Because Someone Raised The Bar To Six Feet And Yelled "Jump Higher," Or If Her “ Poor ” Performance Is Used To Punish Her Coach!.
It is time for parents to address this new concept of "rigor"...
This silliness that if a person is having trouble understanding a concept, you pile the work upon them even harder, needs to be addressed.
Why is it coming up now? Frankly because that is all reformers have left in their arsenal. Just as soldiers start throwing rocks when their ammunition expires, educations reformers have stooped to what most would consider completely ridiculous any other time.
It is time for educational reformers to surrender, as should the officers of that soldier who has no choice but use thrown stones to defend himself against the oncoming invasion.
Parents have grown wise to their antics.
First, it was that the US was behind third world nations in education. It is not. It still is number one by almost all reports, but one.
Second, that Common Core exams would be better than the NCLB exams. They are made by exactly the same people exactly the same way.
Third, that tests were taking up too much time, and Common Core would fix that; Students are taking up to ten times the number of tests now.
Fourth, that Common Core would save taxpayer money. They require computers and that has driven costs over ten times the previous tests, And, the money was moved from effective teaching over to cover the hardware required!
Fifth, We were told Common Core would get our children ready for Colleges and Careers. Using the same tests, the same test makers, the same formats, how would that be an improvement?
Rigor.
Rigor is what will make all this work we are told. By rigor, we are using 8th grade questions on 5th grade tests... Never mind they have never studied any of the material, we are told, They need to hurt so they learn. We are told they need to fail so badly, be so humiliated, be so psychologically destroyed that they have zero self esteem left to draw upon, so they finally learn life doesn't give them anything for free. Then, they will be good students.
This concept was thought up and paid for by Bill Gates who with a net worth of $100 billion dollars never spent one penny for college... So of course he's the world expert on what children need to get through college.
Still sound good? This "rigor" thing?
Let us shift perspective and look how the same philosophy carries in different unrelated fields.
The headline uses the athletic concept. Let's use another one. For example take a midget league team; suit them up and put them on Lincoln Field against the Eagles, then tell the Eagles to go hard at them just as they would against the Kansas City Chiefs if the score were 16-26 against them, because doing so would build character in those little kids and make them great football players when they grew older.
Sane or insane?
For example take a fifteen year old Drivers Ed student, and have them drive through traffic at speeds over 120 mph, because at high speeds you finally get the feel of a car's limits. You say you need them to know that intensity, because that will make them better drivers. Because if you compare American drivers on the Formula I circuit to drivers of other countries, we rank somewhere near 11th. Our own driver's ed program needs to be pursued with rigor!
Sane or insane?
For example, take a young man to the gym, lay him underneath the weights, set it for maximum and tell him to lift... Because if you keep practicing at bench pressing 500 pounds, and do it often enough, you will eventually be able to lift 500 pounds...
Sane or insane?
Tonight, there is a class of high school students that woke up at 5:30 am, went to school from 7-2 and then went through tutoring between 2-4, then wrote a three page paper finishing just before midnight, (the hardest parts were measuring the margins to be exactly one inch, since the software was incapable of doing that for them), then at 12:00 midnight suddenly realized they had to do conversions in chemistry. Not only did they have to put down the answers but had to show their work. The first question? Change 37 centimeters to meters... Don't just move the decimal places; show all calculations.
Really? Really? Does anyone still show calculations for 2+2 or do you just do it in your head? The answer was spit out immediately at .37 meters but how does one show the work without showing the moving decimal point going two spots to the left? Here's the generational difference; I can still hear my teachers voice telling me how it was done: just shift the decimal. Students today are lost. Comments are open so please if anyone can explain to this poor parent a way easily explained between 5:30 and 6:30 am to a poor child how to show this work, I'd be most appreciative...
And their alarm goes off in just 5 and half hours to do it all over again... Sane or insane?
Rigor... And this is normal public high school education, even before Common Core! And Common Core is applying even more "rigor"? There is a reason most of your child's grades are low, and it's not stupidity! That reason is the number of zeros your children receive on crappy assignments, just as this student will get in her Chemistry class tomorrow, because this one parent who does conversions at work all the time, has the sense to know that showing work for moving a decimal point two places is pure bullshit. Certainly not worth the price of cutting her sleep from 5 hours down to 4.
Rigor... Give a child 8th grade questions on a 5th Grade test. Rigor.... Give a child too many moving parts they can never grasp the concept of any single one... Rigor. Make the child fail ten, twelve, twenty times, so when they succeed just once, they feel they have done something great (even if it is the most menial of tasks).... Rigor....
The very minute those educational reformers pushing Common Core's rigor are given a 5th Grade test in math, and take it in public and have those scores spread around, Common Core dies. At that very minute it suddenly becomes apparent exactly what is going on...
This is the challenge that needs to be given to all members of that educational committee at any public meeting rolling out Common Core... Take this test!
Have you taken the tests yourself (links are on-line here at the bottom) and what was your score?
David Coleman 0?
Jack Markell 3?
Mark Murphy 1?
Bill Gates 0?
Well, that's the end of "rigor" and with it, as the last rock gets put down in the battle of Common Core... For you see, if you can still be governor of the best state in the Union and only know 3 answers to the 5th Grade math test, then we certainly don't need rigor or Common Core. Period. If you can pull down a taxpayer funded salary of $160,000 as a state Secretary of Education knowing only one answer to the 5th Grade Math test, then we certainly don't need rigor or Common Core. For you see, if you can be head of the College Board yet answer correctly zero questions on the 5th Grade Math test, then we certainly don't need rigor or Common Core. If you can be worth $100 billion, and pass 0 questions on the 5th Grade Math test, then we certainly don't need your money interfering with how we teach our kids...
When is rigor good? When you are fat and lazy. But at that point, you already have the excess weight. Our children don't already have excess knowledge. To pursue rigor while trying to gain weight, doesn't work very well. Ever seen a super fat 26.2 mile full-marathon runner?
How about you? Do you learn things only one at a time, or in groups of 50's or 100's?
Time for parents to step in and shut down this "rigor"; it is complete nonsense.