Navigating the Politicized World of School Curricula

Why Common Core Backfired: Lessons Learned

I’m taking my first class in curriculum development for my master’s degree in education. I’m not a schoolteacher, although I do tutor a few schoolkids part-time. I have no inclination to teach in a K-12 school. Public schools are landmines right now.

Have you ever looked at a current public school curriculum? Or even some of the instructions for teachers? If you do, let me know. I will write more about this soon, but one such peek had me freaked out at how dumbed down the teacher instructions were.

At any rate, one of my assignments for my curriculum class is to answer a few questions for a discussion board prompt. I hate these “discussions.” First off, they aren’t discussions. They are mini-papers complete with citations. They are formalized, stunted, artificial “discussions” where you are often encouraged to not think for yourself but parrot other ideas from "peer-reviewed” papers. Don’t get me started on that.

At any rate, as promised for paid subscribers, here’s some of my homework, which obviously needs to be kept private because it’s homework. Enjoy…or not!