Common Core Once Again

Here's a link to an interesting article about Common Core. I'm no longer in a high school so I'm not sure what it is exactly they're teaching now, but since I'm now dealing with the end product I'd have to agree that the little scholars don't seem to be any smarter since the implementation of Common Core. The article mentions not only the educational outcomes of Common Core but also the insertion of "propaganda" into the curriculum. I don't know about any of that but looking at what's going on in politics these days, there may be some truth to it. I do know that I can stand in front of the class and discuss things, put things up on the board and when we go out into the lab area quite a few of them will ask questions about things that I just covered. And a good majority of them don't know which electrode is the 1/8" and which is the 3/32" when you send them to the rod oven and those are the only two sizes in there. Something's going on here and it's not the "critical thinking skills" they were supposed to be learning.

We're currently working on welding certifications so I covered the rules I go by as an inspector as found in the AWS code book. I gave them a copy of the inspection criteria and what happens if they fail a certification test. I doubt if any of them actually read the hand-out or paid attention to what I told them judging by the questions I've been fielding. I doubt that Common Core is the cause of this. I think this is a direct result of the students no longer reading and them spending way too much time looking at things on their phones. The attention span seems to have shrunk considerably. Or maybe I'm just looking at it from the view point of an old duffer.

I do know if I had small children in this day and age, I'd be taking them to the library and getting them books to read on a regular basis and taking them to places like the zoo, historic sites and getting them outside on their bikes, throwing the ball around, hiking in the woods, fishing and camping. I'd make sure they're exposed to the outdoors and to history, both U.S and world and I'd keep them off social media as much as humanly possible and have them spend time with me in the shop.

Meanwhile on the home front, I finished up the lid for the tool box cover. Not the best photo - I should have raised the camera up a bit and moved towards one end or the other. If you were to look at the end view of the lid, you would see that it's trapezoidal in shape. Looks like it belongs there.

We had some .035" MIG wire that was already cut into short lengths at work and the lab tech said take all of it if I wanted. He cut it up a couple of years ago and no one had used any of it since. I took only enough to finish the job and it did make the welding a lot easier since the wire diameter is pretty close to the same as the metal thickness of the sheets. I should probably bring a few more pieces of the filler wire home to keep on hand. Anyway, one step closer.

Seeing the surgeon today about my splinter. I'm taking four pages of paperwork with me that probably took me longer to fill out than it will to have the splinter removed. I'm pretty sure the old doc on Gunsmoke could've taken the splinter out - or the vet where we take the dog. My boss said just to rub some Ora-Jel on it and take the razor blade and the tweezers to it. Probably should have taken his advice and I'd be healed up by now.