Marlene Hinton
I suppose in the not-too-distant future the government will take over feeding our bodies just as they are taking over feeding our minds. Here’s what to expect:
What you order from the menu – Generous serving of prime, grade A top sirloin grilled to perfection, accompanied by a delightful selection of nutrition straight from the garden, picked at the height of freshness, along with a delicately flavored soup that is sure to please the most picky palate.
What you get – a small patty of pink slime served alongside the stringy, stinky canned spinach we all remember from the school (government) cafeteria, and a bowl of Seaweed Slop.
Currently, a plethora of restaurants offer an immense variety of foods prepared in distinct ways that entice diners according to price, taste, and motivation. Menus further cater to personal preferences. Every restaurant competes with the others in a variety of themes, selections, and cost. It’s all about choice and individuality.
When the government takes over ALL of the food industry – not just what is served in schools – the only competition will be which chain lobbies hardest (i.e., donates the greatest amount to the “liberal,” “progressive” party) to be the provider that meets the Common Food State Standards.
Which will, of course, change the flavor. Fats, sugars, salt, and carbonation will likely be replaced with things like nutritious dandelions, tofu, and soy products presented in a variety of artificial, imitation, dairy-like product substitutes. The food will also of necessity be gluten-free and nut-free so as not to offend the allergic. What it won’t be is affordable.
Excessive heat will become merely a memory both to prevent unfortunate accidents like burning oneself with coffee and to save energy. Due to Green Energy State Standards, sporadic electricity that green energy can provide will be in short supply and raise the cost astronomically.
You think I’m kidding?
We already have government-controlled food-for-thought. Only four states rejected the nationalized brain nutrition program referred to at the Common Core State Standards. That’s the federal mental cafeteria. The current “standards” are the product of private groups with taxpayer subsidies but without general input from states, school districts, or parents.
Just as the elevated platitudes that make up the Common Core State Standards SOUND good, only the profoundly ignorant accept them as meaningful. Implementation – dependent on the teacher and the agenda (i.e., curriculum) – is everything. And everything, all 100% of it, must be ingested or injected but not inspected. That’s right. Who knows what the recipe for Seaweed Slop really includes?
W. Stephen Wilson, math professor at Johns Hopkins and on the feedback committee for the math standards, says that the CCSS in math are not as high as those for the District of Columbia, which has the lowest graduation rate in the nation. Standards do not guarantee results.
Dr. Sandra Stotsky (also on the feedback committee) and math consultant Ze’ev Wurman evaluate the Common Core fare thus: “Although Common Core’s standards represent a laudable effort to shape a national curriculum, the draft-writers chose to navigate an uncharted path and subject the entire country to a large scale experimental curriculum rather than build on the strengths that can be documented in Massachusetts or California. Consequently, by grade 8 their mathematics standards are a year or two behind the National Mathematics Advisory Panel’s recommendations, leading states, and our international competitors.
No media discussion took place after several experts on the Validation Committee refused to sign off on Common Core’s standards, and the public has been left with the incorrect impression that English scholars, mathematicians, and high school English and mathematics teachers are unified in support of its ELA [English Language Arts] and mathematics standards. Common Core’s mathematics standards miss chunks of content recommended by the National Mathematics Advisory Panel for K-8 and inexplicably leave large holes in mathematics content currently in the high school curriculum.”
They recommend deleting phrases like “college and career readiness standards” from CCSS, claiming instead that CCSS “may lead to fewer high school students prepared for authentic college-level work.”
What the federal government is dishing up is heaping portions of control over children’s minds, parents’ money, and personal freedom. DON’T SWALLOW IT!! It is poisonous to liberty, toxic to intelligence, and caustic for families.