The Jonesboro Sun printed this article on Saturday April 19, 2014. They are now running ads on TV advertising Common Core and saying how much teachers like it (what a joke) and the ad ends by sayings teachers can teach what they want to teach and the way they want to teach. Teachers know this is the farthest thing from the truth but may not know what is behind it. Senator Joyce Elliott (D), the sponsor of the evaluation law below, is one of the legislators that kept repeating the same myth at the Common Core legislative meetings in Little Rock last July, that the standards did not dictate what or how the teachers were to teach. (Jonesboro Representative Homer Lenderman (D) was the sponsor of the bill in the House.) Elliott knew without a doubt that she was purposely being deceitful because she had sponsored the law that locked the teachers into what and how to teach or risk losing their jobs. There are some interesting quotes in the article footnotes. ~ Debbie Pelley
Pelley responds:
Debbie Pelley, Contributing Author: Last week a “conservative” proponent for Common Core was interviewed on a local radio station. She spouted the same line that other proponents, legislators, and even governors everywhere are using to combat critics of Common Core – that Common Core are only standards, and the state, district, and teachers have the choice as to how to meet those standards. (1)
She repeatedly said Common Core doesn’t tell districts and teachers what to teach or what methods to use and challenged listeners to read the standards to see how benign they are. The Sun quoted her as saying at a meeting in Jonesboro, “There’s not a problem with Common Core, but trouble with school districts’ implementation of it.” (2) That statement itself defies common sense. Then why would schools be using the same Common Core curriculum and methods all across the nation, and why is there the same mass opposition in almost every state?
Read More… Common Core – Proof Teachers Can’t Use Curriculum and Methods They Choose