yay for South Carolina

First it was "water safety" courses which I thought was exceptional for our school system to do that. Now This proposed legislation. I am waiting to hear the anti-gun advocates stance on this:

Legislation proposed last month by three members of the South Carolina legislature would require public school teachers in that state to spend three weeks each year extolling the virtues of the Second Amendment — as that amendment is understood by the National Rifle Association. The bill requires all South Carolina public schools to “provide instruction in the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution for at least three consecutive weeks during one grading period in each academic year.” Moreover, “the State Superintendent of Education shall adopt a curriculum developed or recommended by the National Rifle Association or its successor organization.”

Three weeks is an absolutely extraordinary amount of instruction time to devote to such a narrow subject, at least at the elementary or secondary school level, even setting aside the political nature of the material. Many high school history teachers publish their course syllabi online, and a ThinkProgress review of Advanced Placement United States History syllabi reveals that teachers typically spend far less than three weeks teaching pivotal events or major aspects of American history.

One South Carolina charter school, for example, devotes just two weeks to “The Slave System and the Coming of the Civil War” and only a week and a half to World War II in its Advanced Placement United States History course. A Maine private school devotes two weeks to “Slavery and Sectionalism” and another two weeks to “World War II and the Origins of the Cold War.” A Kentucky high school devotes only two weeks to the “Roaring 20’s, Great Depression and New Deal,” a period that thrust America into an historic crisis and transformed the nation’s view of the role of government in society.

Nevertheless, the South Carolina bill does not simply require schools to spend more time teaching students the NRA’s view of gun rights than many advanced high school courses spend teaching about subjects such as slavery or World War II; it requires this course to be taught at the elementary, middle and high school level.

-Courtesy Thinkprogess.org.

SC Common Core

The battle began about two years ago. When the parents of South Carolina school children began bringing home  Common Core education. The lines were drawn and parents were outraged at the "Dumbing Down" of our school kids.
I ,in Florida felt fortunate, that we did not have full implementation of this monster..we only had the math portion which is a headache enough. South Carolina and several other states have full implementation.
Common Core is not only a fight for what curriculum is taught, it is also a fight for the personal data that is being collected. Data that the federal government has no business asking.

Below is an actual questionnaire :

This is what a parent wrote in on one such questionnaire that was mailed to them from the Palm Beach County School District here in Florida:

 Now I am happy to say that Last week the voices of the people were heard, the South Carolina House and Senate struck down Common Core. The bill will go back to the house for final passage then signed by the Governor.

However South Carolina must remain vigilant. The same thing was done in Indiana and new curriculum was passed, only it was still common core with a different name to it.
That is why the Anti Common Core movement is hoping for their candidate : Sherry Few to be elected. She has promised sweeping changes to South Carolina's education system and if elected will begin working on the new curriculum in January 2015 when she takes office.

Now Florida needs to get on the bandwagon....  fingers crossed

-JUGM