The following comes from a March 16 Cardinal Newman Society article by Justin Petrisek:
Bishop Liam Cary of the Diocese of Baker in Oregon has responded to growing alarm regarding the Common Core State Standards and their impact on Catholic education. In his “Thoughts Along the Way” column for The Diocesan Chronicle, Bishop Cary listed points of concern with the standards and remarked that he cannot endorse them.
He explained in his column, “there are more than a few reasons to be cautious about adopting Common Core.” These concerns include the rejection of final drafts of the Common Core by the “highly regarded educators involved in drafting the standards for math and literature” and their impact on curriculum integral to Catholic education.
Bishop Cary explained further:
“[N]o one knows what standards Common Core will propose for history, health education, and social studies. These subjects treat hotly contested matters of the highest moral importance for the formation of young minds: the character of the American people, sexual development, and the nature of marriage—to say nothing of birth control, homosexuality, or abortion. Why should parents assent to the adoption of Common Core before its standards for history, health education, and social studies have even been made known?
“As bishop I cannot endorse a program that might undermine the very values which Catholic parents expect Catholic schools to impart to their children,” he wrote in his article.
“Common Core standards have only recently been implemented in Oregon, and more time will be needed to assess their effectiveness,” Bishop Cary explained in the piece. “The Diocese of Baker, therefore, will not adopt the Common Core State Standards as a whole. Instead, we will monitor them against national testing and public high school entrance requirements and develop our own standards accordingly.”
God bless Bishop Liam Cary. He sounds like a truly worthy shepherd.
The CCSS require students to think critically and to explain their thinking. When I attended a Catholic High School the teachers asked the students to do this daily. It was excellent preparation for college. Catholic students and parents have nothing to fear of the CCSS. The Catholic Church has a long history of seeking the Truth and encouraging its members to do so.
“[N]o one knows what standards Common Core will propose for history, health education, and social studies.”
Common Core only addresses standards in English and Math. It’s wonderful to have cogent, rational objections to Common Core, but the Bishop at least needs to get his facts straight.
Dave N is is you who is mistaken, not the Bishop. These subjects (and more) are in development as we speak.
I agree. I have never seen an objection to Common Core standards that addressed the standards themselves.
Anonymous, have a look at these “standards” from Language Arts for children as young as 6…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSHoxWaVeto
The propaganda is already embedded throughout the common core system. Bishop Cary is not only wise and brave, but also basically observant of reality. I urge you to investigate. Don’t buy the PR. None of it is what it seems.
I loved what one blogger called the series in the video — Emotional Blackmail 101 — of parents of course. He hit the nail right on the head.
I remember when one of my teenagers tried that on me. She said that she would leave home if I did not let her do something. I told her, “Good, then I can get rid of your things and make a laundry room out of your bedroom.” She stayed.
Exactly what I said. No one ever really complains about the standards.
I support not using Common Core but people should know what they are talking about. Here are examples of the standards in language arts concerning historical reading:
Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, connecting insights gained from specific details to an understanding of the text as a whole.
Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary that makes clear the relationships among the key details and ideas.
Evaluate various explanations for actions or events and determine which explanation best accords with textual evidence, acknowledging where the text leaves matters uncertain.
” The mathematics standards lay a solid foundation in whole numbers, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, and decimals. Taken together, these elements support a student’s ability to learn and apply more demanding math concepts and procedures.”
This should have been a given for years. Not being able to flunk deserving students – is an issue that Common Core refuses to address.
So this begs the question, what have they been doing in our public schools to date with out tax dollars ?
Tom M – that quote is hilarious when you consider that the one and only Mathematics PHD on the math curriculum drafting committed RESIGNED IN PROTEST due to the standards being so poor. He is quite open (and brave) in talking about the disastrous math standards please look him up Milgram of Stanford.
Common Core drags students down to the lowest common denominator.
Rather than lifting those who need help.
(Even though they deny this.)
Get the Federal Government out of Education !
After the Government gets its own house in order, then they can try to tell the rest of us what to do.
The Federal Dept of Ed needs to be scraped.
Good for Bishop Carey! The “Common Core” is just one more immature, babyish, liberal “evil,” produced by America’s horrible, low-quality, liberal, and immoral education system! It should be thrown out of the education world! Catholic educators, of the Church’s religious orders— knew for centuries how to run extremely good schools, with very high academic, moral, and religious standards! Many Catholic students attained very high levels of education, prior to Vatican II, all over the world! Many also entered the priesthood, or religious orders, after graduating. Many Catholic graduates working in the secular world, were notable leaders, in many fields. The Church does not need any modern, babyish “gimmicks,” of the liberal, ignorant, and immoral secular education world— they only need their own traditions of EXCELLENCE, which they had, prior to Vatican II!! This Bishop sounds excellent, and deeply dedicated to Catholic education, and to teaching Catholic children their Faith and Morals! WONDERFUL!!
Thank you Bishop Cary for your wise decision as a true shepherd of the flock of Baker. May Christ the Good Shepherd continue to strengthen you and bless you and grant you good health.
