Letter: Strong argument

To the editor:

I’m in awe of Superintendent Rick Doll’s testimony before the House Education Committee.  His focus on education and successfully preparing students for advanced education and jobs was met with ignorantly held confusion. Claims were made that the K-12 system would be controlled by bureaucrats or by money-grubbing corporations or that, like Nazi Germany, education would be centrally controlled and planned and that some Common Core standards promote pornography. Doll’s reflections on these fact-free obstacles weren’t reported.

Is the Common Core requirement for systematic, rigorous thought that is subjected to scrutiny by data really the issue? None of the complaints would survive such rational, data-driven examination. Common Core supports critical thinking. This threatens deeply held convictions and the need of the many to be deceived, to persist in folly in spite of every rational suggestion and scientific fact.

Before these legislators all argument is futile. Their bizarre beliefs do act as touchstones for the faithful and calm their self-inflicted fears, fears that our culture will continue its fatal slide into sordid vulgarity and pornography with Common Core flooding us with perversions like evolution. Unfortunately this is the antithesis of education. It is no more than intractable sermonizing. We could borrow Rep. Peck’s agenda pushing description of valid educational funding requests and call this legislative foolishness absurd.