Sunday, May 4, 2014

Early Learning


Important information for toddlers 
"The Common Core Standards in Hawaii are identical to the other states who have adopted these standards".

Confused Mom tries to explain Back-asswards Arithmetic
[You Tube Link]

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From UNESCO website::

Early Childhood Care and Education

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/

"Early childhood is defined as the period from birth to eight years old. A time of remarkable brain growth, these years lay the foundation for subsequent learning and development.
UNESCO advocates for Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programmes that attend to health, nutrition, security and learning and which provide for children’s holistic development. It organized the first World Conference on ECCE in September 2010, which culminated in the adoption of a global action agenda for ECCE called Moscow Framework for Action and Cooperation: Harnessing the Wealth of Nations. As a follow-up to the World Conference, UNESCO works in partnership with Member States, partners and other stakeholders to encourage timely and effective implementation of the Moscow Framework so that all young children develop their potential to the fullest."
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More from UNESCO
Four globalist educators are asked:
What are the three most important skills a child should learn?


"Firstly, they need to learn about culture – culture is a kind of glue, it keeps us together. It’s like tea with sugar – it creates flavour and the colour we need. Secondly, values and respect. Do we respect our parents and elders enough? Are the gaps here increasing? We need to keep in mind that education comes from home – our families are the first “teachers” in our lives. They are crucial to us so respect and values are important. Thirdly, history – we should know our past so we can improve our future.” --Sikander Sabeer, National Youth Movement for UN Post-2015 Development, Sri Lanka

"Children should be thinking critically about who they are and how they relate to their world around them, in a social and political perspective with a focus on peace, equity and sustainable development. They must be learning how to be literate and numerate, be problem solvers and be resilient.” --Urvashi Sahni, Study Hall Education Foundation, India

“For a child to work across a huge spectrum of life, they will need life skills, core values and the opportunity to unlock the treasure within.” --Govind Singh, Council of Pacific Education, Fiji

"They need soft skills to be good citizens, vocational skills for employment and basic education to equip them with knowledge.” --Vutha Lay, NGO Education Partnership, Cambodia 
by UNESCO Bangkok

Saturday, May 3, 2014

Core Corruption

From the Washington Post February 13, 2013

A year ago, Robert Scott, then the commissioner of education in Texas, shook up the ed world when he said that standardized test-based accountability had led to a “perversion” of what a quality education should be. He’s no longer the Texas commissioner, but Scott is still worth listening to. He just gave a speech to Georgia legislators in which he detailed how he was pressured to sign on to the Common Core Standards before they were written.



Partial Transcript from Scott's testimony--copied from the Washington Post:

"My experience with the Common Core actually started when I was asked to sign on to them before they were written. … I was told I needed to sign a letter agreeing to the Common Core, and I asked if I might read them first, which is, I think, appropriate. I was told they hadn’t been written, but they still wanted my signature on the letter. And I said, ‘That’s absurd; first of all, I don’t have the legal authority to do that because our [Texas] law requires our elected state board of education to adopt curriculum standards with the direct input of Texas teachers, parents and business. So adopting something that was written behind closed doors in another state would not meet my state law.’ … I said, ‘Let me take a wait-and-see approach.‘ If something remarkable was in there that I found that we did not have in ours that I would work with our board … and try to incorporate into our state curriculum …

Then I was told, ‘Oh no no, a state that adopts Common Core must adopt in its totality the Common Core and can only add 15 percent.’ It was then that I realized that this initiative which had been constantly portrayed as state-led and voluntary was really about control. It was about control. Then it got co-opted by the Department of Education later. And it was about control totality from some education reform groups who candidly admit their real goal here is to create a national marketplace for education products and services.

Even more troubling to me was the lack of transparency. … These standards sere written behind closed doors. … We didn’t know who the writers were until the project was complete."

Teaching Communism

The three videos below are about teaching Common Core. Note that the emphasis, in each, is on cultivating collectivism, or group problem solving, or "group think."
Ask: Does this approach to education inhibit individualism and the students' ability to think for themselves?

Also note that the same theme--sustainable development--is driven into our kids' heads from Kindergarten through 12th grade.


Ask: Is this education or indoctrination? 

The second video (below) introduces The Next Generation of Science Standards  which are aligned with Common Core.
Pause this second video at 3 min, 35 sec. and read the subliminal message, in the sample lesson, regarding stabilizing the population. 
Ask: What is that doing in a physics lesson?

Video 2: "Preparing for the Next Generation Science Standards" [NGSS]

We might also ask: "What happened to the scientific method?"

Ask: What happened to Galileo? What happened to Aristotle, Ptolemy, Kepler, Newton...Einstein? Is there no room for these giants in Next Generation Science?
Ask: What the hell is this guy talking about?

The third video explains how every school subject is  embedded in (or intertwined with) every other subject, in the Common Core approach. 
Ask: Why? Doesn't this produce kind of a mush of education? How can a student tell one subject from another? Are they only learning one thing? And, if so...What?

Video 3: Connections Between Practices in NGSS, Common Core Math and CC English Language Arts.

After reviewing these videos (and there is more on line), 

Ask: Is Common Core wasting our kids time? Are they really learning anything? What is the real Agenda behind this education? What will be the mind-set of the generation Common Core is producing? 

Ask: What sort of government will Hawaii have when they become of age?

"The philosophy in the classroom of one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next" --Abraham Lincoln


If you think Hawaii might be an exception to the rule, please refer to Common Core Standards Hawaii for clarification:
 "The Common Core Standards in Hawaii are identical to the other 
states who have adopted these standards."

Extra Credit
Video4: Teaching CCSS aligned Music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=o8ukUkKLma0

Note her blithering on about the Universal Constructs--the four Cs:
communication
collaboration
critical thinking [check out my page on critical thinking]
creativity
Very little about music here, that I can see. 
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Extra! Extra!
 Credit

Proof is in the Pudding
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Even more Credit
Here we have an array of video clips featured on the The Learning Channel.  Some of these look pretty reasonable. And there are some excellent teachers featured here.

Though, I keep in mind a couple of things:
One is that these are heavily edited, designed to promote CC.

Another, is that the Common Core Standards and curriculum changes at the whim of the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers. The NGA  and CCSSO share the copyright for the standards, and thereby, maintain strict control over the standards. So a year from now, they could be entirely transformed.

Some of the more-reveling videos that were once featured on this website have been deleted. Though, below, I have selected three class sessions that I found disturbing, in spite of the purge.

Ask: Is this Shakespeare or Boot Camp

Ask: What are they really preparing these kids for?

Ask: Is this appropriate for our 5th graders in Hawaii (or anywhere)? Where are these kids being guided to? Do these kids look like they are enjoying learning? Are they really learning anything worth while?
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Math Class





Then there's this: