Today was Election Day. That meant a day off of school (yay!) but meant ... it is the midterm election, and a rather dismal one at that. ( Cut for political stuff )
All the Democratic politicians in this state try to pretend they are actually Republicans. I voted for the one running for governor just the same as I can't stand the incumbent.
Election Day is rather fraught in my household. Namely, my parents are Republican. I am not. (Neither does my political philosophy align with either major party.) So I try to do the best research I can-- which given that it took me a week to find the freaking sample ballot for my district, sometimes isn't always all that much. But I look at the "wasted" vote of a third-party or write-in candidate as a protest against what's offered. Don't know if it's true or not, but it makes me feel better.
The conservative line has been that Common Core amounts to a federal takeover of the rights of local districts to make curriculum decisions.
That sounds very, very familiar. The irony: the Language 2 standard you listed is something Dad complains about students not knowing on a regular basis. Thank you for more information! (If you have a link to the take-down, I'd love to read it.)
I am a registered Democrat only to vote in the primaries; I'm actually way left of where the Democrats are, and so straight party ticket never works for me either. Bring on the research. :)
On Common Core ... the ironic thing to me is that conservatives tend to be the ones who bitch the most about how school curriculums have been "dumbed down" (always with the implication that this has happened so that minorities can graduate ... and also not true, of course) and complain about kids not knowing "basic facts" that often receive less attention because technology makes them less pressing to know. Then they turn around and bitch about Common Core, one of the main goals of which is raising rigor.
The sad thing is that I don't think Common Core is perfect, but I feel like most of my energy related to it is explaining it and correcting misconceptions about it rather than addressing where it could be improved
( ... )
I'm registered Republican for the same reason. (My thinking is that I can try to keep the really, really conservative people out of office. But also *points to living at home* Mom kept telling me to vote against Grimes.) But I'm a libertarian of some sort.
With my parents, it's not the minority angle (I've never heard that from them), but the "can't make kids feel bad about themselves for failing so let's make everything easier" angle. I just don't know that much about Common Core, so I can't even refute anything. Not that they're willing to listen even if I did it.
the "can't make kids feel bad about themselves for failing so let's make everything easier" angle
Wow, that's a new one to me! I'm wondering the rationale behind that? Data points to the fact that, likely due to increasing exposure to information, IQs are constantly going up (the Flynn effect), so there should be no reason that kids can't keep up with a more rigorous curriculum. The argument could also be made that standards of college and career readiness will not lower because public school standards are lower. That is one of the major reasons behind Common Core: that colleges and employers were finding that high school graduates did not have the skills needed to go immediately into college or the workforce after graduation.
Now I can see the argument--and in fact have made it myself--that holding students to the Common Core standards who have not been taught by those standards for all or most of the school careers is not fair. For example, my ninth graders are the first class to be required to pass the PARCC assessment for
( ... )
I found voting very depressing. I know darn well none of my votes will count for anything. But at least I won't feel guilty when I gripe.
This state is SO red, even the Democrats try to pretend they are Republican. There was one Independent running for the House I would like to have voted for--but he's not in my district.
I satisfied myself by not voting for a single Republican and by voting "no" for the sitting male State Supreme Court judges and "yes" for the two females.
And we had three propositions I voted for that helps military and their families. I am sure those will pass.
I told my husband we could watch anything he wanted tonight except the news. I can wait until morning for the bad news.
ETA: By the way, Common Core was a big deal here as well. All the candidates were bragging that they were against it and their opponents were for it (whether it was true or not). You'd think they were opposing a law saying we had to teach children how to make bombs or something.
We have pretend Democrats in Carroll County too. Actually, most of the time, the Democratic candidates don't even campaign. I found exactly zero about one of the Democratic candidates for House of Delegates for my district. I ended up voting for him anyway only because I couldn't stomach giving a vote to either of the two Republicans who were my other choices, both of whom are vocal against same-sex marriage. I refuse to vote against my family's interests, even symbolically.
Dorothy Scanlan, the Democratic candidate I really liked for HoD, identified as a "conservative Democrat." Reading her platform, it seemed that the "conservative" part was mostly because she countered the myths Repubs have about Dems, i.e., she opposed waste but not spending. She was a Democrat and a sharp-tongued one at that. I liked her. She didn't win, of course.
