Douglas, you’re undermining the efforts of good educators. Image:http://goo.gl/pEYMHG

Every time one of these “clever” parent responses to Common Core goes viral, I have to breathe a heavy sigh of frustration.

Once again, my profession will come under fire for teaching standards that, while they sometimes baffle parents, educators, and students alike, offer a set of guidelines that ask us to think about why we teach the content we do. They’re not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but they allow for greater flexibility on the part of the educator to employ a set of strategies that will appeal to multiple types of learners.

I’ve worked closely with the standards as a basis for designing lessons and curriculum, and I’ve found that they contain (at least in the 6–12 English and Language Arts category) extremely broad, yet profound lessons that students deserve to be taught. They encourage critical thinking, analysis, and the collection and synthesis of information. Compared with stringent state standards that promote content over strategy, and rote knowledge over original thought, they are an undeniable leap forward.

Viral posts like this play on the fears of non-educators, who have no reason to embed themselves in the reasons for the implementation of these new standards, in a way that is ultimately predatory. They point to the standards, produced by some of the top educators in the country based on research that flies in the face of previous iterations standardization, and reinforces the idea that old-fashioned techniques were obviously superior to all of this new-fangled mumbo jumbo that the kids are being fed now. It’s a dangerous, anti-intellectual line of thinking, and I feel like it’s too popular for its own good.

Look, I haven’t completely bought into the Common Core hype train. I sometimes feel underprepared, overstretched, and downright confused by the requirements levied upon us by these standards handed down from on high. Common Core is not some panacea that’s going to fix education for every child in this country, but it’s a challenge that’s worth approaching with full confidence in its potential to work for more students than other efforts.

I’d be happy to engage anyone who reads this in conversation about Common Core. I’d appreciate being shared with people who criticize Common Core without really knowing what it means. Most of all, I want to ask the Dad that reportedly wrote this check a simple question- was this cheeky joke worth the harm it causes to the educational profession?