Vicki Cobb, a prolific and successful writer of books for children, writes here about the replacement of handcrafted items by machine-made items.

And yet, even with all that is easily available made by machine, more than half of the population, she says, like to make things by hand.

She writes:

Unfortunately the factory mentality has invaded our educational system with the goal of mass producing children to be compliant, conformist, college and career-ready citizens as measured by their performance on standardized tests. It has sucked the passion and joy of learning from classrooms all over the country. This kind of conformity, controlled by fear, runs counter to the “inalienable” right to the “pursuit of happiness” in our Declaration of Independence — our definition of freedom. I would also maintain that this right is behind the United States as a cradle for innovation. Political leaders with an eye to the future say education needs to produce workers who are self-starters, able to independently process enormous amounts of material, sift through it and create new works with added value. In other words, we have to be able to reshuffle what exists, innovate and invent to fill new needs. We must also create people who can adapt to a fast-changing world and to be able to work with people globally, as well as locally. The classroom that can produce such students must allow for diverse interests and abilities, and be a safe place to practice skills and to fail.

I wish I could share her enthusiasm for the Common Core standards. I fear that their purpose and their goal is to mass-produce standardized children. She disagrees. Disagreement is healthy. Let’s keep talking about it.