Parents and not the state have an obligation to teach their children, and to make sure the children are taught the truth. Watch THE FACTOR on Fox News, and see how dumb,, stupid and ignorant many of the young are today. They do not know what the Islamic terrorists are doing in the Middle East. One even had the gall to say that America was the greatest country on the earth because he could get all the goodies for free. Look at Spring Break (once called Easter vacation). What goes on there is terrible. The youth are taught nothing in school except to hate God, conservatives, and traditional values. A high school senor class mate commented to an exchange student from Germany, ‘Germany is next to Alabama and Mississippi, isn’t it?’ The song from the 1950’s is very relevant today: ‘Don’t know much about history,,,geography…science book,…French, etc” Education must be on the community level, and not on the federal level. That way the parents have more control over what their child is (or is not) learning.
All these things you say are true, but of what use to say at this point? Didn’t the horse leave the barn a long time ago? Really, if people need to be informed of the viewpoint that education should not be controlled at the federal level – isn’t it already a lost cause? Education is only one of dozens of areas where the federal government is intruding on freedoms. Education is never going to rescued from the clutches of the feds piecemeal from everything else.
Ralph, the government should not be allowed to interfere in any Religious schools, or require that certain books be read, or that anything contrary to the specific Faith be taught.
Although many bureaucrats like to think they are god, they are not.
You seriously don’t think I get that? My question to you is what good does it do to state that the government “should not” be allowed to interfere in religious schools? Thanks for your opinion. Unfortunately, that opinion has been shouted down by the executive, legislative and judicial branches of our government, and also by the overwhelming weight of public opinion. The small universe of “bureaucrats” are hardly the source of the problem. Do you not get that the economic and political models of America and communist China are gradually becoming impossible to differentiate? This is the plan of the global elites. Religious freedom has already suffered serious disintegration in this country, as have many freedoms. Anybody saying there “should not” be interference is way late – active measures to re-direct this country should have been undertaken decades ago. There is a dwindling number of courts who support your view, and when the last of the conservative judges are gone, it will be over. But you can still sit around then and say it “should not” be that way.
I admire the Bishop’s independence. We should never ignore what the “publics” do, but never feel bound to follow either.
God bless the good Bishop for standing up against the machine.
Too many of our Bishops are hiding on this issue, “leaving it up to the schools” while many souls (and minds) hang in the balance.
Centralized command control by a secular (or worse) government over what should be the right of parents under CATHOLIC principles of: subsidiarity, parental rights over the education of their children, academic freedom, and religious formation is a stinkingly bad deal.
It is time for Bishops (and if not Bishops) pastors to stand up and rightly object. Catholic Education is too important to be sold.
Bill and Melinda Gates spent more that 200 million dollars to promote it. Enough said!
It disturbs me that so many parents are content
to let the state raise their children for them in public
schools. Public Education is assuming more power
and control every year. They are largely unchallenged
by parents as they grab ever more power. We questioned
or defied their attempts to define how our children were
to be raised. When we did, they backed down every time.
If you give them power they will assume more. Parents
must pay attention, be watchful and stand up for your rights.
Dave N above says: “Common Core only addresses standards in English and Math.”
But, from the Common Core website “However, because college and career readiness overwhelmingly focuses on complex texts outside of literature, these standards also ensure students are being prepared to read, write, and research across the curriculum, including in history and science.”
Glittering generalities to hide the devil in the details?
That means that the English standard includes being able to read things that do not fall under the reading category of literature. There is no devil there.
A teacher or school board could choose a textbook which contains things that a Christian parent may not approve of.
That is NOT the standards. That is the material used which is usually where the problems come up.
Anonymous, there are many heretical books that teach lies.
And it is not up to any government to insist that they be read.
The Federal and State Governments try to control everything. State School Boards already control too much.
Leave private schools alone, as long as the children can read, write, and do basic math.
The children from most private schools excel far above those attending public schools.
Anonymous, what planet are you from ?
Are you living in the past ?
The STATE School Board controls, not local School Boards.
CALIFORNIA STATE SCHOOL BOARD –
” The State Board of Education is the K-12 policy-making body for academic standards, curriculum, instructional materials, assessments and accountability ……”
The 11 members are all appointed by the sitting Governor.
https://www.cde.ca.gov/be/
PETE, I doubt many Catholics and other citizens are aware of the power of the State in educating children.
They have extreme power regarding INDOCTRINATION (social engineering) of our Youth.
This needs repeating:
CALIFORNIA STATE SCHOOL BOARD –
” The State Board of Education is the K-12 policy-making body for academic standards,
curriculum,
instructional materials,
assessments and accountability ……”
https://www.cde.ca.gov/be/
The 11 members are all appointed by the sitting Governor.
With the immoral politicians elected in Sacramento – this should scare all parents.
God bless Bishop Cory. He did his research and now he is leading his flock. Praise God for our holy bishops.
Let the PUBLIC Schools do Common Core.
