If our children have been prepared to think critically and to solve problems independently, if they can work effectively in teams, and communicate clearly and powerfully, we’ll be ready for all of the opportunities and challenge that lie ahead. Luckily, we have a plan today that will help us solve the problems of tomorrow. It involves remodeling our current system of education—surveying to see what’s working and what’s not and updating it to meet a new set of needs.
We need to remodel our approach to education so that it becomes more like a kitchen where students are learning to cook with information: learning to select information, judge its quality, and use a variety of tools to combine knowledge and analysis to produce something original—following steps carefully, but also learning to improvise. Cooking with information means creating something practical, relevant, and meaningful with knowledge.
The Common Core State Standards are a set of goals that are being implemented statewide as part of the remodeling project. They focus on the kinds of updated skills that the next generation of Californians needs to succeed in college, in our workforce, and in life.
Part of this remodeling involves updating the way that we prepare and equip our teachers so they are more like master chefs, setting challenges and working along side students, but making sure that students get the chance to get their hands dirty and figure out what works.
We need a next-generation way of thinking about teaching and learning. In math, we need to teach how numbers work and relate to a broader set of problem-solving skills. In language arts, we need students reading literature and non-fiction that tie different subjects together and practice writing convincing arguments and developing their ideas.
Whenever you take on a remodeling project there’s bound to be some dust early on, but in the end you get something that works better and more efficiently. We all need to support the remodeling of our education system if it’s going to work for us. That’s why California has been getting feedback and is taking its time to get the blueprints just right.
By remodeling our learning kitchens and providing teachers the support they need, California’s next generation of students will be able to use all of the fresh ingredients and flavors available to us to keep California exceptional.
That’s what’s cooking with the Common Core in California.