The opposition to Common Core is so ridiculous to me because it is based on completely false information; I think conservatives have this vision of Obama sitting in the White House and striking Tom
( ... )
I actually didn't vote, due to the continued problems of trying to figure out where/how I'm supposed to.
Not that it would have mattered, really, other than being another futile gesture - I'm far, far left in a county and state that does not go left (and the county still has regular meetings of the KKK at the fair grounds, along with rants about how everything would just be better if we got all the *insert racial slurs* out. It's rather uncomfortable and I occasionally am the topic of gossip.)
Sometimes I love it (and am quite gleeful) and at other times I'm legitimately scared of the people, so I try not to bring up what they're gossiping about. *shrug* Then again, I'm a topic of gossip wherever I am (either that, or an object of stalking/harassment/whatever. At least my best friend intends to raise hell with the university administration for the fact that they'll take sexual harassment seriously, but not nonsexual harassment/stalking.)
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The conservative line has been that Common Core amounts to a federal takeover of the rights of local districts to make curriculum decisions.
That sounds very, very familiar. The irony: the Language 2 standard you listed is something Dad complains about students not knowing on a regular basis. Thank you for more information! (If you have a link to the take-down, I'd love to read it.)
Reply
On Common Core ... the ironic thing to me is that conservatives tend to be the ones who bitch the most about how school curriculums have been "dumbed down" (always with the implication that this has happened so that minorities can graduate ... and also not true, of course) and complain about kids not knowing "basic facts" that often receive less attention because technology makes them less pressing to know. Then they turn around and bitch about Common Core, one of the main goals of which is raising rigor.
The sad thing is that I don't think Common Core is perfect, but I feel like most of my energy related to it is explaining it and correcting misconceptions about it rather than addressing where it could be improved ( ... )
Reply
With my parents, it's not the minority angle (I've never heard that from them), but the "can't make kids feel bad about themselves for failing so let's make everything easier" angle. I just don't know that much about Common Core, so I can't even refute anything. Not that they're willing to listen even if I did it.
Ah, well. Thanks for looking!
Reply
Wow, that's a new one to me! I'm wondering the rationale behind that? Data points to the fact that, likely due to increasing exposure to information, IQs are constantly going up (the Flynn effect), so there should be no reason that kids can't keep up with a more rigorous curriculum. The argument could also be made that standards of college and career readiness will not lower because public school standards are lower. That is one of the major reasons behind Common Core: that colleges and employers were finding that high school graduates did not have the skills needed to go immediately into college or the workforce after graduation.
Now I can see the argument--and in fact have made it myself--that holding students to the Common Core standards who have not been taught by those standards for all or most of the school careers is not fair. For example, my ninth graders are the first class to be required to pass the PARCC assessment for ( ... )
Reply
This state is SO red, even the Democrats try to pretend they are Republican. There was one Independent running for the House I would like to have voted for--but he's not in my district.
I satisfied myself by not voting for a single Republican and by voting "no" for the sitting male State Supreme Court judges and "yes" for the two females.
And we had three propositions I voted for that helps military and their families. I am sure those will pass.
I told my husband we could watch anything he wanted tonight except the news. I can wait until morning for the bad news.
ETA: By the way, Common Core was a big deal here as well. All the candidates were bragging that they were against it and their opponents were for it (whether it was true or not). You'd think they were opposing a law saying we had to teach children how to make bombs or something.
Reply
Dorothy Scanlan, the Democratic candidate I really liked for HoD, identified as a "conservative Democrat." Reading her platform, it seemed that the "conservative" part was mostly because she countered the myths Repubs have about Dems, i.e., she opposed waste but not spending. She was a Democrat and a sharp-tongued one at that. I liked her. She didn't win, of course.
The opposition to Common Core is so ridiculous to me because it is based on completely false information; I think conservatives have this vision of Obama sitting in the White House and striking Tom ( ... )
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Not that it would have mattered, really, other than being another futile gesture - I'm far, far left in a county and state that does not go left (and the county still has regular meetings of the KKK at the fair grounds, along with rants about how everything would just be better if we got all the *insert racial slurs* out. It's rather uncomfortable and I occasionally am the topic of gossip.)
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