If you’re irked that Mill Creek Elementary School parent Colin McGroarty disrupted the school because of what he believed to be an anomalous Pledge of Allegiance, learning about the government’s Common Core State Standards will have your rant making his sound puritanical.

Ostensibly, the Common Core State Standards program ensures that public school curriculums cover appropriate material (no psychic dinosaur theories) germane to each grade level, K-12. Hell-O? Department heads and academic deans already do that.

Aside from redundancy, the methods under the Common Core State Standards program exceed their stated purpose. Educators, cajoled to conform to CCSS-recommended curriculums and texts, also are coerced to present material measurable by statewide exams, which are expected to be ready by 2014.