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You've Heard Of 'Obamacare' Now There's "Obama-Core" Bypassing Congress To Change Education
National Review Online reports on the hidden agenda Obama has planned for our education system. An article originally featured on the Washington Post discussed the changes coming to the English curriculum across the country. The print title of the article, printed on Sept 21, 2012 had the title of "Education Overhaul Largely Bypasses Congress". Apparently Obama now thinks he is king and can bypass Congress to implement his own education agenda and curriculum, along with seeking ways to extend the debt limit indefinitely.
Obama’s role in commandeering the substance of what’s taught in the nation’s schools. The print version of this September 21, 2012 article featured a more revealing headline than the web version: “Education overhaul largely bypasses Congress.”
To say the least, the legality of Obama’s curriculum power-grab is dubious, as George Will explains.
The trouble with the new English curriculum is that it largely crowds out classic literature in favor of non-fiction. As teachers and students rebel against boring selections and the gutting of their most popular units, defenders of the Common Core claim that schools have missed qualifications in the new requirements (helpfully laid out in an obscure footnote).
Technically, the new non-fiction requirements can be satisfied in classes other than English. In practice, however, with science teachers unwilling to assign essays, English classes are forced to junk Huckleberry Finn in favor of readings such as “Executive Order 13423: Strengthening Federal Environmental, Energy, and Transportation Management.” The potential for political abuse in a curriculum heavy with government documents and news articles should be obvious. Given the politics of most teachers, the new non-fiction requirements create a huge opening for leftist indoctrination. And that’s only the beginning of the potential political abuses of the Common Core.
That 45 states and the District of Columbia have signed on to what is in effect becoming a new national curriculum, most of them without even seeing the new standards, is a Constitutional, legal, political, and educational outrage. Obama is most at fault, yet the states (many run by Republicans) also deserve blame for selling their constitutional birthright for a mess of pottage.Today, Stanley Kurtz of National Review further covers the "Obamacore" curriculum changes and why Obama wants your child to read "Executive Order 13423" rather than classic literature like, Huckleberry Finn. He states:
It’s not the business of a president to shape your local school’s reading assignments. The Constitution and several federal laws prohibit it. Yet by conditioning federal education aid and regulatory waivers on state acceptance of the “Common Core,” Obama has managed to manipulate the states into adopting what is fast becoming a de facto national K–12 curriculum.Parents across the country are just now waking up to the fact that President Obama has forced what is in effect a new curriculum on their local schools. This immensely important change ought to have been fully reported and debated during Obama’s first term. It’s a disgrace that the Democrat-controlled media never allowed that debate to happen.Why has this text been included among the recommended examples? Obviously, because the order appears to give the imprimatur of the federal government to the political gospel of “sustainability” and the crusade against global warming.
When I was a teacher, I felt overall free to cover the subjects I wanted, as long as I was also discussing/teaching the core curriculum standards expected of me by the school district, parents and the state ie:math, science, reading, writing,etc. However, I did run into a micromanaging Principal who tried to tell me how to teach&even tried to tell me how to talk to the students in a certain tone, which I found annoying and unnecessary since students were learning and parents were happy with me as their child's teacher. But, she was insisting I teach her way and meet with her daily before school and I said no thanks, but I can meet with you after school since I'm here late every day preparing for the next day or the rest of the week. However, she insisted it was her way or the highway, so I took the highway and left because I felt she was harassing me and just looking for a way to replace me because she wanted to put her own staff in since the Principal who hired me had left. But, that's a whole other discussion on my experience with a poorly run Charter School that ended up in bankruptcy.
As a teacher, I would likely ignore the suggested reading or offer two viewpoints and then discuss the differences between the two and ask students to determine which sounds more feasible to sustain an economy without going into debt and further destroying business. On an elementary level I would teach conservation, but also the need for human needs and the hierachy of needs. While I love and respect animals and the environment, I believe we are here to use and develop what is given to us and as the superior being we must sustain human life above all others. While environmentalists like to argue that our existence is destroying the environment and life for animals, I believe there is a balance within nature that allows for everything to live and die as nature intended. Often when man intervenes in the natural life cycle of nature we end up with overgrown forests leading to fire hazards or too many wolves in one area leading to farming issues.
Anyway, enough of my views on this issue, what do you think about Obama's new power grab which changes the way our education curriculum is decided on a national level?? Do you think it's right that the President is taking this power by himself and without Congressional approval??
©2013 Patricia Garza
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