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In reply to the discussion: This Teacher's Alarming Resignation Letter Shows How Much Schools Have Changed Since You Were A Kid [View all]FourScore
(9,704 posts)To a large degree, those standards are NOT age-appropriate.
My daughter is in the 7th grade -- a straight A student. She has won multiple writing contests, and English is her favorite subject. Thanks to the "rigor" of Common Core, she has a B- or C+ this year, and hates English now. I don't know of a single child in her class making an A in English, and only a couple of them are in the B range. The reading material provided is NOT age appropriate; it is dark and sad. Here's an example:
http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/faculty/dunnweb/rprnts.omelas.pdf
The students were then given the assignment to write a paper using quotes from the story to substantiate their position. They had to take a position on "being an active participant" in the abuse of the child of Omelas, a "willing" participant (one who is not actively abusing, but still reaps the benefits), a protester (one who disagrees with the abuse and refuses the benefits), or one who fights to free the child from abuse. The stance the student took would also need to be compared to life in our society and how we (as a society) view child labor and sweat shops. They were given reading material on fruit farms and sweat shops and had to draw comparisons from that. The kids in the classroom range between 12-13 years old. That's only one example.
My 6th grader was given a book that was age appropriate, but also read Rudyard Kipling's poem "If". Then he was given the assignment to write a comparison contrast paper on them. He's 11. (I think I wrote my first comp-con paper in the 10th grade.)
It's too much!
The math curriculum isn't much better. Common Core was not written by educators. Let's be clear. It's a money machine and they are laughing all the way to the bank while kids are being harmed.