{"id":7814,"date":"2020-02-27T01:05:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-27T07:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/?p=7814"},"modified":"2020-02-24T11:27:12","modified_gmt":"2020-02-24T17:27:12","slug":"commentary-on-k-12-curriculum-civics-and-citizenship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/?p=7814","title":{"rendered":"Commentary on K-12 Curriculum, Civics and Citizenship"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mary Kay Linge<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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\u201cToday we talk as if it\u2019s all about college and career readiness,\u201d education scholar Michael J. Petrilli told The Post. \u201cBut going back to the 1780s, the argument in favor of having public education at all has been first and foremost to develop democratic citizens.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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In \u201cHow to Educate an American: The Conservative Vision for Tomorrow\u2019s Schools<\/a>\u201d (Templeton Press), Petrilli collects essays from 20 prominent conservative thinkers who survey the current state of America\u2019s schools. The result is a passionate case for a return to Jefferson\u2019s values after decades spent chasing higher graduation rates, glittering college-enrollment numbers and top standardized-test scores.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Those obsessions peaked with the Common Core curriculum, which the Obama administration pushed onto the states \u2014 sparking furious backlash from many parents and teachers, who found that technocratic education reforms led to a vacuous mania for the mechanics of math and reading.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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\u201cWe just don\u2019t teach our young kids anything,\u201d Petrilli said. \u201cTeaching \u2018reading comprehension\u2019 with no content is as boring as it sounds, and as ineffective as it sounds.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Common Core was the culmination of a long-term trend that enshrined math and reading instruction as the top priority of early elementary education, leaving history and civics as an afterthought to be squeezed in once test prep was complete \u2014 if at all.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThe <\/span>data clearly indicate that being able to read is not a requirement for graduation at (Madison) East, especially if you are black or Hispanic\u201d<\/a><\/u><\/p>\n

Madison\u2019s taxpayer supported K-12 school district,<\/span> <\/span><\/span>despite spending far more<\/a><\/u> <\/span><\/span>than most,<\/span> <\/span><\/span>has long tolerated disastrous reading results<\/a><\/u>.<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition,<\/span> <\/span><\/span>Madison<\/span> <\/span><\/span>recently expanded<\/a><\/u> <\/span><\/span>its<\/span> <\/span><\/span>least diverse schools.<\/a><\/u><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mary Kay Linge: \u201cToday we talk as if it\u2019s all about college and career readiness,\u201d education scholar Michael J. Petrilli told The Post. \u201cBut going back to the 1780s, the argument in favor of having public education at all has been first and foremost to develop democratic citizens.\u201d In \u201cHow to Educate an American: The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7814"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7814"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7815,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7814\/revisions\/7815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}