As Common Core opponents increasingly gain ground, the initiative’s supporters are articulating more of the social engineering ideology that is at the heart of the nationalized standards.
Kimberly Morin of Manchester Political Buzz Examiner reports that teacher David Pook, who claims to have “helped write the standards,” said during a recent Common Core debate at St. Anselm’s College in Manchester, New Hampshire, that Common Core was necessary because of “white privilege.”
Pook said:
The reason why I helped write the standards and the reason why I am here today is that as a white male in society, I’ve been given a lot of privilege that I didn’t earn. … I think it’s really important that all kids have an equal opportunity to learn how to read. I think I had decided advantages as a result of who I was, not because of any (inaudible).
And when I walk into places like Roberto Clemente High School on the west side of Chicago, I think it’s really important those kids learn how to read just as well as I had the opportunity to read. And in creating an equitable educational opportunity for all kids, I think this is actually the greatest civics lesson we could teach our kids.
Pook, who reportedly is a history teacher at the exclusive Derryfield School and who served as a pro-Common Core panelist at the debate, received jeers and laughter from the audience in response to his comments.
As Morin observes, the leftist thinking behind “white privilege” actually does a disservice to minority and lower income students.
“This man believes that minority kids aren’t as smart as white kids so the standards have to be lowered in order for them to be able to read,” she said.
Similarly, as Breitbart News reported last week, New York State Education Commissioner John King used the 60th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education to defend the Common Core standards and their stated purpose of ridding schools of inequality. King criticized Common Core opponents as supporting continued segregation and inequality in schools.
“And 60 years after Brown we should not be able to point to schools in a single neighborhood, where one school serves mostly poor students and achieves painfully discouraging results and another school, blocks away, serves mostly affluent students and puts them on the path to success,” said King. “That kind of segregation, that is a disgrace.”
Ben Velderman of EAG News observed that “Pook thinks Common Core is a way to counteract the white privilege that is ingrained in public education – so minority kids can learn ‘how to read just as well’ as their white peers.”
“That’s a laughable position considering the Common Core standards were never field-tested in an actual school before they were foisted onto public schools in 44 states,” wrote Velderman. “The reality is nobody knows for certain how Common Core is going to affect student learning overall (though a number of reputable education experts have serious misgivings about the standards).”
Velderman also noted the fact that Pook is teaching in a very exclusive school.
“If that’s what passes for deep thought in a private school that charges parents $28,535 a year in tuition, then the problems facing America’s education system are far deeper and more serious than anyone realizes,” Velderman concluded.
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