The Common Core’s language arts standards, for example, assert that, by the end of eighth grade, students should be able to write an essay that includes “a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the argument presented.”The math standards suggest that students preparing to enter fifth grade should know how to use addition, subtraction, multiplication and division “to solve word problems involving distances, intervals of time, liquid volumes, masses of objects and money.”Now who can argue against that?
The opposition represent another instance of few adults subordinating the interests of children to their own political expediency and warped view of the world. If there are substantive objections to the Common Core, where have critics been while responsible members of state legislators and governors were earnestly drafting and adopting the standards? What have they to offer now except baseless assertions of a United Nations-led conspiracy to subvert local control? And should a high school diploma really signify less in Georgia than it signifies in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts or Iowa?