Culture

Louis C.K. Slams American Education System In Epic Twitter Rant

"My kids used to love math. Now it makes them cry. Thanks standardised testing and common core!"

by Steph Harmon  30 April 2014

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Louis C.K. is not particularly prolific on Twitter, but when he pops up, it’s always worth the wait.

The comedian, who was named the funniest in America last week by GQ, took to the social media network for a brief moment yesterday to slam the controversial set of Common Core educational standards which public schools in America have begun implementing over the past few years. Common Core has critics from all sides of politics: many on the right see the whole thing as yet another example of federal over-reach, while the left sees the standards as completely unable to account for socioeconomic differences across states and homes — and, more generally, as a pretty limited and unflexible way of assessing a child’s individual skills and passions.

Those arguments, coupled with studies which show common core standards do nothing to improve student performance, is why the National Education Association and New York State United Teachers have recently withdrawn their support. And why the whole thing is fair game for Louis C.K., whose kids attend a public school in New York, and whose third grader was challenged to “Draw a pictograph for the data given in the table”.