To the editor;
The decision for citizens who believe that the Maine Learning Results with Common Core Math and ELA standards are the best for work force development.
Do we want our children spending precious time on just any random ‘complex’ text that the Common Core authors decide to slip into standardized exam, or that textbook publishing giants dig out of their bottomless bins of mediocre writings?
Do we want young minds to be programmed with highly suspect political and cultural propaganda?
Do we want our children to be lured into reading of modern authors whose works revel in a jaded, anti-heroic, and often morally debased view of human life?
Or do we want students reading the classics?
Which will they get more out of, which will better prepare them for the world, which will more likely contribute to their own virtue and happiness?
Should not children read and study the great books of literature such as Twain, Homer, Shakespeare, and Austin just to name a few? Do you want literature of fiction reduced to 50 percent fiction in high school? The intent of Common Core is to erase any remnant of traditional learning in the English classes of our public schools. They are deliberately killing off what is left of the great stories of Western literature.
Learning math is not key-padding with a calculator. The aim of education is truth, beauty, goodness, and virtue. Literature tells us the most important things about life. It is to learn how about the human condition to develop character. Learning is the activity of assertiveness and humility of pursuing knowledge.
Tell your rep that you want education restored and to support LD1396 (The Common Core Repeal Bill) “An Act Regarding Educational Standards for Maine Students”- voted “Ought Not To Pass” 12-1.
Gordon Draper
Bowdoin
