the goblins will git ‘cha if you don’t watch out
Does anyone else think that much of the verbiage and some legislation coming from
some State officials involves the creation of goblins and bogeymen about which the public is
supposed to be afraid? It’s been about denial of Climate Change and Evolution; fear of
Immigration, Gay Marriage, and especially Big Government…impending doom, war on
religion….woooo, scary!
The most recent legislative enacted Bogeyman has been withdrawal from The Common
Core (Thriller music please). Couched in rationalizations about how Indiana must not be
controlled by Big Government, Indiana is opting to create its own independent State Standards
that are to be the strongest in the nation. And, of course, the new standards (due out soon) are
not supposed to be in any way similar to the dreaded Common Core. The problem here, of
course, is that neither the general public, nor most government officials, have any idea what is
included in the Common Core. There really has not been any detailed list of exactly what
elements of the Common Core are representative of unnecessary and damaging Big
Government educational expectations.
It is also interesting to note that one of the other major Bogeyman is that US kids are not
college and career ready, nor prepared for global competition with kids from other countries.
So, if Indiana kids are not educated to the same standards as kids from other States, nor for the
new modifications in national assessments (ACT and SAT) which are being based on Common
Core, and are found wanting by US Colleges and Universities who are looking for evidence of
mastery of Common Core standards (designed to gain a global edge), how will we ever
overcome our bogeyman fears? Hopefully, the general public and government officials will hold
a deaf ear to any fear mongers who claim Indiana’s new standards are too similar to Common
Core.
Indiana must realize that all the attention on “What should all students
know?” (Standards) and “How do we know if all students have learned them?” (the new State
ISTEP that will have to be developed at who knows how much cost) continues to avoid focus on
the most important question “What do we do when students haven’t learned?”
Interventions, re-teaching, summer school, after school, and pre-school are having funds
diminished and many school systems are forced to reduce or end summer school. The State
budget no longer provides full funding for summer school students in grades 4-8 who fail our
current State ISTEP exam, while continuing to scapegoat teachers and schools for not having
higher percentages of students at grade level or college and career ready.
Hopefully, candidates for State Representative and State Senator will be evaluated by
the public on their beliefs in Bogeymen and Scapegoats.
