At businessforcore.org, there is a recent video claiming that the Core and its tests will launch kids into the future. The video is called "How schools are preparing students for their journey."
"What if we had to send our kids to live in an unknown world?"
No longer does businesscore.org claim they are preparing you for the "jobs of tomorrow." Instead, they admit the future is unknown. They are somehow preparing you for the unknown.
The narration continues, "How would we make sure they were prepared? We would challenge them by helping them to work together, teaching them to use creativity and ingenuity to solve problems we've never encountered before, encouraging them to think in new ways and discover unexpected possibilities."
Yet, the Core challenges kids with more mindless, stressful prep for test designed with cut scores set just so to fail them. Students do not work together. They complete their tests by sitting alone at computers or desks. They live in a world of competition, not cooperation.
Standardized test cannot measure creativity. Teachers can best promulgate creativity...but not when they are pressured to prep kids for standardized tests. The only "unexpected possibilities" that most students "discover" is that they are failures.
Let us resume the narration, "and along the way, checking on their growth, understanding and readiness. This unknown world isn't a distant planet; it is our world, just a few years in the future, filled with rapid innovation, discovery and change. To prepare our kids to thrive tomorrow, classrooms across the country have upgraded the skills students are learning today. The future holds amazing possibilities. Let's make sure our kids are ready for the journey. To learn more visit businessforcore.org."
The narration is punctuated primarily by little kids stating what they would like to be when they grow up. You can hear things like universal explorer, scientist, coder and architect. But what about the artists, clowns, singers, cowboys, trapeze artists, the kind of things the kids we know (usually with great creativity) might say?
The video concludes with a little boy saying, "I can do anything if I put my mind to it." He may think so, but does the man who sets the cut scores agree?
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