Be wary of experimental school programs

I have been reading the pros and cons of the Common Core State Standards, another experimental teaching system. There is concern with the Common Core program from previous experience in the early 1970s when our family lived in Grosse Pte., Mich. We selected this areas due to the excellent reputation of their school system at the time.

A new curriculum, known as an "experimental government program," was to be installed in the local grammar school. The name itself was frightening enough, and certainly I did not want my children to be a part of any experimental program. This program was to last for six years and the school system was to receive $100,000.

After learning the details from school officials, who were very enthusiastic about the program, common sense told me this would not work. We left the public school system and enrolled our children in Lutheran schools, where they thrived. The six-year experimental governmental program failed as expected.

Parents, please become involved and look carefully into all aspects of Common Core, as there are many pitfalls in the program. Your children are the future of this country and should not be sacrificed in "experimental programs." I wonder if those involved in the various aspects of Common Core send their children to public schools, where this is being implemented, or to private schools where traditional proven teaching programs are successful. I shudder when thinking what might have occurred if they had stayed in the school with the failed "experimental government" program.

Gail Maxwell

Palatine