Leave the private schools alone, and we will see who does better in testing and College Prep.
And private religious schools should not be required to use books that violate their faith – such as “I have two mommies”, etc.
Common Core is social engineering of children.
Common Core is a disaster! Kids who were on the “A” and “B” Honor Rolls before Common Core, are now getting Ds and even Fs. Bill Gates, who is the richest man in the world at 79 billion dollars, spent big bucks to get Common Core started. Bill and Melinda Gates send their kids to a private school that doesn’t use Common Core. One has to wonder what Bill Gates’ agenda is really about.
There should be no legitimate wonder whatsoever about Gates’ agenda. It’s the same as that of all global elites: power. Dumb down the population by fueling the drug trade, using Common Core, control of media, and other techniques, such as ending the Cold War, to extinguish religion and all thought contrary to global “oneness” and create cultural, economic and political consolidation; forcibly contracept and abort and promote homosexuality to destroy the family as the basic societal unit and reduce the size of the dumbed down population, instigate and fund wars to eliminate national sovereignties, use America’s central bank to fund these strategies home and abroad while simultaneously bankrupting America and leaving the entire globe indiscriminately impoverished and under global government. The term “politically correct” was coined by the Soviets in the 1920s, to support international communism founded upon principles of Marxism. The purpose of political correctness is to bring about world government which will be socialist/communist. What Gates’ agenda is about is an easy question to answer -a hundred books have been written exposing it; why more people don’t read them – well, that’s a better question – probably too much sex, drugs, internet addiction, TV, video games, and Common Core.
The Gates Foundation also promotes contraception , and abortion in third world countries. And they pretend to be “Catholic”.
The Language Arts program (Common Core) is a Social Justice indoctrination curriculum. The real problem with public schools is that they take decisions away from parents and place them with the state. We are beginning to STRONGLY resemble the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, also known as the USSR or for the ignorant – Communist Russia. This is exactly the kind of indoctrination the Soviets put in place. How they get away with it is just as disgusting. Apathetic, un-involved “parents”. Parents – do your job ! No excuses will suffice.
Education in America is full of dichotomies. On the one hand, we want education controlled at the local level. That is why we have so many local school districts. On the other hand, in most states at least, educations is the business of the State government, essentially telling the local schools what to do. Nobody want a national education system like the rest of the world, but education must be a national priority if we are to compete in the world markets. It is not a far stretch to say that local educational systems have failed us because of how low our students rank compared to the rest of the industrialized world, countries with whom they must compete. Common Core was devised by the State Superintendents of Schools to provide for a consistent set of expectations for students at every level of math and English from state to state. On the surface, a good idea but there was no implementation plan. The Gates offered to help with money for developing teacher training. On the other hand, our Catholic schools who are a part of a long tradition of great academics feel that Common Core sets the bar too low. I agree with them. While I think that we can have a common set of standards for math and science, I shudder to think what a common set of expectations for Social Studies would look like after all the special interest groups got their claws into the system.
I agree that the bar set by the State for public schools is too low for Catholic Schools.
We do not need common standards for anything since the State – on a per grade level underachieves at that level – so that no one will fail. (Failing after all is discriminatory.)
The public schools pass almost any student who can walk. – Many public school graduates certainly do not know basic English (and I am not talking about immigrants).
Catholic Schools do not need to lower themselves to Common Core for any subject.
If a particular Catholic School has a proven problem with SATS or other college testing – then the Bishop would need to take a look at this. But this has not happened in the USA.
Bob One, immoral indoctrination can take place during Math and English classes as well.
I have two mommies, and you have two daddies, how many parents does that equal ?
What few people know is how much the Christo Rey Network has received from the Gates Foundation (tens of millions).
The Jesuits and the NCEA have been involved in Common Core for some time now: “According to Dr. Lorraine Ozar (Loyola Chicago) in a July 2012 presentation, “Catholic schools need to pay attention to the fact that the common core standards are here and it is important to get on board”. And Sr. Dale McDonald (NCEA) said in an April 2012 video, “even though these are called ‘secular’ standards, there are ways in which we can make them personal to the Catholic School”.” The Jesuits’ Cristo Rey network of schools has received multi-millions of dollars since 2003 from the Gates Foundation, as well. So much for impartiality.
In SoCal, at least, the Jesuits have been active at LMU with the “Common Core Math and Science Teaching System (CMAST) for at least a few years. (Guess where many teachers and principals went to college at?)
There is concern that schools will lose what little Catholicity there is now. The Western Catholic Educational Association is also responsible for this in California, et al (there are other associations in other parts of the country) when it certifies and recertifies schools as Catholic. Wonder why they haven’t said anything about Common Core?
Having taught high school math in a Catholic school, this CC method was REQUIRED to be taught consisting of: showing a video; explaining the problem and working a few problems; working a few more problems with the class; give the homework (with answers!); quiz the next day after going over homework; and you had better stay on-schedule! The quiz consisted of a three questions in which the student picks ONLY ONE (basically, easy, medium and hard).