Common Core – Federal Education Standard – Mason Dixon Homeschoolers Association

This is only a brief discussion of why Common Core is objectionable. For more information, please consult these websites:

1. Common Core federalizes education. Education has traditionally been considered a local responsibility and the 10th Amendment of the Constitution places it within the State’s responsibility (as opposed to the Federal government’s responsibility). Although it is not mandatory that states participate (oh, the splitting of those fine hairs!), since Federal funds are tied to participation, it is not surprising that 45 of the 50 states are already onboard with Common Core.

2. A curriculum that dictates what every child will read and be taught would eliminate that which has made our country so wonderful: its diversity.

3. Classics, traditionally required of school students to expose them to great thinkers of the past and to educate them about the common problems of mankind and the resolutions that work and don’t work, are being replaced with non-fiction manuals and books such as The Evolution of the Grocery Bag.

So, in summary, this educational approach is all about Federal control of education with a view to eliminate any influence of the past over the future. It violates a Constitutional Amendment (10th) and for that reason alone should be opposed.

There’s yet another reason Common Core should be opposed: it will lower the educational standards and achievement of all students. Even homeschoolers and those who were homeschooled are consumers of the public educational program. *

There are good reasons for those who homeschool to object as well. Why, since homeschoolers will not be compelled to use the Common Core curriculum, would a homeschooler object? The fact is that the focus of testing is also changing. Homeschooled children will continue to want to attend college and will have to take standardized tests in order to do so. This testing change will necessarily drive how homeschoolers teach their own children, despite not being required to use Common Core in their homes. For example, parents who continue to educate their children from the classics will find that their students will have to become familiar with the non-fiction manuals required of the publicly educated students.