Common Core Cancer
A brave Texas 7th-grader alleges that during an assignment about Common Core’s fake version of critical thinking, the teacher directed students to label God as a myth. This type of “anchor chart” assignment forces students to wrongfully classify all statements as either fact, opinion, or commonplace assertion. Here’s how these categories are defined in a typical Common Core classroom:
- fact: Something that is true about a subject and can be tested or proven.
- opinion: What someone thinks, feels or believes
- commonplace assertion: Stating something is true without supporting it with facts or proof.
Notice how only facts are considered “true”, while opinions and commonplaces assertions are categorized as things that are either false or just “true for me but not necessarily true for you.”
This type of assignment is at the heart of Common Core educational standards (standards that supposedly aren’t taught in Texas. Surprise!). In his excellent March 2015 New York Times article about this fundamental problem with Common Core , philosopher Justin McBrayer described how students are required to fit things into one, and only one of these categories. In other words, you can’t believe in a fact, and only facts can be true. So, God can’t be believed in AND also be a fact! But neither can you believe that 2+2 = 4, the sky is blue, or grass is green. Those are just facts, not things you also believe, you silly non-Common Core indoctrinated person!
I hope you agree with me that it is absurd to force students to categorize all statements into only one of three “anchor chart” categories, and then call it a “critical thinking” assignment. It is sad that so many millions of students are being taught “how to think” using such irrational methods. And it doesn’t just start in 7th grade; McBrayer spotted the same type of anchor chart assignment in his child’s 2nd grade classroom!
The Katy ISD 7th-grade teacher directed the class to categorize the statement “There is a God” as opinion by labeling God as a myth. This is a fine tactic for someone who hates God to employ, because when most people, not just Common Core indoctrinated schoolchildren, hear the word myth, they think “legend,” or “fake story about the past.”
C.S. Lewis to the Rescue
But, could a great story about the past also be true? Why does myth have to always make us think “fake Greek sky gods?” Here’s where C.S. Lewis rescues us from oversimplifying our world in a way that gives us a false view of reality:
Now the story of Christ is simply a true myth: a myth working on us the same way as the others, but with this tremendous difference that it really happened: and one must be content to accept it in the same way, remembering that it is God’s myth where the others are men’s myths: i.e., the Pagan stories are God expressing Himself through the minds of poets, using such images as He found there, while Christianity is God expressing Himself through what we call ‘real things’.
In one long, beautiful, eloquent, God-glorifying sentence, C.S. Lewis destroys the Common Core’s ridiculous “anchor chart.” Lewis words reassure us that legends can also be true! Or in Common Core language, opinions can also be facts, facts can be assertions, etc.
Tools to Use in Your Thinking
You see, school-aged children don’t need to be trained “what to think,” nor do they need to be trained “how to think.” As math-teaching legend John Saxon once said,
God gives students the ability to think. Society does not give children that ability.
God designed us with the ability to think critically. The 7th grade Katy ISD student is a perfect example of that, as she was able to spot the flaw in her teachers’ fake “critical thinking” assignment, an assignment that will no longer be taught in Katy ISD thanks to her efforts.
What students need are tools to use in their thinking. And one of the best tools is mathematics. Some math curriculum to consider include any John Saxon-authored courses, as well as my company’s new curriculum, Shormann Math, a curriculum built on a solid foundation of mathematics’ legends, with Jesus Christ as the common core. Logic is another course worth considering. At a minimum, study this logical fallacy poster. Another resource is Introductory Logic by Roman Roads Media. Books by Nancy Pearcey are also excellent resources for understanding the negative impact of oversimplifying the ‘real things’ C.S. Lewis was describing. Total Truth, Saving Leonard0, and Finding Truth are all excellent. And of course, any books or essays by C.S. Lewis! And last but not least, the Bible, without which we would not know that we are supposed to reason together (Isaiah 1:18).
Studying His Word and His Works 