opportunities (teachable moments, if you will) to ask these students to 'teach' their methods to our classes.
Is "better schools" your euphemism for charter schools? Just FYI, I attended a private university (Rice U. in Houston), and I experienced first hand a rather poor example of an instructor in Cal I, from whom I learned not ONE scintilla of calculus. In other words, "better schools" is not directly correlated with "better teachers."
Finally, I didn't get the impression that the engineer 'restricted' his "kid's" learning. And, your observation -- "it would have taken him five minutes on google to learn the process being taught" -- completely misses the point. The last time I explored a list of polymaths, Gates wasn't on it. And, math is the oldest game our species has invented--so, I trust that the methods we've developed to 'teach' math have yielded excellent results (other than Einstein, Curie, and the better known scientists). I'd like to hear why Gates and his cronies feel it's necessary to completely revamp how we teach math. Oh, but then, that presumes we are going to discard the 'several different ways of doing basic math'?
