The United States Common Core Standards Should Be Repealed

First of all I want to make it clear what common core standards are. These standards are set guidelines on what student have to learn by the end of the year. They are not wacky math problems that engineers don't understand, they are not "6 to 8 hour tests, .... for 5 and 6 year olds", they are not creativity crushing monoliths, and they do not change how math works. That means that those wacky math problems that exist were not created by the standards but instead curriculum trying to match those standards. This will obviously lead to different types of ways that people teach the standards and some may be better than others. However to condemn the idea of standards based education seems foolish to me. http://www.corestandards.org... ( this website explains common core excellently please explore the website for a while because it has a lot of information) For instance I live in Massachusetts where I am currently a 16 year old junior in high school . Common core in Massachusetts unlike the res of the nation has been around for decades so the strange math problems and 6 hour tests for kindergartners simply don't exist. Instead what does exist is the best education system in the United States. We consecutively rank as high or higher than countries such as china and Finland ( that consistently beat other US states). This is because we have common core but it is also because we invest heavily in our teachers and our schools. Something that other US states often fail to accomplish. Thus common core may be scary in its first few years of implementation but it is because states in America have failed to give their students a set of standards that properly challenge them so that they can preform on the world stage and the longer we delay increase rigor in our children education the farther we will fall behind as a nation. http://www.theatlantic.com... http://www.washingtonpost.com... http://www.oecd.org... http://www.nytimes.com... On to rebuttals 1.the common core standards are proven to cause intense frustration among students, parents, and teachers Standards do not create this improper curriculum do however and if you visit the common core website you will learn that each state set up their own curriculum http://www.corestandards.org... 2.It is harder to control what children are learning, rendering it inefficient, and they are unrealistic! No...... That is quite literally the opposite of what common core does which is creating a set of standards so I ask you how is creating a nationwide set of standards make learning inefficient and unrealistic that are the fault of the standards that common core utilize 3.It was worth a shot but now that we know it doesn't work Massachusetts test scores prove otherwise 4.Engineer story This is a problem with the curriculum not the standards for instance if I told you to learn how to multiply but didn't teach it to you effectively it wouldn't make sense. Thus the logical solution would be to change the way its taught not change the standards that need to be taught 5.James Milark In his statement he says "rushing to push new curriculum does not make sense if you are planning to get it done in a rational way". In no way does this critic common core standards it instead shows that his home state of Indiana failed to create a effective curriculum to teach the standards not that common core does not work. 6. Laci Maniscalco Once again you fail to see the difference between standards and a curriculum 7. Kindergarten standards My little sisters who is 5 can already count to 100 as well as 3/4 of the kindergartners in her class when its only halfway through the year. So I suppose that your averages fail to account for Massachusetts students 8. 6 to 8 hour tests First of all a school day is only 6 hours so that doesn't make sense and second of all where on earth are you getting that information??? 9. Your Google analogy You are correct that Google has many faucets to its employs but none of those jobs would have existed if the people who created Google only had creative skills. Thankfully thee people not only had creative skills but they had the technical know-how to create the worlds best search engine. And for all those other people that don't necessarily use math in their work place will do so at home when they balance their budgets, invest, and pay their taxes. Math is a intrinsic part of our lives and to say that some people will never need it is incorrect. Conclusions Common core is so much more than idiotic math problems and confusing curriculum and while they are eventual in programs that effect the entire nation it doesn't make the program itself bad. America is currently falling behind other fellow developed nations and even less developed nations such as Vietnam. In order to bring America back up to international learning prominence I believe we should adopt the common core standards (that have been successfully enacted in Massachusetts) in order to help America. To shy away from this will progressively make America a nation where education does not thrive.