Common Core-Approved Search Engines
As someone who watches all sides of the Common Core debate I find myself in numerous groups discussing many issues at once. It can be a bit overwhelming and it becomes a steady drone but once in a while something jumps out and grabs your attention.
A parent recently contacted me regarding her daughter’s 8th grade English Language Arts class. The teacher had given the kids a website address as a source for information for an assignment they were working on. This mother became concerned when she went to the website and saw some inappropriate material that would not be suitable for children in the 8th
The school and districts response was less than satisfactory. They basically said, “Whoops, sorry, our bad. No, we’re not going to do anything about it and feel no need to disclose this information to other parents.”
This is a great example of a school district not being accountable to parents. After hearing stories like the one I outlined above it should be no surprise that this was posted by a concerned parent on one of the Common Core pages on Facebook.
The following parent wishes to remain anonymous, so in respect of her privacy I will not disclose the state in which this happened; however, this is verified as truth through multiple channels of open communication between the poster and the page administrator (emphasis added by author):
My daughter told me a story a few weeks ago about doing a research paper for one of her classes this past spring. (She was a freshman at the time). She told me that it was particularly difficult to do since she had to use the “common core approved” search engine ‘SIRS’ for 4 of her 6 sources as required by her teacher. I found this to be very troubling, as did she since she said it was almost impossible to support her point of view by being forced to use that search engine to do her research.
So we began to dig into this Common Core approved search engine that the students were being forced to use for research.
The name of the search engine is Pro-Quest K-12, SIRS Knowledge Source. The website claims it “provides a portal to relevant, credible information carefully hand-selected by our SIRS editorial staff. When students use SKS, they receive best-of content designed to support student research, study, and homework in key curricula subjects.”
With many adults spending hours on researching this search engine, some very disconscerting things were uncovered.
A cartoon mocking traditional values:
A lesson about illegal immigration with this cartoon:
We also found a lesson on Planned Parenthood and the federal budget includes the following statement (emphasis mine):
Part of the compromise was the last minute agreement by the Republicans to remove several attached riders they had attached to the spending bill. One of these riders targeted the funding for Planned Parenthood that the GOP viewed and promoted inaccurately as a major provider of abortions. Statistics confirmed the reality that less than 3% of Planned Parenthood’s work resulted in arranging for abortions, and none of these required the use of federal funding.
Then, what is the role of Planned Parenthood? Planned Parenthood is America’s most trusted provider of reproductive health care. Its skilled health care professionals are dedicated to offering men, women, and teens, high quality and affordable medical care. One in five American women has chosen Planned Parenthood for health care at least once in her life.
When typing in key search words like “traditional marriage” or “heterosexual” or even “pro-life,” the site has nothing to offer.
Is this an example of the Common Core approved agenda? Providing children with a source for information on just one side of the issue? It’s not only just one sided, the progressive side, but openly mocks people if they believe otherwise.
There’s even a link that mocks the tradition of the Supreme Court.
As one of our most knowledgeable opponents of the Common Core and its tactics says, “[They’re] touting that they are promoting critical thinking. No; they are pitching ideology as fact.”
Isn’t it a long standing American tradition to always see the many sides of an issue and then to form your own opinion based on all of the facts? What is our country headed for if generations of school children are only hearing political ideology as their facts?
This is how a nation changes its history. This kind of propaganda can turn monsters into heroes and erase the holocaust.
It is dangerous and irresponsible for the entire Common Core regime to advocate for the use of this site for research purposes. Not only will it present the very progressive rhetoric that we hear all around us on a daily basis but it will direct a child to a false opinion. An opinion formed on an issue after hearing only one very slanted side of it is not an opinion at all.
One word comes to mind regarding exactly what this irresponsible search engine is promoting in our young children’s minds: Indoctrination.
We must stop this. We have to make sure our children know the truth about our history and about our present, neither of which offer up perfect pictures; indeed there is some ugliness. But it is our responsibility to arm our children as warriors, with the correct knowledge so that they are not doomed to repeat past mistakes and atrocities.
