Who's the real bully?

I believe that we need to teach social skills to our children and I travel around the country sharing that message with teachers. Some are open to the idea but most simply say that they have no time due to the standards that are being forced upon them by Common Core.

Bullying is about power and control. The standards are about power and control. We have over 50 million students attending public elementary and secondary schools in the US and the proponents of Common Core believe that it's my way or the highway for kids in our public school system.

When Jeb Bush comes out and says the "Common Core is not a federal takeover of the local classroom", I get worried because it was his brother that got this all started with No Child Left Behind in 2001.

My wife, FIlipa, is Portuguese and there are about 2 million students in their version of the K-12 system over there and they don't have Common Core. They are educating less than 5% of the number of kids we are and are doing a much better job without a top down strategy.  

Teachers tell me they want to help kids acquire the social skills they need to succeed. They tell me they want to be more involved in their lives and spend time talking about character education but they are worried that if they do, they will fall short on the tests and that will cost them the job they love. That sounds like bullying to me.