Discussion about a core curriculum brings to light some
fundamental differences in thinking about education and
learning. A core curriculum is a set of educational goals that
focuses on making sure that all students using it will learn set
material tied to age/grade level. The design of the curricula
are based on things that do not have much relevance to a
homeschooler: grade levels, learning divided into discrete
subjects (math, science, history, etc), testing goals and
classroom management needs. Recently the idea of a national core
curriculum has been receiving a lot of attention. The Core
Knowledge Sequence/ Common Core State Standards is a national
initiative to create a standard path of education across the
states, in part to make sure that students across states have
similar academic skills, in part to simplify the production of
text books and in part to create a “level” playing field for
future job prospects. A recent periodical (American Educator,
Winter, 2010-2011) calls the core curriculum an idea