One inherent weakness in Common Core is how they tried to avoid controversy at their inception, by not wading into the troubled shoals of  curriculum and content. They discovered that since they were offering standards that were so “new” and “different” they had to show exactly what folks should be doing that was so different. […]

Sometimes I worry that all the emphasis on direct instruction, comprehensive curriculum, and teacher-proof texts has beaten the last bit of initiative out of the latest generation of elementary school teachers. Here’s some background… First, let me go into the way back machine to how things were in the old old days. When I attended […]