MORE's Paul Hogan in The Riverdale Press: Common sense, not Common Core

It is dangerously easy for education administrators to lose sight of the needs of the students they are supposed to serve when one’s daily reality never involves firsthand work with students.

The Common Core in District 75 is an abstraction for some who see the world of education only in terms of theory. 

However, Common Core is an added distraction and superfluous obstacle for those professionals in the trenches who are serious about bettering the lives of the young people in their charge. 

Those individuals have enough obstacles to deal with.     ...  Paul Hogan, Riverdale Press

 

Paul  Hogan is a member of the United Teacher’s Federation caucus of the Movement of Rank and File Educators.  He is a retired public school teacher who taught for 27 years in District 75.

I learned some educational jargon bullshit from reading Paul's piece.

By Paul Hogan

Posted 10/17/13

The article in the Oct. 3, edition of The Press entitled “Special ed teachers find new curriculum a challenge,” throws a welcome light on a profoundly troubling aspect of the Common Core curriculum: Its oafish insistence that the educational needs and characteristics of all children are essentially identical.

District 75 is devoted specifically to the education of students with severe and profound disabilities. Still, Deputy Superintendent Barbara Joseph appears to defend the extension of Common Core to classrooms throughout the district. 

Dismissing the concerns of classroom teachers that Common Core is a poor match for children with severe disabilities, Ms. Joseph says, “You have to be able to do backward designing. You have to be able to unpack that standard. You have to meet the student at their functional level.” 

Full article.