This is my version of the connection, not the official state version. So here goes:
Once, when the world was smaller and simpler, I might have been, let’s say, a farmer in Iowa. I would have gotten a good, basic education, and probably a K-12 course in Common Sense Core! Common sense was not only once a hot educational commodity, it was an essential skill. (Still is, by the way!) A farm kid not only learned readin’, writin’, and ’rithmetic, as the saying used to go—they learned a lot of hands-on, practical, down-to-earth (really, like dirt and everything…in some places in Georgia they still do!) common sense. These common sense skills were essential to farm logic, safety, and critical thinking that involved weather, crop rotation, measuring silo capacity, and many other things. Hmm, some of those sound a lot like science and math, don’t they?
Today, our students still need good basic reading, writing, and math skills, but the world has changed. Or has it? Kids still need good “common sense,” only today they have the element of the invisible to cope with…distance learning, the worldwide web, the ones and zeros of computer code, and so much more: technology. And so, just as a farm kid once had to learn “hard things” of a certain nature (that most of us would flunk today!), kids today have a real need to learn science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. So when we discover that Georgia students must soon learn new and harder things at younger ages, we should not balk, we should welcome the challenge to prepare them sooner—and better—for the tasks that lie ahead for them in their careers.
The “connection” between Common Core and Careers is that one day a potential employer will ask the job candidate (your child/student) if he or she can do X, Y, and Z…and it won’t be milking a cow! Such change was inevitable, but now it has come down to even entry level jobs of all types. I just visited my cardiologist and had my EKG done by a young woman who seemed an expert at the portable machine she wheeled around, along with other equipment she used to check my heart rate blood pressure, and such. No, she was not a nurse, but she—a young, new hire, apparently deemed trainable—certainly felt like the first line defense between me and heart disease/attacks. A kid. A kid who had entered the almost ubiquitous work world of high tech. (Heck, it took high tech for me to even sign in for my appointment; what is that new machine scanning thingamabob, anyway?)
Kids need to enter each grade sufficiently prepared for the challenge of the next. Whether we call it this or not, each grade IS a pathway to a career. Common Core can mean many things, but one thing it most certainly means is that there is a new language that no matter where your child ends up working, they will need to speak the common sense language of technology, even to get along each day in the real work world.
No, it ain’t yo’ grandpappy’s education scenario, nor Mom’s, nor Uncle Joe’s.
Common Core = Common Sense = Common Ground. As a “no spring chicken adult” I’ve had to “get up to speed” on all things technological in the publishing industry. It’s been a struggle, but I’ve managed to thrive (if not completely ace) all things technological. Actually, it’s been a challenge, fun, and rewarding. The career train is always moving and if I wanted to stay on board, I had to continue my lifelong learning, wherever it led.
So good on all parents, teachers, and educators who keep raising the bar, because there is no choice. I believe your children are up to the challenge, if you are. They do need parents’ help! They need cooperation, collaboration, and communication. But they mostly need the new age “common core” of education, common sense, and that means techno too!
It just makes sense. Some countries have sped ahead of us. So have some states. But Georgia is on board and all 159 counties are part of this new work world and its essential skill and educational requirements. You know what? Even for farmers!
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When I bought my first computer in 1984, the Apple dealer told me this story:
“The first computer I sold was to a farmer. He loved it; said it helped him do his job so much faster and better. He had statistics, growth rates, crop prices, and I don’t know what all on that machine! I heard you could see him in the field with it slapped on the hood of his pickup truck, or in the barn with his cattle. The first time he brought it in (in a mere six weeks), he had to have it serviced. Why wasn’t it working well? It was full of hay! Every few months he brought it in to be cleaned out again. And when a new model computer came out, he was the first to show up to buy one. He said it was just ‘indispensable’!” If this was true then, imagine how much truer now, and in the future, well, the common core/career connection only grows.
Copyright Carole Marsh/Gallopade 2012
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