Thursday, January 18, 2018

Common Core is Dead. Everywhere but the Archdiocese of Boston.



Even the pagan government recognized the stupidity of Common Core and abandoned it.

The only place in the uncatechized world that stupid can get perpetual traction is the Archdiocese of Boston.

They fill the Chancery with lay people and leaders who are alienated from Sanctifying Grace (for one reason or another), so when a stupid idea comes along, they can't see the stupidity.

The secular world has a saying - 'you can't fix stupid' - but Catholics who found their way to the Sacraments know better. We are survivors of our own stupidity. At one time or another, we've been to stupid and loved it. Every once in a while our own flaws, vices and temptations takes us on a nostalgic trip back to stupid. Only by Sanctifying Grace does our conscience remind us of what is backfiring around us and we run back to the Sacraments unchain our intellect from the effects of sin.

Sometimes we don't know how we got back to stupid. An examination of conscience comes up empty. We dig into the deep to find venial sins that may be contributing to stupid and we get them absolved. If that doesn't get us out of stupid, we recognize the principalities and powers may be at play and we bring in other prayers and sacramentals to overpower those forces.

One of my rudest awakenings was the realization that Chanceries are staffed with people who think Catholics with the sharpest skills of recognizing stupid are calling them about it because we think we are superior to them. They are completely unaware our mission is about fixing stupid. They either don't have access to the Sacraments, have abandoned them or they can't get over their inferiority complexes enough to realize that people who recognize stupid faster than they do, are the people who frequent stupid the most use the Sacraments to get out. Much more than they do. We thought we were on the same team but we most certainly are not.

We cripple ourselves when we are not aware of the spiritual world around us. But there's a problem when the government has to issue a cease and decease order on our own stupidity. And it isn't a little problem.

2 comments:

Molly said...

Dead-on commentary.

Few points:

1. Kathy Mears, who was hired as the Superintendent of Boston Catholic Schools summer 2014, was THE person at the National Catholic Education Association responsible for pushing Common Core into many diocesan school systems around the nation (and she was successful). She's invested. So Common Core, or rebranded Catholic versions of CC ("Catholic Identity Curriculum Identification"), or what used to be called Outcome Based Education or is now called 21st Century learning, is here to stay in Boston Catholic schools (except in the schools independent from the diocese).

2. It's surprising the Pilot published the opinion piece by the Ryans in 2015, given that Mears had been hired the year prior.

3. It's even more surprising that Massachusetts public schools went whole hog for CC, given that Sandra Stotsky is a local and argued vociferously against its adoption here. Prophet without honor in her own country, I suppose.

4. Even with DeVos declaring Common Core dead, extracting it from classrooms is much more difficult, as evidenced in this account by an Oklahoman teacher and mom who fought for and won elimination of Common Core in OK, but saw the victory prove meaningless, as schools and teachers had invested too much to reverse. http://thefederalist.com/2018/01/03/common-core-taught-bureaucrats-will-always-win-unless-slash-big-government/

5. I actually thank God for Common Core, as my attempts to fight the San Antonio diocesan schools system over CC implementation led to my realization about the inadequacy of current educational methods/curricula and more importantly woke me up to my faith, allowing our family to reprioritize, adopt traditional husband/wife roles, and choose homeschooling over institutional schools. Best thing ever for our family (although we would have preferred to stay in Texas than return to Massachusetts for my husband's old job). But I'm saddened for those many many families ignorant of impoverished educational approaches (or unable or unwilling to buck the status quo). So many zombies! About many things, not just education.

Thank you for your insight! God bless.

TTC said...

Molly,

I don't recall being aware of Kathy Mears history! All of this is very informative - thank you for sharing it!

Loved hearing that your attempts to fight it in San Antonio ignited your zeal for your faith and healthy spiritual changes for your family. Awesome.