Educating students is not a cookie-cutter process
To the editor:
Your article correctly reported the recently published Common Core State Standards as a “national curriculum initiative,” even though its architects and advocates try to depict it as an exercise in interstate voluntarism. (“Nationwide curriculum introduced,” June 5.) The Obama Administration is putting plenty of money and muscle behind these standards in a bid to make them a de facto federal mandate.
Those educators quoted by your reporter who sang the praises of nationwide standardization – every child in every public school in the U.S. studying the same lesson at the same time – left three important parties out of their accounting, namely (1) children, who differ from one another and therefore should learn at their own pace, (2) teachers, who should be free to use their training to tailor lessons to individual needs, and (3) parents, who should have the right to select the best curricular approach and school for their child.
This initiative is about more than standardization. It is about centralization of authority over everyday schooling. It will be very good for Washington politicians, bureaucrats, and lobbyists who will be able to push their pet ideas on all public schools. It will be very bad for children, teachers, and parents.
Robert Holland
Senior Fellow for Education Policy
The Heartland Institute
Chicago