The virtual timing of the re-circulating of Marine Gen. James “Mad Dog” Mattis’ November 2003 letter about reading, is a blessing. With the Common Core requiring more emphasis on information texts, the lack of understanding behind those documents is astounding.

Students who are only taught from only documents and manuals, will not know the why, the passion, behind those texts. That lack of information will severely hinder the ability to process, individually, for themselves how to reasonably solve a problem, or create anew.

Haman nature does not change and because of that history is destined to repeat. The only way to know how to solve problems of the future is to learn from the past. Passion, feelings, emotions are what drives men to achieve victory and over come battles and wars. We mustn’t lose sight of what our forefathers went through and the legacies they left behind, or we will be completely blind with the knowledge we could have seen the future.

General Mattis has since retired, leaving his post as “head of Central Command, which oversaw wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and was responsible for a region that includes Syria, Iran, Yemen.” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Mattis

Here is his letter:

“Message 1: from General James Mattis, on the matter of professional reading, 20 November
2003
“….The problem with being too busy to read is that you learn by experience (or by your men’s
experience), i.e. the hard way. By reading, you learn through others’ experiences, generally a
better way to do business, especially in our line of work where the consequences of
incompetence are so final for young men.

“Thanks to my reading, I have never been caught flat-footed by any situation, never at a loss for
how any problem has been addressed (successfully or unsuccessfully) before. It doesn’t give
me all the answers, but it lights what is often a dark path ahead.

“With TF 58, I had w/ me Slim’s book, books about the Russian and British experiences in AFG,
and a couple others. Going into Iraq, “The Siege” (about the Brits’ defeat at Al Kut in WW I) was
req’d reading for field grade officers. I also had Slim’s book; reviewed T.E. Lawrence’s “Seven
Pillars of Wisdom”; a good book about the life of Gertrude Bell (the Brit archaeologist who
virtually founded the modern Iraq state in the aftermath of WW I and the fall of the Ottoman
empire); and “From Beirut to Jerusalem”. I also went deeply into Liddell Hart’s book on
Sherman, and Fuller’s book on Alexander the Great got a lot of my attention (although I never
imagined that my HQ would end up only 500 meters from where he lay in state in Babylon).

“Ultimately, a real understanding of history means that we face NOTHING new under the sun.
For all the “4th Generation of War” intellectuals running around today saying that the nature of
war has fundamentally changed, the tactics are wholly new, etc, I must respectfully say… “Not
really”: Alex the Great would not be in the least bit perplexed by the enemy that we face right
now in Iraq, and our leaders going into this fight do their troops a disservice by not studying
(studying, vice just reading) the men who have gone before us.

“We have been fighting on this planet for 5000 years and we should take advantage of their
experience. “Winging it” and filling body bags as we sort out what works reminds us of the
moral dictates and the cost of incompetence in our profession. As commanders and staff
officers, we are coaches and sentries for our units: how can we coach anything if we don’t
know a hell of a lot more than just the TTPs? What happens when you’re on a dynamic
battlefield and things are changing faster than higher HQ can stay abreast? Do you not
adapt because you cannot conceptualize faster than the enemy’s adaptation? (Darwin has
a pretty good theory about the outcome for those who cannot adapt to changing
circumstance — in the information age things can change rather abruptly and at warp
speed, especially the moral high ground which our regimented thinkers cede far too quickly
in our recent fights.) And how can you be a sentinel and not have your unit caught
flat-footed if you don’t know what the warning signs are — that your unit’s preps are not
sufficient for the specifics of a tasking that you have not anticipated?

“Perhaps if you are in support functions waiting on the warfighters to spell out the specifics of
what you are to do, you can avoid the consequences of not reading. Those who must adapt to
overcoming an independent enemy’s will are not allowed that luxury.

“This is not new to the USMC approach to warfighting — Going into Kuwait 12 years ago, I
read (and reread) Rommel’s Papers (remember “Kampstaffel”?), Montgomery’s book (“Eyes
Officers”…), “Grant Takes Command” (need for commanders to get along, “commanders’
relationships” being more important than “command relationships”), and some others. As a
result, the enemy has paid when I had the opportunity to go against them, and I believe that
many of my young guys lived because I didn’t waste their lives because I didn’t have the vision
in my mind of how to destroy the enemy at least cost to our guys and to the innocents on the
battlefields.

“Hope this answers your question…. I will cc my ADC in the event he can add to this. He is the
only officer I know who has read more than I.

