MANASSAS, Va. – Russell Shaw of OSV Newsweekly recently shared his take on the controversy surrounding the Common Core and the broader problem of the negative impact the culture has on student performance.

According to Shaw, the Common Core tends to focus “on what happens—or doesn’t happen, but should—in the classroom.” Its scope is limited because it fails to take into consideration what happens to students “in homes, neighborhoods and the culture,” he states in his article. Shaw believes these factors have a significant effect on educational standards overall.

He notes that the “culture of self-indulgent affluence” is jeopardizing the education of young people:

Causal factors include parents who don’t read to their kids, homes with several TVs and heaps of electronic gear but hardly any books, a youth culture that encourages frittering away time via social media and values quick-fix gratification at the expense of serious intellectual work, and the emotional fallout from the breakup of marriages and homes.

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Shaw brings to light the correlation between school life and home life. He states that “the problem isn’t just the classroom but the culture at large.” A student’s home life may have the power to impact his school performance.

The Cardinal Newman Society’s Primer on Common Core emphasizes that “parents deserve a strong voice in deciding” the future of their children’s education because the Church recognizes parents “as the primary educators of their children.” The Primer is part of the Society’s initiative Catholic Is Our Core, which helps Catholic families, educators and Church leaders better understand the Common Core and protect the extraordinary legacy of Catholic schooling.

Authored by Kimberly Scharfenberger

Originally published here by Catholic Education Daily, an online publication of The Cardinal Newman Society.