By Michael Schaus
Monday, August 19, 2013
Apparently, under the new Common-Core standards, correct
answers don’t really matter. At least that’s according to a “curriculum
coordinator” in Chicago named Amanda August. “Even if [a student] said, ’3 x 4
was 11,’ if they were able to explain their reasoning and explain how they came
up with their answer really in, umm, words and oral explanation, and they
showed it in the picture but they just got the final number wrong, we’re really
more focused on the how,” said the common core supporter and typical liberal,
Amanda. Off course this reasoning explains quite a bit regarding our nation’s
16 trillion dollar debt, and Nancy Pelosi’s assertion that Obamacare was a
“deficit reducer.” When you consider that our finest economic leaders in the
Federal Reserve, and the White House, think spending more money will result in
fewer deficits, teaching that 3 x 4 = 11 (if you explain it well) isn’t really
much of a stretch.
The left has long sought to bolster self-esteem by
downplaying wrong answers in education. Everyone gets a ribbon; a truly
disastrous lesson to teach when not everyone is capable of getting a job. And
while the how is important in any lesson plan, in the end, the answer should
still be correct. Amanda’s students are going to be in for a world of surprise
when their first employer decides that doing the job correctly is more
important than demonstrating “with words” an employee’s fundamental failure to
grasp the concept of their task.
To the credit of the presumably leftists audience,
someone asked if teachers will still be correcting students on math tests. The
simple fact that someone had to ask the question should demonstrate the
atrocious nature of American education reform. The question “are we still going
to correct wrong answers” would seem incomprehensible in a system of honest
instruction. Amanda, however, stumbles through a very entertaining non-answer:
“We want our students to compute correctly but the
emphasis is really moving more towards the explanation, and the how, and the
why, and ‘can I really talk through the procedures that I went through to get
this answer; and not just knowing that it’s 12, but why is it 12? How do I know
that?”
Well. . . Amanda, if they answered “11”, my guess is they
won’t be able to answer “how do I know that” to a satisfactory degree. Well, 3
+ 4 = 7, and both 3 and 7 are prime numbers. This leaves only 4 left, so we add
it to our answer of 7 which is, of course, 11. Another prime number. . . How’d
I do? Do I pass? What kind of world do we live in when math becomes a
philosophical essay, and not a system of numbers, arithmetic, and simple
truths? Well, it’s the same type of world that gives ribbons out to “honorary
mentions” and lets every child star in the Christmas “winter” musical.
And this is at the center of Common-Core. At its heart is
not an intent to better our failing school system (after all, you don’t do that
by praising kids who get basic multiplication wrong) but to instil an
altruistic sense of self-worth and liberal flexibility. To the American left,
school should be an instrument to instruct children that they can be anything
they want, and that the most important thing is life is that you get an “A” for
effort.
Of course, I wanted to be an astronaut. . . And it
doesn’t matter how hard you try, if you can’t answer the multiplication problem
“3 x 4”, you’re not very likely to move into the highly competitive world of
extraterrestrial exploration (although you could run for congress as a
Democrat).
Amanda’s purported concentration on making sure children
understand what they are taught certainly has its place in the classroom. . .
Right behind getting the right answer. But don’t worry: People like Amanda will
soon be writing up your child’s lesson plans.
PS: It makes you think: Would Abbott and Costello pass
Amanda's math test?
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