“Semper Fi, Mattis

www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/05/10/the-viral-email-sent-by-a-marine-general-in-2003-on-the-importance-of-reading/

Hidden deep within the Common Core State Standards is a goal to teach children that there is no such thing as a boarder defining a country. We are global citizens that accept each other, our cultures, beliefs, educational goals and economic prosperity for the benefit of the world we live in.

In the news, we have seen reports of parents finding assignments that require students to denounce rights provided by the Constitution, to step on Christian leadership, and to write essays about why Jews are evil. Teachers are being fired for being religious or conservative. Censorship is now public enemy number one against anyone or any ideology that is against this new reform of education known as Common Core.

Socialism is being heralded as the way to make things equal, so that no poverty exists. A redistribution of wealth! The phrase, “It takes a village to raise a child,” has evolved into a collective movement where children now belong to the community, or even to the world as a whole. President Obama’s own Department of Justice has declared that children do not need a mother or a father, helping to further the mentality of collective possession!

I was asked by Utah State Board of Education member Tami Pyfer “where exactly does it say in the standards that global citizenship was the goal?” I didn’t respond right away as I had several questions for her 1) Haven’t you read the standards and the resources that you send to your teachers? 2) If Utah is claiming that “-Utah Common Core Standards-” are not national standards, why does she get jumpy when I talk about the National Common Core Standards?

Also I wanted to give a her clear answer for all to read!

Let me begin with a personal story. My oldest daughter was planning out her courses out for winter semester last fall. Together we spoke with a U.S. History teacher and I asked him directly how he would be teaching this class. He told me that he would provide documents and he would engage the students in discussions about these documents. You can imagine my eyebrows going up “Oh, really?”

I asked him how the students and my child were supposed to know the history or the story of those documents? He said the students would have to do the research on their own. That was part of the standards which would required students to come to their own conclusion about the documents and history. I was polite in thanking him for his time, but was screaming inside my head, “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?” And that was the end of that class for us!

Informational texts without the story will not provide the vision that our Founders’ had of freedom! Informational texts will not tell the stories of emotional hardship, triumphs, sacrifice, service, bravery, and torture that countless individuals endured for us to have the freedom of choice, voice, and pursuit of happiness! Informational text was a goal of Karl Marx. Eliminate emotion, passion, and conviction, and there is nothing for which to fight. Words are just words.

In Education Week, a column was entitled, “Common Core: Preparing Globally Competent Citizens.” This statement says it all. “The Common Core State Standards for English language arts include a series of statements that, while not directly standards themselves, offer a portrait of the capacities of literate students who meet the Standards. One of these seven statements directly addresses the importance of college and career ready students coming ‘to understand other perspectives and cultures’.” The statement continues, “Students appreciate that the twenty-first-century classroom and workplace are settings in which people from often widely divergent cultures and who represent diverse experiences and perspectives must learn and work together. Students actively seek to understand other perspectives and cultures through reading and listening, and they are able to communicate effectively with people of varied backgrounds.”

Is that not the end goal for the government? To provide citizens who know nothing about borders, who accept everyone’s values and cultures, who accept no one culture as superior to another? There is are already fears of a collapsing dollar leading to a global currency. Education would be the means to teach the future residents of this new governance!

On another website, New Global Citizens, it states, “Teaching global competency falls in line quite seamlessly with the Common Core State Standards.” How can that statement be dismissed so casually by those in leadership? People who believe in global citizenship can see it in the writings! I can see it in the writings, why can’t leadership?

And if those two links still don’t show the intent of Common Core to lead our children away from American values and citizenship, then perhaps the International Baccalaureate official documents will persuade:

The IB prepares students to succeed in a rapidly changing world.

• More than a set of rigorous academic standards,
• Emphasizes an education for global engagement,
• Provides a Balance between the skills required to succeed in a competitive, global economy and the values that define responsible, global citizenship.

“The IB applauds the efforts of the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of
Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) to improve the quality of education across the United States through the Common Core State Standards initiative (CCSS).

“The IB shares with the U.S. Department of Education and its state agencies the important goals of developing internationally benchmarked standards and the ambition to better prepare all students for success in college and career development.”

The IB is pleased to have been selected in 2011 as one of 5 sets of standards against which the Common Core was measured by education experts to determine its success in meeting its goals.”

Make no mistake, IB standards are aligned with Common Core State Standards by design! Global citizenry and governance is the goal. American values will no longer be taught as goals for the future, but as theories of the past.

For more evidence :
National Association of Secondary School Principles

Yesterday, Utah State School Board member, Joel Coleman, wrote a blog post about the Common Core Standards and where he thinks the mis-understandings lie.

In his opening paragraph he says: “it has become increasingly apparent to me that some of the strongest opponents of Utah’s core standards are people who don’t want any standards at all. Some of them have children that don’t even attend public schools, and therefore are not subject to the standards we are required to implement, anyway.”

