This is scary...
Townhall...
No National
Curriculum, Thanks
by Bill Murchison
The good old American inclination to wave a magic wand and say to an
urgent problem, “Begone!” is on display in the fast-emerging movement
for a national K-12 curriculum.
Ah, you didn’t know there was such a movement, far less that it was
emerging. Here’s the lowdown. Various analysts representing mostly the
education establishment are pressing for a so-called “common
curriculum” -- one that would supposedly engage the minds of all
American students, aligning their performance with the latest thinking
as to what’s needed.
All but six states (including Texas) have fallen into bed with an
effort -- supported by the U.S. Education Department and led by the
National Governors Association and state educational officials -- to
shape a core curriculum “robust and relevant to the real world.” A
couple of weeks ago, the Pearson Foundation and the Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation said they were developing a complete online curriculum
for math and English/language arts courses.
The Albert Shanker Institute, named for the late, widely respected head
of the American Federation of Teachers, wants a “coherent, sequential
set of guidelines in the core academic disciplines, specifying the
knowledge and skills” expected of all students.
Every new movement worth its salt, if that’s not the wrong gastronomic
image for our health-obsessed century, in due course faces organized
dissent. Which honor the common curriculum movement received this week
in the form of a manifesto, “Closing the Door on Innovation: Why One
National Curriculum is Bad for America” that is signed by numerous
notables of a generally rightward bent.
Read the rest of the article at Townhall
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