The Cult of Common Core: Obama's Final Solution for Your Child's Mind and Our Country's Exceptionalism Paperback – March 28, 2014

I purchased The Cult of Common Core this morning and read the first couple of chapters. I had to read a few passages out loud to my husband because they were so damning of the Common Core Standards.I have carefully followed this story for the past couple years and have written quite a bit about it on my blog.[...]This week in the media I sense a real terror brewing as various states are being pummeled by anti common core activists in their locales. Here in Utah the teachers have been threatened with huge fines if they attempt to disclose any details about the testing that is currently underway. And students across the country are also being threatened with huge fines if they disclose to anyone what was on the test. The increasing panic behind the threats makes me certain that the average American would be revolted if they knew what was on those tests. Brads disclosure in chapter one of his book that the test is not set up to assess student knowledge so much as to flag which teachers are problematic to the system makes it obvious that a brainwashing of the American School Child is underway in our country.In chapter one he shares details about the three days he spent in Chicago in March of 2013 after being asked by the Arizona Department of Education to fly out and work on the PARCC test."After the first of three days working on the Common Core test things just did not seem right....My Common Core handlers' demeanor caused me to become suspicious that there was something else going on and things were not quite as they seemed....In answer to questions I had about a student writing sample, my Common Core handler blurted out, "We don't ever care what the kids opinions are. If they write what they think or put forth their opinion then they will fail the test."...I have always taught my students to think for themselves. They are to study multiple views on a given topic, then take their own position and support it with evidence. "That is the old way of writing, "my common core handler sighed. "We want students to repeat the opinions of the 'experts' that we expose them to on the test. This is the "new" way of writing the Common Core."I discovered later that this was not just some irritated, rogue Common Core handler, rather this was a philosophy I heard repeated again and again. I pointed out that this was not the way that teachers teach in the classroom. She retorted that, "We expect that when the test comes out the teachers in the classroom will imitate the skills emphasized on the test (teach to the test) and employ this new way of writing and thinking."I began to feel sick. What had I gotten myself into? This new way of thinking was to make our students into little brainwashed automatons that will just spew back a position on any topic given to them? Was I unwittingly playing a part in this scheme? Would other teachers really teach this "new" Common Core way?They I remembered that the Common Core method of evaluating teacher effectiveness ties teacher pay and teacher evaluations to student test scores. The new data systems under Common Core would enable central command to see what you are teaching in the classroom with online lesson plans, grade books, student grades, online textbooks and test scores. You bet your ass many teachers will adjust their teaching."I believe politicians should guarantee complete immunity for any teacher from loss of job, fines, and/or harassment who has the courage to speak out about what is happening in their classroom! Taxpayers have the right to know what sort of nonsense is being done with our money. I would also encourage any student, parents, and/or teacher who comes across anything problematic with a textbook, test question, homework assignment, or fuzzy math problem to go ahead and take a photo of it and upload it to the internet for everyone to see.I have zeroed in on math on my blog and the various examples of math nonsense have been revolting to see: [...]Thanks Brad for writing such a great expose', I look forward to finishing the book this week.Jenny Hatch

There is nothing in this book that surprised me, but I want those who think the government is benign and those who know nothing of common core to read this. The American education system is modeled after the Prussian system of education who according to Wikipedia was established "to instill social obedience in the citizens through indoctrination", and "loyalty to the Crown and to train young men for the military and the bureaucracy." Today, the progressive goals are no different and through the government school system this is a fait accompli, but to cement this fact for the foreseeable future, we have the Cult of Common Core.What this book reveals is the surreptitious means by which Progressives in the appearance of angels of light, or wolves in sheep's clothing, are really after the mind and soul of our children. Their goal, if successful, will mean a complete take over society inculcating and breeding sheeple who cannot think for themselves, but will be socially obedient to the intelligentsia who just know better. These children, after all, are their future voters. What better way to indoctrinate than through compulsory education in which they remove children from the influence of the home and place them in 30-40 hour per week indoctrination camps run by government bureaucrats who write the curriculum. Ever wonder why the progressive intelligentsia is hostile to home-schoolers?The opportunity: "Never let a crisis go to waste". So Progressives such as the Obama/Chicago apparatchik (viz. Arne Duncan) dangled "Stimulus moneys" for "shovel ready jobs" before states, not to preserve education, but rather to adopt Common Core standards, and establish data mining systems so Big Brother may watch your child and teacher to make sure they do not stray too far from the fold (standards of indoctrination)....after all, they know better.Enter stage right: Big money Bill Gates. You wouldn't be complete without fascism: the collaboration of Big Business with Big Brother.... capitalism provides the financial means. One of the classic lines of the book: "The ultimate irony is that Bill Gates dropped out of college so that he could put his originality and his individual talent to work to make his fortune, yet he wants the rest of us to make sure our kids are "college and career ready" by using a one-size-fits-all, homogenized, dumb-downed program that is centrally controlled". Boy, ain't that the truth. And the book further notes how Gates' kids are private schooled as additional irony. I would note too, that silver-spoon Bill Gates didn't grow up in the public education system of Seattle, either (I did, however). I am quite familiar with the high-brow superiority complex Lakeside Highschool graduates have. I actually witnessed one of their graduation ceremonies in 1983. In a nutshell, we have is the elite class ruling over the homogenized sheeple.Enter stage left-- More Big money: Trust fund baby and Weather Underground Terrorist Bill Ayers. Like many progressives, this guy works clandestinely, behind the scenes because so much of what he stands for has been repudiated. This guy helped establish the Chicago Annenburg Challenge, then headed up by Senator Obama (selected by Ayers, of course, who, according to Obama, was just some dude who lived around the block)....funded by Walter Annenburg. Obama led the CAC from 1995 to 1999 and remained on the board until 2001. The foundation funneled more than $100 million into community organizations and radical education activists. Fundamentally, the Chicago Appartachik (google Arne Duncan) runs the department of education today. So public education is in good hands.So I didn't give this book 5 stars. It's pretty close to a five star book. There are lots of foot notes to read up on in the back of the book. Do not get me wrong, I would prefer footnotes throughout the text on which to refer, which there are none. For this I take away one star. However, it doesn't take much while reading this to google facts stated, for confirmation.