Contradictory to its original purpose, Common Core ultimately hinders the critical thinking skills of students.

Common Core was originally created to guide schools away from teaching styles that encourage the memorization of information. Though test scores have improved with the adoption of Common Core, the original reason to administer such tough standards on students is completely nonexistent.

“The reliance on testing pigeonholes the teachers to teach only to the test,” legislative director for the Massachusetts Senate Michael Benezra said. “So the kids are coming out and what they’re learning might not be conventional. So they might know some obscure facts about American history, but they might miss why the revolution started,”

The formulation of such a difficult curriculum has proven to be nothing but misplaced energy. Teachers are under the stress of time to teach students exactly what they need to know. On the other hand,  students are given so much information that they have resolved to only memorizing the important facts.

According to TPF Student Action, the founders of Common Core follow a materialistic philosophy, due to the fact that  “school subjects that did not have a direct benefit to material prosperity or that did not prepare a student to be a worker – such as philosophy or literature or languages – were useless and should be abolished.”

It is difficult to argue that schools are supposed to prepare students to someday join the workforce, but school is also meant for so much more, such as character development.

In addition, it is difficult to encourage critical thinking when the students are given such uniform concepts, such as “use parentheses, brackets or braces in numerical expressions and evaluate expressions with these symbols.”

A further example of this is the elimination of important classic literature. Common Core standards have replaced 70 percent of “traditional” works with informative texts. While this move may promote critical thinking, it completely abolishes any type of creative or philosophical thinking. Granted, the “critical thinking” becomes an analysis of facts and numbers and demotes understandings of morals, culture and emotions.

Common Core’s impact on math is another example of poorly thought out standards. They are designed to prepare students to enter STEM careers, but actually put students two years behind kids in other countries.

All things considered, it is easy to see how the promise of a more intelligent nation could compel teachers and parents to support Common Core. However, after taking a closer look at the motives and results, it is likely students will grow up to have no appreciation of culture or art, as well as become followers of the workforce instead of creators. Scholars should eradicate Common Core, use it as a lesson and try again.