Why Our Children Don’t Think There Are Moral Facts

[Barrister]

This discussion reminds me of the difficulty which sometimes arises when decision making bodies comprised of academics are told they need to make findings of "fact" from evidence presented to them.  They often object to that characterization and say that what they are expressing is their view of evidence not "facts".  Try explaining to them there is no difference when they are, in fact , the decision maker.

[Valmy]

Oddly enough, I saw more common core BS in his Kindergarten class than I'm seeing this year.

Excelling at stuff you think is BS is what school is all about.

[The Brain]

Languish has many tools at its disposal.

[derspiess]

Excelling at stuff you think is BS is what school is all about.

Which is why I hated it. 

[The Brain]

Schools are sexy.

[Valmy]

I love history but man did I hate history class.  I knew I was going to have to build a Spanish Missionary Diaroma, write a short story from the point of view of a Tonkawa Indian, or make a salt map of Stephen F Austin's colony or other such bullshit.   All this garbage to help me feel 'really engaged' with the history.  But it sure did prepare me for the workforce more than actually learning history did 

[garbon]

I love history but man did I hate history class.  I knew I was going to have to build a Spanish Missionary Diaroma, write a short story from the point of view of a Tonkawa Indian, or make a salt map of Stephen F Austin's colony or other such bullshit.   All this garbage to help me feel 'really engaged' with the history.  But it sure did prepare me for the workforce more than actually learning history did 

It really is dreadful the disservice they do to history in schools.

[crazy canuck]

I think where it turns into a real problem is with below average math students, who really are going to struggle with the simple algorithms anyway, and the effort to teach them that additional layer of complexity is too much.

I think it also has to do with the fact that students learn differently and so the more ways students can be taught to solve a problem the better the chance students will understand the concept.

[CountDeMoney]

They tried to teach me math in all sorts of ways: open learning, "new" math, tutoring, Spanish Inquisition.   Didn't change the fact that I wanted to read a book instead. 

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

Wait til you see how it teaches math.  Do simple arithmetic to quickly solve a problem?  Oh, no.  You use number lines and other time-wasting bullshit.

The Common Core standards don't "teach" anything.  The often shitty curricula that implement the standards do.  The math standard does not mention methods, number line or otherwise, at all.  Unfortunately the curricula have been conflated with the standards to such a degree that particular curricula are used as illustrations of how Common Core "requires" certain topics to be taught.

[The Larch]

The Stone is a forum for contemporary philosophers and other thinkers on issues both timely and timeless.

Translation: We're a bunch of pedants and self-agrandizing morons.

[The Minsky Moment]

This is the point the author is trying to make: that Common Core is at fault for perpetuating "Why Our Children Don't Think There Are Moral Facts."  But no, everybody's giving the author shit about what he's trying to say, even though he spells it all out. 

Because his point is not well argued and ironically (given your criticism) it is not well argued in significant part because it relies on semantic gamesmanship instead of confronting the merits of what he is arguing against.

Put aside the semantics and the labels and what the Common Core apparently is doing, based on his description (NB no idea if that is what it actually does), is teach a simplified version of Popper's theory of knowledge - i.e. that true knowledge of "facts" is restricted to that which can be tested or falsified.  My own 2 cents is that while Popper's theory has its problems, it's not a bad starting point for teaching youth.  Other might disagree - and I would respect that disagreement IF that disagreement was presented as an argument on the merits.  But instead OP plays word games and shifts premises around.

[derspiess]

Wait til you see how it teaches math.  Do simple arithmetic to quickly solve a problem?  Oh, no.  You use number lines and other time-wasting bullshit.

The Common Core standards don't "teach" anything.  The often shitty curricula that implement the standards do.  The math standard does not mention methods, number line or otherwise, at all.  Unfortunately the curricula have been conflated with the standards to such a degree that particular curricula are used as illustrations of how Common Core "requires" certain topics to be taught.

Semantics.

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

Wait til you see how it teaches math.  Do simple arithmetic to quickly solve a problem?  Oh, no.  You use number lines and other time-wasting bullshit.

The Common Core standards don't "teach" anything.  The often shitty curricula that implement the standards do.  The math standard does not mention methods, number line or otherwise, at all.  Unfortunately the curricula have been conflated with the standards to such a degree that particular curricula are used as illustrations of how Common Core "requires" certain topics to be taught.

Semantics.

It's not semantics.  The standards and the curricula are not the same thing.  I could, if I so desired, write a Common Core compliant curriculum made up almost entirely of the "old" ways of doing things.

[derspiess]

Yeah, semantics.