Common Core has Parallels to Education in Nazi Germany

The requirement was that I write a 1500 word position paper on an issue I am passion about.  I wrote those 1500 words in my inaugural post here on this blog.  I found 1500 words to be wholly inadequate.  My original thesis statement was: "Common Core is bad for our kids, bad for the quality of public education, bad for a free society, and must be eradicated from our nation's schools."  In my first post, I did 1500 words on just the two most compelling reasons that Common Core is bad for our kids and the two most compelling reasons why it is bad for the quality of education our children will be getting.  Now I am going to turn my attention to identifying why everyone who cares about freedom should oppose Common Core.

Common Core is bad for a free society.  Like I said in my first post, Common Core is unconstitutional and therefore, illegal.  That fact - and yes, it is a fact - should put an end to all debate about Common Core in this country.  It is unconstitutional and therefore illegal, and here in Arizona, members of the Senate, who have all sworn an oath to protect and uphold the Constitution, voted mostly along party lines (with a few Republicans joining the Democrats) to kill a bill that would have forced Arizona to withdraw from Common Core.  Unfortunately, the fact that it is unconstitutional doesn't seem to even faze most politicians.  I wonder if the parallels to Nazi Germany - yeah, yeah, yeah, I know...I sound crazy...- would bother folks.  I might sound crazy, but the commonalities are too striking and too numerous to just summarily ignore.

I sincerely hope that if people like me are unable to remove Common Core from our schools, it is indeed fully implemented throughout the country, and we have several years of students who have gone through the program, that what we see in the end is what the proponents of Common Core are promising us.  I sincerely hope that I am wrong.  I sincerely hope that I need to don my tinfoil hat and eat a big slice of humble pie.  The implications of our ruling governing class ignoring the law, especially where it concerns the education of our children, are frightening.  I cannot overlook those, and neither should you.

Consider the following quotes....

"He alone, who owns the youth, owns the future."

"How fortunate for leaders that men do not think."

Consider this recap of education in Nazi Germany...

"The Nazi Party motto regarding education stated: "The supreme task of the schools is the education of youth for the service of Volk and State in the National Socialist spirit."  The teachers taught Nazi propaganda and the students recited it verbatim.  If there were errors, the students were punished until they could recite the material correctly.  There was no allowance for discussion and certainly not disagreement.  This is the essence of thought control or brainwashing.

The school system became substandard almost immediately.  German students knew only what they had memorized.  They did not have the mental tools for original thought.  Even the German scientists, who worked in rocket development at Penemunde, complained that their new assistants and workers were ignorant in science and could not perform the most basic mathematical calculations."

When I take that apart, this is what I see...

The teachers taught Nazi propaganda and the students recited it verbatim.

The developers of the Common Core created the standards and the assessments, which means they are in control of the curriculum and what will be taught in public schools.  What I am seeing in the research I have done so far is that Common Core English relies heavily on "non-fiction" texts and that the children will be required to use only the text provided to formulate their ideas and convey them.  What that insures is twofold.  First, that only the information that fits the ideology of the businesses and organizations putting forth Common Core will be provided to students, and second, that children will essentially be regurgitating the information they are provided, without doing much - if any - critical thinking.

If there were errors, the students were punished until they could recite the material correctly.

There are consequences to the schools and the students when students fail to comply and meet standards.

There is no allowance for discussion, and certainly not disagreement.

Like I indicated above, students will be required to use only the texts provided to formulate opinions and answer questions. Assessments will be looking for key words.  Failure to comply will result in lower scores.

In addition, let's look at how Common Core came to be in the first place, and the battleground it has become.  Is its origin reasonable? Believe it or not, this also warrants a post of its own, and I will get to that too.  With as much dissent and controversy at surrounds Common Core right now, is it a good idea to keep moving forward at this pace, or would everyone - except those who are getting rich from the rampant crony capitalism pervading Common Core behind the scenes and providing the technology, textbooks, and assessments Common Core will require - benefit from slowing down and allowing a more careful examination of the facts?  

In a new documentary about Common Core, titled Building the Machine, Dr. Jim Stergios, who is the Executive Director of the Pioneer Institute expresses similar thoughts.  "When we developed our standards in Massachusetts, it took us years because we debated texts, we debated what was going to go into US history standards.  It was all publicly debated.  Public testimony was taken," he said.  

It's worth asking: what are they hiding, and what is the rush?

The school system became substandard almost immediately. German students knew only what they had memorized.  They did not have the mental tools for original thought.

What happens with high-stakes testing is that teachers will teach to the tests, and they will ignore anything that is not on the assessment; they have to, if they want to keep their jobs.  Dr. Sandra Stotsky, who refused to sign off on Common Core English Language Arts standards, said much the same thing: "Common Core's ELA 'college readiness' standards weaken the base of literacy and cultural knowledge needed for authentic college level coursework, decreasing the capacity for analytical thinking (emphasis mine)."  This too, is worthy of a post all on its own.

Even the German scientists, who worked in rocket development at Penemunde, complained that their new assistants and workers were ignorant in science and could not perform the most basic mathematical calculations.

Remember Dr. James Milgram from my previous post?  He expressed concerns that the mathematical standards were inadequate, too.

There's more.  In Nazi Germany, there were:

• A powerful teacher's union promoting the new system
• Non-compliant teachers were weeded out
• Curriculum was written to reflect political ideology, and history was rewritten
• Standards were dumbed down
• "Master Teachers" were used to "train" other teachers
• Massive amounts of data were collected on both students and teachers
• Some students were trained to spy on their teachers and their peers
• The belief that the children belonged to the state.

Let's examine some of those, while we look at Common Core...

• The NEA and the AFT have sold out our students.  Their support has been bought and paid for by millions of dollars of grants from the Gates Foundation.
• Teachers who do not support Common Core have no choice but to resign.

A physics teacher in Utah resigns in disgust over Common Core.

and

Another teacher, also disgusted by Common Core, posted his letter of resignation on YouTube.

• The organizations that funded and developed Common Core are all progressive, leftist organizations. This in and of itself is an entire blog post, and I will get to it.  It gets worse than what I am sharing here.  Don't take my word for it, though.  Phil Caro, the co-lead author of Common Core math, lays it all out for anyone who is listening.  Go to the 4:56 mark, and you will hear him say, "The reason we have math standards is for the social justice agenda..."  Excuse me?  The social justice agenda?  Whose idea of social justice?  How do they define social justice?  Furthermore, I thought the reason we taught math to children was so that they would grow up into adults with the competent mastery of math that simply living a normal life requires!

Additionally, there is this example of curriculum being written to suit a political agenda, and history being rewritten:

• I think we've sufficiently covered enough, although there is more for later posts, to note that Common Core standards are indeed dumbed down.
• I've heard whispers of the idea of "Master Teachers" in America, but I don't yet know enough about it to share anything on this topic.
• Data systems in education are nothing new.  However, Common Core takes it to a whole new level.  I am currently researching this, so that I know I am getting and giving correct information when I do share.  Know, though, that what I am discovering is enough to turn my stomach.
• I don't know anything yet about "student spies", but it isn't a stretch to believe that, fully implemented, it could happen.
• Progressive Americans are embracing the idea that your children belong to the state.