“This will be the best security for maintaining our liberties. A nation of well-informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the religion of ignorance that tyranny begins…..” attributed to Benjamin Franklin

Although one does not equate tyranny with teaching children, it appears that when it comes to our children’s education, there could be something fitting of the current definition of tyranny afloat.

Do our teachers have the right to teach what they know best? No.
Do current good schools have the option to keep doing what they know works best? No.
Do our school boards have the right to respond to parent’s concerns over the curriculum? No
Do Parents have any other options but send their children into what were once good schools, but now because of Common Core, are soon to be failing? No.

That sort of fits in with a loose definition of tyranny… and true: I stressed “Sort of…”

However the point of my pulling a quote out of whom is probably considered the wisest founding father, is to show how here in Delaware, the “Press” ie. The News Journal has fallen down on the job. In contrast, WDDE, the radio station downstate, has stepped up.

The proper job of The News Journal, is to inform the public adequately so they can make up their own mind upon being in full possession of the facts.

Full possession of the facts.

Instead, The News Journal is a mouthpiece for one or two people’s “opinions”. We are fed, spun, and marketed with “opinions” over fact.

Fact: Listed 2013 enrollment across Delaware: 131,514. Assume each one has a parent. Add that. 263,028 Now with the divorce rate near 50%, assume half of those children have two parents. Add that half, 65,757…. the total number of Delawareans directly affected by our school systems on a daily basis from September to June is 328,785… Out of the 2012 US Census last estimate of Delaware’s population (917,092) we have 35.85 percent of Delawareans very interested in Common Core or “what is this crap our child is getting taught”.

Yet The News Journal when it mentions those concerned with the implementation of Common Core, glancingly includes them as: “conservative activists and other groups…..”

35.85 percent of Delaware’s population IS NOT CONSERVATIVE ACTIVISTS AND OTHER GROUPS.

There is a good reason there is not as widespread distaste for Common Core as there is for something like bombing Syria.

A. No Parent or Child or Teacher really knows yet what to expect from Common Core.

Everyone is arguing theoretics. Buying an educational policy for your child, your state, your country, should at the very least,… have as much thought put into it as say,….. buying a car…..

Let’s do a comparison.

When you buy a new car, … you first must decide you actually want one… Common Core was presented fait accompli. It is the equivalent of having a knock at the door, and a overly wide tie wearing car salesman with his fat belly hanging over his belt, telling you your new car would be delivered in your driveway that very day. You say: “what new car?”

When you buy a new car, … you read magazines like Car and Driver, or Motor Trend, or Consumer Reports to get an idea of what you want. You look at pictures and try to get a feel, you look at costs and try to get a reality check, you look at ads, to see what might fit and rule out what won’t….
Common Core was presented fait accompli. Here is your new car. You say: “Now hold on there.”

When you buy a new car,…. you shop around and inevitably take the car out for a test drive. You verify whether or not the product will perform as promised. You look over the vehicle to see if its new tires were changed out, if the new brake pads it came with were swapped, if the odometer was sufficiently low. Common Core was presented as a beep,beep, beeping (what’s that noise outside?) of a car carrier truck backing up to your driveway!

When you buy a new car,….. you negotiate. You negotiate the price, the terms of contract, the benefits, the interest rate, whether or not you’ll trade your old one in, and if you don’t like the offer, you don’t sign. With Common Core, your power of attorney apparently did if for you while you slept. “Here is your new car, ma’am. I’m takin’ your old one back, I’ve got it on the truck now.”

And that is how we got Common Core.

Now if it was a Bugatti Veyron you were being surprised with, and you were losing your well worn Ford Taurus, just maybe this process would be ok. You’d still be worried about the cost to you, maybe the payments might be an issue? But, the upgrade for a moment would still make you catch your breath.

But what if you instead, received a decade old Ford Taurus, installed with a Chevy truck engine, wheels off a Toyota Camry, and a recently slapped on MAACO auto body paint job, and were giving up your best-car-ever Jeep Renegade to receive it? Would the word “miffed” be a slight understatement?

Now, imagine through this entire process described above,… the News Journal regularly published the advertising blurbs from the car dealer as the news of the day with headlines such as: “Residents Get New Cars”; “Cars Replaced On Elm Street”; “Governor Touts the Benefit of New Cars!” “Legislators Take Turns Sitting In New Cars!”

Did they talk to anyone who was on the receiving end of these cars? What? No?
Did they talk to the tow truck driver who could with first hand knowledge describe people’s reactions? What? No?
Did they talk to neighbors of those receiving cars to pick up what is being said in private? What? No?

Instead, they inserted a quote that Conservative activists and “other groups” were opposed to this policy of replacing old cars with something new..

After all, how could anyone ever be angry with a new car? Right?

The News Journal has stumbled and fallen in its duty to create a nation of “well-informed men/women”…. when it was really…. so easy to do the proper thing.