Do you want to know why conservatives are so opposed to Common Core State Standards in education?
In effect, we are training our students to think critically about the world around them and ask deep questions about the validity and accuracy of claims presented to them.
The alarm-raising code word to foment conservative opposition is, most likely, ”critical thinking.”
Our current understanding of the meaning of “critical thinking” is closely tied to postmodern concepts that humans have the power to question “truth,” come to new understandings of reality, and interpret perspectives in situational ways. Of course, this flies in the face of the belief, popularized by mainstream Protestant influence, that truth is extant & non-malleable.
The great secret then, is that conservative power is eroding due to the fact that postmodernity and pragmatic relativism are de jure in today’s American culture. To combat this trend, conservatives are doubling down on their absolute view of the world with the full belief that a binary belief system of “always right” vs. “always wrong” will win out in the “culture wars” and that the tenants of conservative ideology will remain powerful because of their reliance on absolute morality and absolute, unwavering truth.
In conclusion, conservatives oppose Common Core because it seeks to foster robust “critical thinking” within the minds of the next generations of Americans. When critical thinking is commonplace (which, I submit, is not currently so), conservative authority will be diminished greatly, and the power of conservative evangelicalism will falter as a consequence.
Here.
