Goldfish

How the Common Core standards are being applied.

At Denman, under the Common Core, eighth-grade students might have to estimate a wildlife population using colored Goldfish crackers, an activity that uses algebraic functions, proportion and estimation, with a built-in snack at the end, Lyon said.

Now, I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with the CC standards--though I don't like the homogenization of standards and eventually curricula across the country; I'd prefer wide variations which allows for experimentation and change. The CC basically locks the whole country down to the same train track; and if the track isn't finished yet, is poorly built, or is heading for a cliff, we'll all face ruin together. The CC standards are also minimalist, and we're running the risk of many schools assuming that they are good or good enough. They're not.

The biggest problem that I see is the way that it throws all the K-12 education balls up in the air at the same time. The education establishment is now scrambling to catch them out of the air or pick them up off the ground and sort them back into a coherent order. That should be a boon to the people who want to drastically change education; but, unfortunately, the ones who are in a position to actually make the changes have been indoctrinated with the sort of world view that makes the quote posted above appealing. If you are the sort that reads that passage and thinks: that's fantastic!!, then, you really shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a K-12 school.

The inmates are running the asylum.