Joel, allow me to correct you. We do want standards. We have standards, both in our the religious aspects of our lives as well as in our homes with our children. It’s how we know we are progressing towards our goals. In the 1828 Noah Webster’s dictionary definition #3 for “standard” states: “That which is established as a rule or model, by the authority of public opinion, or by respectable opinions, or by custom or general consent; as writings which are admitted to be the standard of style and taste. Homer’s Illiad is the standard of heroic poetry. Demosthenes and Cicero are standards of oratory. Of modern eloquence, we have an excellent stand in the speeches of Lord Chatham. Addison’s writings furnish a good standard of pure, chaste and elegant English style. It is not an easy thing to erect a standard of taste.”

Standards define a moral and chaste people; of course we want standards. Do not attempt to belittle us to the public on this.

It is true that some of us have pulled our children out of public and charter schools. That is our right, as parents to do so and should not be looked down upon. But there are two other points that Joel neglects to mention. Speaking for myself, I pulled my children out of public school because of Common Core, as a whole, not just the standards. I am not a standards expert. However, I have been taught that you don’t phase out the classics as you get older, you must encourage others to read them more! I also know that introducing classics as abridged or in parts, is not teaching the classics, it’s taking out the most important details that builds the emotion or passion of the story. Both points which David Coleman, noted author of the ELA standards and current President of the College Board, absolutely abhors and find unnecessary for learning. Dr. Sandra Stoskey (a standards expert) would not sign off on the English Language Standards because they do not meet college and university level required reading. Phasing them out to 30%, in 12th grade is horrible to the development of children, even through their teen years!

The second note is that we as homeschoolers will be subject to the “standards” as homeschool publishing companies are aligning their curriculum with the standards (including Saxon and Singapore Math, Excellence in Writing and others), as well as the college entrance exams will most likely provide low scores from our children’s testing. So again, please don’t belittle the effect it will have on homeschooling.

In Joel’s comments, he stated that the Common Core Standards were required by law to be adopted which, is simply not true. In fact you can hear the audio of the Board, on August 6th 2010, saying that they are the ones adopting the Common Core, not the State legislature. State legislatures were not involved with the Standards themselves and in fact didn’t become involved until they started passing laws regarding grading of schools, computer adaptive testing, data collecting, and anything else involving exchange of monies. Now No Child Left Behind is a law, but that is a Federal law, not a state.

Mr. Coleman mentions that the explanations in his post where sent to him; that he is not the original author, I’d like to know his sources, as these should be transparent.

Continuing from his post we find: “The purpose of Utah’s core standards is not to drive everyone to achieve the same specific goals for each student, or for them to achieve at the same pace. It is not designed to promote sameness.” Question: If the students don’t achieve the goal of the teacher, school district or State Board, who fails? According to current law, SB 271, it is the teacher and eventually the school.

In continuing my research, I found Senator Neiderhauser’s, current sitting President of the Senate, blog post on “The Senate Site” B 59 will change that definition so that a school’s grade is based on more tangible benchmarks.”

SB271 is the Amended portion to SB59.

It is based on tangible benchmarks or standards. It is a system of one size fits all, or the teachers and the schools will fail. They are tied together. Bad standards will lead to bad assessments. Bad assessments will drive bad curriculum. Bad curriculum will drive the students to test below college and university levels, which mean the teachers and the schools will receive an “F” or worse. This is not just about standards. The picture is much bigger than that, and the State knows it.

Mr. Colman shared his blog post on his Facebook page, and I found Senator Moss’s response rather interesting:

“Carol Spackman Moss: Thank you for the post, Joel. You are exactly right! The CCSS do not limit students, they set standards that allow students and teachers to have some idea what they should aiming for. It doesn’t set curriculum or teaching style. I’m frustrated with the fear mongering and the insistence by some that these standards will have deleterious effects on our students. Why are some folks fearful of more rigor? If we want our students to be able to compete with students all over the world, we need to raise the bar. Thanks for taking the time to educate and inform. (Your friend and high school English teacher).”

As I speak to various people about Common Core and describe the whole picture, I am amazed that our meetings are much calmer, than those that the State hosts. We lay out what we have found, including original sources. I asked in that same Facebook thread where the evidence that these standards are rigorous was. Where is their research? Post it! Who conducted the research? Who participated? My friends and I have yet to receive an answer to these questions. What we can show you is that they haven’t done the research. We can show you the timeline, and how it was time- sensitive and money driven.

These standards are nothing wonderful! Otherwise there wouldn’t be so much opposition to them nation wide!