Knew Math.

The video below is making the viral rounds of my Righty friends right now as a 'gotcha!' against the national 'Common Core' curriculum being pushed by Team Hopenchange:



But before anyone dives headlong under the couch because of what is, at best, a stupid example used in making a point, listen to it again. There seems to be more of this conversation before and after this clip which, I believe, might well explain the comment in context. They seem to be talking about understanding how a student is thinking. That in itself is not a bad thing. You cannot get little Johnny to understand that 3*4=12 if he cannot articulate how he erroneously got to 11.

Is this video proof that 'Common Core' is THEENDOFTHEWORLDASWEKNOWIT? No. It was a video of a stupid example, used stupidly. I am not going hide under the couch because of 'Common Core', anymore than I am going to hide under the couch because of 'Agenda 21', or 9/11 conspiracies. Besides, there are ain't much room under the couch round these parts.

That said, your humble blogger is very ambivalent about this 'Common Core' thing. While we need high standards, rigorously applied, in our elementary and secondary public schools, is setting national, one-size-fits-all standards authored by Big Government and the Education Lobby really the best way to do it? I do not think so. What we need is to get Washington, and the unaccountable bureaucrats and the and special-interest education lobbies, out of the classroom. What happens in local classrooms belongs under local control.