![\"girl](\"http:\/\/marniepehrson.com\/unplugged\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/childthumbsuck.jpg\")
<\/a>But Latisha wouldn\u2019t continue. She stuck her thumb in her mouth and concentrated harder.<\/p>\n\u201cWe haven\u2019t learned this yet, sweetie, move on to number three. I know you can get number three,\u201d Mrs. Jones encouraged.<\/p>\n
The teacher knew the question was impossible for Latisha, and it wasn\u2019t because the class hadn\u2019t learned it yet.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Developmentally, problem two was impossible for her entire first grade class. Mrs. Jones\u2019 mind went back thirty years to her university days where she first learned Jean Piaget\u2019s theory on cognitive development. Children\u2019s brains develop in stages and her class hadn\u2019t reached the stage where they could answer these questions.<\/p>\n
Mrs. Jones walked around the room, noticing some children haphazardly coloring in bubbles, not worrying about which answers they got right or wrong. But her brightest students were reduced to thumb-sucking and emotional upset, stuck on questions that their little minds wouldn\u2019t be able to answer for several more years.<\/p>\n The teacher\u2019s heart ached for her children. She wanted to help explain the cryptic questions, but there was an observer in the room, insuring she could do no such thing. The Common Core tests had to be administered without assistance.<\/p>\n Mrs. Jones encouraged Latisha one more time to continue to the next question and wondered how much longer she would remain a teacher in the school system. Between the endless regulations and documentation, militant demands by school authorities and now Common Core testing that was breaking the spirit of her students, she didn\u2019t know if she could take it much longer.<\/p>\n Many have addressed concerns over Common Core, but as I sat over my Thanksgiving dinner listening to this school teacher relate her first-hand account, I nearly broke down in tears. Why? <\/p>\n Because I felt for the teacher being forced to work under conditions that broke her spirit? Yes. <\/p>\n Because as a child I would have been like little Latisha, and I know what it would have done to me? Yes!<\/p>\n More importantly, I know the damage experiences like this inflict on people long-term. I spend my days helping the best and brightest break through fears<\/a>, overwhelm, self-doubts and old programming from their past \u2013 most of it caused by small traumatic moments in childhood — like little Latisha and her thumb-sucking classmates just experienced.<\/p>\n In moments like this, the child mind grasps to make sense of reality. She\u2019s trying to make sense of the world, how it works and who she is in it. Most likely, Latisha and her friends are forming opinions that act like core beliefs, driving their subconscious minds for decades unless they find some way to remove or counteract them.<\/p>\n Inside Latisha\u2019s mind, she\u2019s probably thinking and feeling with great emotion:<\/p>\n –\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m dumb<\/p>\n –\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Math is hard<\/p>\n –\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I can\u2019t learn<\/p>\n –\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Tests are impossible<\/p>\n –\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m a failure<\/p>\n –\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There’s no use in trying<\/p>\n One-time traumatic events coupled with strong emotion can seed beliefs like this into a child\u2019s mind until they become the person\u2019s mode of operations. Her entire life filters through those beliefs and impacts her choices and outcomes.<\/p>\n With Common Core, the rising generation will be repeatedly exposed to this kind of abuse throughout their school years. Whether created in ignorance of basic child development or as a malicious attack on teachers and students, the results of Common Core on children are the same \u2013 the best and brightest are being demoralized and programmed for failure at a core level.<\/p>\n It\u2019s time we started speaking out. If you have a story on Common Core, either post it below in the comments or contact me personally at marnie@marniepehrson.com<\/a> and I\u2019ll share your story with the world.<\/p>\n This is a great explanation on Common Core and childhood brain development by psychologist, Dr. Megan Koschnick<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nActual 1st grade question. This was answered incorrectly.<\/figcaption><\/figure>Trying to teach her 6-year-olds how to answer a fourth of the problems on this test would be a cognitive impossibility. It would be like reasoning with a newborn that a ball you showed her still exists now that you\u2019ve put it behind your back. For the newborn, it no longer exists. Her brain hasn\u2019t wrapped around the concept of object permanence.<\/p>\n<\/a>Because I felt sorry for little Latisha and the other children having an upsetting moment? Yes. <\/p>\n