[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 11 (Friday, January 17, 2014)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E102-E103]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   TRIBUTE TO KEVIN YOUNG, A SENIOR AT FARRAGUT HIGH SCHOOL, IN KNOX 
                            COUNTY TENNESSEE

                                  _____
                                 

                        HON. JOHN J. DUNCAN, JR.

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, January 17, 2014

  Mr. DUNCAN of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I wish today to honor an 
exceptional high school student from my District whose common-sense and 
eloquent words brought national attention to education policy.
  Kevin Young, a senior at Farragut High School in Knox County, 
Tennessee, recently testified in front of the Knox County School Board 
against Common Core, the one-size-fits-all educational scheme being 
implemented across the Nation.
  Kevin's speech was noticed by outlets such as FOX News and Glenn 
Beck, who called the remarks possibly the best case against Common Core 
ever made.
  I have been friends with Kevin's grandmother for many years and know 
him to be a very passionate and intelligent young man.
  Mr. Speaker, Kevin has learned through his own experience that, in 
his words, ``creativity, appreciation, and inquisitiveness are 
impossible to scale.'' I bring his powerful speech, which is reprinted 
below in its entirety, to the attention of my Colleagues and other 
readers of the Record. All education policy-makers should listen 
closely to his wisdom.

                   Speech to Knox County School Board

                            (By Ethan Young)

       In a mere five minutes, I hope to provide insightful 
     comments about a variety of educational topics. I sincerely 
     hope you disprove the research I've compiled.
       Here's the history of the Common Core. In 2009, the 
     National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State 
     School Officers partnered with Achieve Inc., a nonprofit that 
     received millions in funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates 
     Foundation. Thus the initiative seemed to spring from states, 
     when in reality it was contrived by an insular group of 
     educational testing executives with only two academic content 
     specialists. Neither specialist approved the final standards, 
     and the English consultant, Dr. Sandra Stotsky, publicly 
     stated she felt the standards left students with an empty 
     skill set, lacking literary knowledge.
       While educators and administrators were later included in 
     the validation committee and feedback groups, they did not 
     play a role in the actual drafting of the standards. The 
     product is a, quote, ``rigorous preparation for career and 
     college,'' yet many educators agree that ``rigorous'' is a 
     buzzword. These standards aren't rigorous, just different, 
     designed for industrial model of school.

[[Page E103]]

       Nevertheless, Common Core emerged. Keep in mind, the 
     specific standards were never voted upon by Congress, the 
     Department of Education, state or local governments. Yet, 
     their implementation was approved by 49 states and 
     territories. The president essentially bribed states into 
     implementation via Race to the Top, offering 4.35 billion 
     taxpayer dollars to participating states, $500 million of 
     which went to Tennessee. And much like No Child Left Behind, 
     the program promises national testing and a one-size-fits-all 
     education, because, hey, it worked really well the first 
     time.
       While I do admire some aspects of the core, such as fewer 
     standards and an emphasis on application and writing, it's 
     not going to fix our academic deficit. If nothing else, these 
     standards are a glowing conflict of interest. And they lack 
     the research they allegedly received. And most importantly, 
     the standards illustrate a mistrust of teachers, something I 
     believe this county has already felt for a while.
       I've been fortunate to have incredible educators that 
     opened my eyes to the joy of learning, and I love them like 
     my family. I respect them entirely, which is why it 
     frustrates me to review the TEAM and APEX evaluation systems. 
     These subjective anxiety-producers do more to damage a 
     teacher's self-esteem than you realize. Erroneous evaluation 
     coupled with strategic compensation presents a punitive model 
     that, as a student, is like watching your teacher jump 
     through flaming hoops to earn a score. Have you forgotten the 
     nature of a classroom? A teacher cannot be evaluated without 
     his students, because as a craft, teaching is an interaction. 
     Thus how can you expect to gauge a teacher's success with no 
     control for student participation or interest?
       I stand before you because I care about education, but also 
     because I want to support my teachers. And just as they 
     fought for my academic achievement, so I want to fight for 
     their ability to teach. This relationship is at the heart of 
     instruction, yet there will never be a system by which it is 
     accurately measured.
       But I want to take a step back. We can argue the details ad 
     infinitum. Yet I observe a much broader issue with education 
     today. Standards-based education is ruining the way we teach 
     and learn. Yes, I've already been told by legislators and 
     administrators, Ethan, that's just the way things work. But 
     why? I'm going to answer that question. It's bureaucratic 
     convenience. It works with nuclear reactors, it works for 
     business models, why can't it work with students? I mean, how 
     convenient calculating exactly who knows what and who needs 
     what. I mean, why don't we just manufacture robots instead of 
     students? They last longer and they always do what they're 
     told.
       But education is unlike every other bureaucratic institute 
     in our government. The task of teaching is never 
     quantifiable. If everything I learned in high school is a 
     measurable objective, I haven't learned anything. I'd like to 
     repeat that. If everything I learned in high school is a 
     measurable objective, I have not learned anything. 
     Creativity, appreciation, inquisitiveness--these are 
     impossible to scale, but they're the purpose of education, 
     why our teachers teach, and why I choose to learn.
       And today we find ourselves in a nation that produces 
     workers. Everything is career and college preparation. 
     Somewhere our founding fathers are turning in their graves, 
     pleading, screaming, and trying to say to us that we teach to 
     free minds, we teach to inspire, we teach to equip. The 
     careers will come naturally.
       I know we're just one city in a huge system that excitedly 
     embraces numbers, but ask any of these teachers, ask any of 
     my peers, and ask yourselves, haven't we gone too far with 
     data?
       I attended tonight's meeting to share my critiques, but as 
     Benjamin Franklin quipped, any fool can criticize, condemn, 
     and complain, and most fools do. The problems I cite are very 
     real. And I only ask that you hear them out, investigate 
     them, and do not dismiss them as another fool's criticisms. 
     I'll close with a quote of Jane L. Stanford that Dr. 
     McIntyre, shared in a recent speech:
       ``You have my entire confidence in your ability to do 
     conscientious work to the very best advantage to the 
     students--that they be considered paramount to all and 
     everything else. We're capable of fixing education, and I 
     commit myself to that task. But you cannot ignore me, my 
     teachers, or the truth. We need change, but not Common Core, 
     high-stakes evaluations, or more robots.'' Thank you.

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