Reason #33554432 Why I Hate Common Core

Meow! This is Rocky, in the fur =^..^= Since I've been overseeing two bigger projects lately, I'll let my human servant write the blog today! Ok human, I'm done laying on the keyboard. You can use your computer now.

Thank you, Rocky. Yes, my hatred of Common Core is both personal and exponential. I hate Common Core for the same reasons you do: data mining, harsh judgment of teachers, headaches for parents, "New Math", profiteering, taxation, and all these standardized tests. Let's focus on the tests today, and why I believe my experience will offer even more insight as to why these tests are failing our children.

If the powers that be intended to provide a "college and career ready" education to our kids, they would be supporting programs that teach actual skills and hands-on experience. Learning a variety of skills gives kids confidence. Who cares if Johnny learns five skills and Jimmy only four. They're both good at something. We just need to find out what. They must be encouraged instead of graded. Most importantly, we need to spend less time on our evaluation of their regurgitation.

You know, I was a smart kid. Adults always thought things were too easy for me. Despite being visually impaired, I excelled at the lame curriculum force-fed to me as a child. The impact of my visual impairment was severely underestimated and I was expected to be normal. Why? Because I was a good regurgitator.

Believe it or not, I enjoyed taking that intense, two-week long standardized test every spring. I relished in the fact that I could do well. Maybe I couldn't perceive my surroundings like normal kids -- but at least I got good grades. That made me feel normal. Was I?

That standardized test could not possibly have shown how my visual disability would factor in to my ability to cope with life. Nobody bothered to ask me how I felt, nor did anyone recommend I focus on activities that were tailored to my vision problems. Their cures were more regurgitation and more scrutiny, which my eye(s) simply could not handle.

By the time I was in college, I couldn't outrace the tests anymore. I needed to get time extensions due to my disability. I busted my tail to keep on top of my studies.

After college, I did the common thing -- get a job. However, I would experience constant internal hemorrhaging in my one sighted eye. I had been near legally blind for a long time. It was now official.

Being legally blind requires me to focus on new activities. Hobbies like learning a musical instrument, creative writing, and activism for the disabled. Hobbies I should have taken up as a youth. I have the skills despite living in a world that is still not very compassionate towards the visually impaired.

Looking back though, I was just a kid. I didn't understand what was going on. Now I do. Amongst a myriad of other problems, Common Core will create even more lack of empathy for children with special needs.

Kids take a lot more of these tests in 2014 than they did in 1984. Exams created by this cabal of megalomaniacal profiteers will not provide sufficient indication as to what any child, ESPECIALLY a special needs child, would require to be "career ready" as an adult. Consider my case, and I'm the special needs child who excelled at those tests. We must fight back against Common Core, and thank you to those who are!

Rallying against Common Core will take two simple concepts: refuse and resist. That's what we will need to do in order to take down this monster that is hurting our children. Do not let their threats weaken your resolve.

I have hope. This could be what finally incites America to take back some control from an out-of-control government. They really ticked off the wrong group of people this time: moms.

I am not a mom, just a political satirist and mischief maker. There is still no doubt my anger towards Common Core is very real -- and as you can see, it runs deep.

#stopcommoncore