Barhka,

It seems like we're sidestepping the governor's original question. You answer it implicitly, but give no reasons as to why people should agree. Does it make sense to think that more moms working (or, to put it more truly, more households where all the adults available are working full-time) means less adult attention on children? To me, that sounds perfectly plausible. I need you to tell me why it is outrageous and not merely brush it off with some virtual eyerolls and sassy sighs. 

And it's an honest question--I'm a working mom, too, and not trying to entrap you here or prove any point. I do feel that the best thing for our kids would be me working at most part-time. But this is how we are able to put food on the table and pay our mortgage, plus daddy stays home so the kids aren't in Daycare Anonymous. And I do like working.

Actually, studies that control for background, race, income, etc, still show that private schools do a better job of educating the exact same students. Google the research of William Jeynes and Greg Forster on this topic. 

I am interested in this argument, as I hear it all the time. Could you give some examples of these societal changes that have required most women to work? The prevalence of unwed childbearing and divorce, perhaps?

Barkha, I am not entirely sure what your comments mean. ;-)

Rachel: Right now the big barrier to people moving into teaching later in life are those same certification requirements. To get certified, often people have to go back to school and/or student teach for a year, which means a year without pay, which many cannot afford. 

The high stress of teaching, I think, depends on the community where you teach. Poor kids get the worst and newest teachers because they are the hardest to teach. 

What kinds of questions have you gotten on these anonymous surveys, Christopher? 

Danys: As a classroom teacher I've identified a suicidal teen & I didn't need a survey. Thankfully, that student received the needed help.

It seems reasonable to me that this is more often how troubled students will get help. If a teacher and other role models are paying attention, they will notice young people who are acting weird. Most teachers are sensitive and caring enough to act in such a fashion. So why add surveys? 

We routinely refuse to answer questions on medical and other surveys (like when stores ask for my ZIP code at checkout? No, thanks) that make us uncomfortable and are not required. And I'm considering lying on some, too. Like the new question from pediatricians about whether there are guns in our house. You say "I plead the fifth" and you indicate the real answer. 

We plan to homeschool, too (kids too little yet). I (Joy) am a homeschool grad so very familiar with curriculum, and we're both Hillsdale grads so well equipped with knowledge of what is good to learn. A good education is such a blessing, if you can find it!

Do you think that's acceptable?

I think the superintendent probably does genuinely believe that he and his colleagues are good people with good intentions. What's shocking is his ignorance that good intentions mean nothing. 

Besides the fact that he finds it outrageous that anyone might apply the Constitution.

What I would like is for someone to create a searchable database showing where doctors and dentists like this are so we can find one near us. Almost everyone we know uses typical insurance and doesn't care which doctor they choose or what he charges, so when we, who have a high deductible, try to ask around for affordable healthcare no one can help us. 

It's also entirely unfair (though legal through an Obama administration law rewrite) to collect this data on minors without parent consent, which is what is happening. People should be allowed to choose whether to share their personal information. 

The RNC actually put out a statement condemning Common Core about a month ago, and that has been pretty significant in getting Republicans to start moving against CC. Indiana Gov. Mike Pence just signed a bill putting a pause on CC while we hold public hearings and conduct a cost analysis, and that's also having an effect. 

But, yes, the Rs deserve some chastisement for supporting this from the beginning. Stop being the party of "better-managed big government."
--Joy

Also, "state-led" is basically a deception. See my longer piece about this. State leaders did not write the standards. Five people with no K-12 teaching or standards-writing experience did. And the feds were involved with money from the beginning. Common Core has roots in Goals 2000 and America 2000, the Brookings Institution says. 

Also, we can have a debate about nonfiction vs. fiction's places in classrooms (which debate Common Core banned the public from having until after it had been imposed on their children), but there is no credible research to show that "informational text" increases student achievement. There is ample evidence that challenging literature does. 

The short response to those who believe the Hirsch conservatives is that the Common Core in no way actually mandates a content-rich curriculum. Alas. It is actually full of vague mandates that could be (and are) applied to any curriculum. The great majority of "professional development" and buzzwords teachers are hearing is directly contrary to Hirsch's research and advocacy, as he himself has admitted to me. 

Second, while National Governors Association sounds nice, it's actually a nonprofit lobbying group that gets significant special interest and federal funding. NGA also has refused to release anything governors agreed to, if they did, and which governors those were. Also, governors are not dictators. They can't just set education policy for states and the nation, even if they want to. The standards were written in a black box despite public funding and impact. There's more, but I'm just responding to what folks are saying in this thread now.

Jim, Jim, Jim. Don't you remember? There is no debate. There are no books to burn. It's all an illusion. 

Happy mother's day! We want to make sure there are fewer mothers in the future. No offense to anyone with a mother.

I find it helpful for people like us, who often read the posts several days or hours later, to find the ones other people have responded to without having to scroll through several member feed pages.