Shakespeare, Milton, and Austen are dead. We killed them. They are being killed in public schools across the country because of the standardization of the Common Core, according to Terrence Moore, assistant professor of history.
Moore recently published his new book, “The Story-killers: A Common Sense Case Against the Common Core,” which addresses the issue of the implementation of the Common Core in the American educational system. Moore’s book specifically addresses the way the new core reinvents the way teachers present literature.
“The common core is a testing and curriculum regime which has taken over 45 states in the nation,” Moore said. “It is a coup over the entire national education system.”
According to the website “Hoosiers Against Common Core,” the core was established “to develop a set of academic standards to be used in common across all states. The Common Core State Standards are a set of learning standards in English language arts and mathematics. These standards, if adopted by a state, will replace existing state standards in these subject areas.”
Moore is featured on the website, as he has done a lot of work in opposition to the Common Core in Indiana.
Moore, an Indiana native, said that the standard was passed in 2010. Since then, the core has become an increasingly political issue taking place at the state level.
“It passed with very little public discussion,” Moore said. “Nobody knew what was going on, and that was by design.”
He has testified before three state legislative committees on the issue.
“I’m trying to help people be able to articulate what is wrong with the common core,” Moore said.
The core standards implemented throughout the country are replacing classic authors with modern authors, multicultural authors, and “informational texts,” which are basically government forms. Moore said that the English standards of the core will replace the literature, diminish the amount read, and increase the amount of these informational texts.
“That’s the kind of stuff that’s going to replace Shakespeare, Melville, Jane Austen,” Moore said. “When I say replace, I’m assuming the schools are actually reading that, which is usually not the case anyway.”
The core also eliminates religious texts and authors, such as the Bible, Augustine, Milton, and John Winthrop.
“In my mind that’s not education,” Moore said. “It is, first of all, just silly. Secondly, it’s actually programming. The more you look into the standards and the things that they want taught, the more you can see that it is biased politically. In modern political terms, there is a deliberate undermining of the Founding Fathers and the Constitution.”
In his book, Moore looks into how the core effects literature in schools, and how it is taught.
“The book goes into all of the assumptions and what the Common Core is trying to do,” Moore said. “It goes into the classroom and shows how they want lessons to be taught. They’re against liberal education, and they’re for doing all the most Mickey-Mouse things you could possibly imagine.”
Moore gave the example of a section of a textbook on Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein.” Of the 17 pages covering the subject, not a single one contained actual excerpts from the book. Five and a half pages of a Saturday Night Live skit spoof off “Frankenstein” were included instead.
He also said that his strong opposition to the Common Core is not based on a conspiracy theory. It’s in the books. Moore would know. He has spent the last four months meticulously going through the standards and pouring through textbooks to see how lessons are actually being taught.
“You have to know what you’re looking for,” he said.
Throughout the writing process, which started for Moore back in early July, he learned many things.
“I learned how truly incompetent and yet polished the people who are in charge of progressive education really are. They’ve sold this, and they’ve sold it well,” Moore said. “The other thing I learned is how little people who have to make decisions about education actually know about education.”
Moore is also author of various articles, including the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Times, and the Claremont Review of Books. He also wrote a novel, “The Perfect Game,” which, Moore said, has a gradual readership. His new book will soon be available in the Hillsdale College Bookstore.
Moore further said that Hillsdale’s education offers the antidote to what is infecting the rest of the country.
“Hillsdale is offering a model of liberal education at the college level that is not tainted by progressivism,” Moore said.
He has spent a significant amount of time working with the K-12 education through the charter school initiative in Hillsdale, for which he is main adviser.
“Hillsdale is a place that people are looking to to try to have an answer for what this thing is,” he said. “I’m hoping that I am providing that answer.”
evinton@hillsdale.edu
