Building the Machine is a new documentary that explores what parents really think about Common Core.

The documentary begins by asking why had Common Core not been on the national radar before the fall of 2012? Parents were caught unaware and left without the accurate information they needed to make the decisions they thought were best for their children.

Scholars note that Common Core proponents cannot even define what does—or does not—make a curriculum rigorous, yet architects of the sweeping new national standards gutted decades of proven math and reading instruction and content, all without any research about how it will work.

In New York, mental health professionals are seeing an “off the charts” uptick in the numbers of children who are stressed to their limits about school in response to the Common core curriculum. Even children who took Common Core assessments and did well, are having a markedly negative responses to the curriculum in general. Ultimately, the curriculum treats all children the same, and therein lies the problem.

Parents also note that they believe Common Core was imposed so quickly precisely so they would not be able to stop it. New York parents in particular are coping with the chaos Common Core has unleashed because the state was one of the earliest adopters.

Many New York parents hope that parents in other states take their experience as a cautionary tale and put on the brakes before it’s too late.

Ultimately, Common Core rests on the faulty premise that one centralized entity knows what's best for all 55 million students nationwide. Of course, children need to learn the basics, but there are better ways of accomplishing that goal than embracing a national curriculum developed by Washington.