How Common Core teaches Gettysburg Address is a ‘travesty!’

The Civil War may have had a significant influence on Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, but the Common Core curriculum prefers to leave it out.

Student Achievement Partners, the creators of the Common Core standards, offers resources on its website to assist teachers with the curriculum, Fox News’ Clayton Morris said. The website says this about teaching the Gettysburg Address:

The idea here is to plunge students into an independent encounter with this short text. Refrain from giving background context or substantial instructional guidance at the outset. It may make sense to notify students that the short text is thought to be difficult and they are not expected to understand it fully on a first reading – that they can expect to struggle. Some students may be frustrated, but all students need practice in doing their best to stay with something they do not initially understand. This close reading approach forces students to rely exclusively on the text instead of privileging background knowledge, and levels the playing field for all students as they seek to comprehend Lincoln’s address.

Morris asked Jim Stergios, executive director of the Pioneer Institute, on “Fox & Friends” Saturday about his response to the way Lincoln’s address was being taught.

The Pioneer Institute has done significant research on Common Core, Stergios said, and the group one of the foremost opponents of the educational standards.

“The standards themselves are mediocre,” Stergios said. “They cut the amount of literature in the classroom by about half. They constitute billions in dollars of unfunded mandates in states and localities.”

Diane Ravitch, former U.S. assistant secretary of education, said this on the teaching of the Gettysburg Address in a blog post:

“What a travesty!

“How is it possible for any student to understand the meaning of the Gettysburg Address without knowing the historical context in which it was delivered?”

Stergios said the standards view it as unfair to think kids have any historical context when reading these types of passages.

“It’s called ‘race to the top’ but it seems to me more like a race to the bottom,” he said.

Watch Stergios’ explanation in the segment here via Fox News:

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