Why Conservative Opposition to Common Core Math Makes No Sense

Last updated on: October 4, 2016 at 5:00 am by Libby Anne

Why Conservative Opposition to Common Core Math Makes No Sense 2016-10-03T13:22:03-04:00 Libby Anne

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I’m finding conservative opposition to Common Core math very very very strange. To explain why, let’s have a look at this excerpt from evangelical-pastor-turned-activist Tim LaHaye’s 1983 book, Battle for the Public School:

Our schools just are not doing an effective job of teaching our children to read—and that has become a national and educational disgrace! At the urging of John Dewey and his disciples humanist educates have adopted an ineffective theory of reading instruction that has set our educational system back twenty-five years. Not properly tested before its use, the system was nothing more than an idealistic theory, and it has retarded the educational development of millions of citizens.

At this point, the rhetoric here may sound very similar to rhetoric against common core—in each case there is opposition to a new theory that is believed to be too hastily implemented, too idealistic, and ultimately, a failure. But what exactly is this “ineffective theory of reading instruction”? Let’s take a look:

Even more tragic than its propagation is the refusal of educates to admit their failure and return to phonics, the best reading system ever designed. Eighty-five percent of our public elementary schools still use the look-and-say, or picture, method of teaching reading, which cheats millions of our children out of one of their “inalienable rights.” For in this technologically advanced day, it is next to impossible to enjoy “the good life” if one is not a good reader.

In other words, LaHaye is upset that some schools use what he calls the “look-and-say” or “whole word” method instead of phonics. Interestingly, the Dick and Jane books were developed with the whole word approach in mind.

The idea was to teach children to read by helping them memorize common words. The concern was that phonics was not as effective for early readers in a language with so many homophones. Phonics advocates argued that children who learned to read using the look-and-say method would be unable to effectively sound out new words. It would take a long time to weed through what all was going on here, and where things are now on this issue, so let’s focus on a specific point: LaHaye was pro-phonics.

LaHaye supported a reading method that he argued taught children the building blocks of reading over one he argued focused on rote memorization. And conservatives are still more than ready to speak on this subject today. This leaves me with a question. Why do conservatives oppose Common Core math, which attempts to teach children the building blocks of math, and instead favor a method that focus on rote memorization? How does this make any sense? Is the issue that they are misinformed? Or is this about something other than the actual pedagogy involved?

At the moment, I’m at a loss.

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