You Are SO Not Alone in Thinking Common Core is Ridiculous

Organizations and People Against Common Core:

Heritage Foundation

CATO Institute

Pioneer Institute

Utah Eagle Forum

Joyce & Dick Kinmont Family

LDS Home Educators Assn.

American Leadership Fund

Standard of Liberty

Proper Role of Government

United Women’s Forum

Principled Liberty Foundation

Citizens for Strong Families

Freedom for Utah Education

Thomas Jefferson Center for Constitutional Studies

Senator Michael Fair of South Carolina

Governor Nikki Haley of South Carolina

Governor Rick Perry of Texas

Commissioner of Education Robert Scott of Texas

Alabama Federation of Republican Women

Utah citizens

— over 1,700 Utah citizens, including many teachers like me, so far, have signed the petition at http://utahnsagainstcommoncore.com

A growing number of people are learning what Common Core does to education, to freedom, and to parental authority. We are fighting to get the Common Core Initiative out of our schools and state.

It’s helpful to know that we are not alone in this.

Thinktanks and reporters nationwide are writing a ton about Common Core and its impacts. Politicians are scrambling to make bills to protect states. More and more teachers and parents are talking and writing about it, nationwide. Last time I checked, the petition at http://utahnsagainstcommoncore.com had close to 1700 signatures, gathered via word of mouth in one month, and about 100 of the signatures are by teachers, including me.

Texas rejected Common Core. So did Virginia. Alabama and South Carolina are fighting hard to get out right now. Other states have rejected as much as they can of the initiative.

Let’s free Utah!

Some people have told me they get overwhelmed with the Common Core fight and feel like giving up. They say the “Progressives” will just come along with another educational takeover if we get free of Common Core and NCLB. I think Common Core is different; it’s got so many angles that it’s like cement and there will not be another one coming. We have to get rid of this one.

We all get depressed about this stuff. But we have to turn that energy out and do something with it. I am never depressed about it when I am working hard. It’s when I feel helpless and do nothing that I want to curl up in a ball! I think we have to encourage each other a lot. The lady, Jenni White, who wrote that incredible paper and made the video about P-20 (Restoring Oklahoma Public Education) was so happy when I simply thanked her for her paper. She said they get abused by their OK legislators and the press constantly, and it’s so nice just to have someone say thank you for your work that you are doing for free (and for freedom.)

There’s a communications theory called “Spiral of Silence” that Neumann came up with watching what happened in Germany in the 1930s and 40s. http://masscommtheory.com/category/theory/spiral-of-silence/ http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0767430344/student_view0/chapter24/

People who perceive that they were in the minority, even if they really are not, generally shut up. People who perceive that they are in the majority, even if they are not, feel free to talk. It is self-perpetuating.

I think that is why it is so huge when one of us speaks, writes, or gives out educational material (real and referenced material, not like the Arne Duncan letters or USOE propaganda that never has legal references). Even when we thank each other, I really think it’s a key to winning these battles for our God-given rights of parental authority, and local freedom to determine the educational standards for our kids.

Educating ourselves, our school boards and our Governor about the whole truth about Common Core, is key.

So, here’s a nationwide collection of expert testimonies, legal documents, school board reasoning, news articles, research papers, laws, official government letters, teachers’ blogs, thinktanks’ and other reading materials I’ve found interesting as I’ve just begun studying the Common Core Initiative over the last two months.

Enjoy!

http://utahnsagainstcommoncore.com

http://www.pioneerinstitute.org/blog/news/handwaving-away-opposition-to-the-national-standards/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/national-standards-wont-help-wont-work/2011/09/01/gIQAzfpD2J_story.html

http://collegepuzzle.stanford.edu/?p=466

http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop-assessment/sbac-cooperative-agreement.pdf

http://youtu.be/Mk0D16mNbp4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cgnprQg_O0

http://blog.heritage.org/2012/05/15/alabama-opposes-national-education-standards/

https://whatiscommoncore.wordpress.com/2012/05/07/judge-norman-jackson-the-two-schools-of-thought-of-citizens-versus-the-utah-state-office-of-education/

http://www.pioneerinstitute.org/pdf/120222_CCSSICost.pdf

http://educationnext.org/the-common-core-math-standards/