Again, this is not pushing this book, I don’t currently wish to read it. I just want truth if at all possible.

David for noble quests

You seem to think I’m pushing this book. I’m not. I just prefer people not mischaracterize anything to “prove” their point. Likewise, calling the effort a federal effort is questionable. Some states favored a common agreement regarding educational standards. The feds offered to support their efforts — as they do so much in so many matters.

Unless the purpose of the book were sexual titilation, it is NOT pornographic no matter what happens in the book just as the activities of Lot’s daughters did not promote incest in the Bible

If this book is the result of this author’s reaction to violence and racism, so be it. There is no place for this in an approved reading list. It is pornographic, and I promise you, if parents knew what was really in the book, they would not approve. There is no way I would even venture to quote some of the specific lines in the book, but I marked 10 pages of extremely objectionable material (for high schoolers) as I was reading, especially the “F—” word, the “C—” word,, and the discussion of the girl’s female body part. You go ahead and think kids need to be exposed to this in high school. I don’t know of a teacher in our area who would subject herself or himself to discussing this novel, for the sake of what our Federal Government thinks is educational, in front of a bunch of high schoolers!

Besides the objectionable material in the literature selections, I am concerned about the national database and the talk of using “facial expression cameras, posture analysis seats, pressure computer mice, eye tracking devices, and computer programs to track a student’s mood be used in schools.14 Keeping tabs on the physiological activity of schoolchildren is the trajectory of the data systems developing alongside the Common Core. ”

Even your *thoughts* will be monitored??!!

“Does the Common Core include a national database?

The Common Core website asserts that ‘there are no data collection requirements of states adopting the Common Core State Standards,” but the actions of the Department of Education prove otherwise.1′

“The Common Core and the enlarged data systems containing detailed student information are not severable. It is almost impossible for states to implement the Common Core without agreeing to help build one of the biggest and most detailed data systems in American history. ”

http://www.hslda.org/commoncore/Topic10.aspx

Everyone is for higher standards for education but Common Core is connected to too many questionable practices and not enough public scrutiny. Let’s take a closer look and not be hooked in by the rhetoric.

Actually, it is The Bluest Eye. Singular.

It’s a little off subject but I’m just curious, does anyone alive really believe this lady who was once a little black girl wants little girls to be abused that way?

In the eleventh grade I had to read a number of novels which were not all happiness and beauty. Does anybody really think Steinbeck wanted people displaced by the Dust Bowl, forced to live in near slavery conditions in a world for them gone mad even as her twisted father’s actions drove Pecola toward madness?

AND
“about a young black girl who is constantly raped by her father (and later impregnated by him.)”

Not constantly, but more than enough for an 11 year-old and the impregnation didn’t happen later, but during a rape.

AND
“all from the perpetrator’s point of view. ”

Actually using the omniscient point of view, not that of the drunk father/rapist and sometimes from the point of view of the little girl.

Reporting the existence of such things is not support of such things. Some may be afraid if eleventh graders read such things, they might realize they themselves have been abused. Those would not want them to realize the truth.

I wouldn’t want to read it, but that doesn’t make it pornography nor does it mean the readers are intended to be like the people in the book. In large part it was the author’s reaction to the prejudice and racism within the black community.

David for thinking humans
safe children

As a math teacher (Florida resident/Alabama teacher) who works with the common core standards everyday, I feel that common core standards (as it relates to high school level math) do promote higher level thinking skills & depth of knowledge. This is done by taking abstract mathematic concepts & applying them to real world situations. I cannot speak for the other subject areas & how they are addressed in common core. I have a son who has just started kindergarten and, so far, have been pleased to see the math work he has been given, & the expectations that have been put on him.

I don’t see how it is a negative for students to have pressure put on them. Are students over-tested? Yes, to a degree they are, and I believe some of the testing is unnecessary. However, will there not be pressure in post-educational settings? Do any of you have pressure on your job or place of business? Why is it so imperative that we shield students from pressure or high expectations? In my opinion as an educator, that type of “protection” is a crutch to lean on when student performance is not up to standards.

I also have some misgivings about how common core is being implemented with regard to the role of the federal government. By tying a portion of federal education monies to the testing arm of the common core, the federal government is attempting to strong arm states into adopting this new set of standards. That is a thinly veiled attempt at coercion that is being passed off as “what’s best for our students”. The day a federal bureaucrat is Washington knows what’s best for students in classrooms in Alabama, or Florida, or any state is the same day that they are qualified to make decisions on individual citizens’ healthcare (but I digress).

In summary, it is my belief that the root of common core (at least for math) is noble & beneficial; the implementation of common core is the Pandora’s box that is being opened that leads to the corruption & degradation of our students, as well as the erosion of our protection from a coercive government that has overstepped its constitutional limits. Perhaps this is where the outrage should be directed over the issue of common core.

J for thinking outside the box

David for truth