The real problem with common core is that the teachers don't seem to understand it. ...
In short, these teachers are not that bright, never really learned math, and don't understand the curriculum. So it's doomed, at least until teachers who learned it in the first place (from teachers who didn't know it) start teaching.
It's not at all helped by parents who intentionally and/or ignorantly bypass the instructions. Which kind of grates my carrot as well. There's a lesson on estimating, something people do all the freaking time. Or figuring out what might be a respectably and sensibly-close answer...on the face of it, that sounds woefully inexact, but there's times you might have to divide 492 by 36 but you've got your hands physically full, the phone's ringing, it's 95 degrees outside, you're two hours overdue for lunch, someone right near you is excessively loud, and [insert deadline(s) here].
But yes, elementary school teachers weren't mathematics majors in college. They're given many workshops and conferences to learn all about it, and how much information is carried back to the classroom setting is entirely variable.
Also, there's a few states (on averages) that are so far backwards (Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, West Virginia) in reading, writing, vocabulary, and comprehension that need to realize standards created decades ago aren't going to pass muster against the averages in many others (New York, California, India, Ontario, Denmark). So some of the legislatures came up with all sorts of plans and funding so bridge these gaps...it's going to take a generation or so, especially since there's worn-out pockets of this country with tremendous dropout rates, which breeds high crime, other potential sources of local dumbassery, and even some places where there really isn't much for a high-school graduate to do with that diploma, without a means of transportation.
Oh, I may have failed geography at some point.
