Tennessee high school student Ethan Young said Tuesday it was important for him to challenge his local school board on what he called the standardization of education that's being forced on the nation by the federal Common Core curriculum.
"I really feel like the biggest problem that we face is just the standardization across the board. And, also, trying to quantify everything in education," the eighteen-year-old said during an appearance on "Fox & Friends."
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"I feel that we do have to have standards. But, there needs to be a much less emphasis on the standards."
Young addressed the school board in his Knox County district earlier this month, criticizing the Common Core curriculum as just another attempt to mimic what he described as a failed No Child Left Behind policy, which was put in place during the George W. Bush administration.
"Standards-based education is ruining the way we teach and learn," Young told the board during a five minute presentation.
"Much like No Child Left Behind, the [Common Core] program promises national testing and a one-size-fits-all education, because hey, it worked so well the first time," he said. "Haven't we gone too far with data?"
The Common Core curriculum has been plagued by controversy since its inception in 2009. Supporters of the program say the standards help to level the playing field in schools across the country. Detractors say the approach, with an emphasis on teaching to standardized tests and a decreased focus on individual students and creativity, leads to a national curriculum with a generic approach to education.
The curriculum has been adopted by 45 states, in part due to financial incentives offered by the federal government to adopt the strategy.
Some parents on Monday kept their children out of school in
protest of the curriculum.
Young said he felt prompted to address the school board in an effort to offer insight on the curriculum from a student's point of view.
"I felt that as a student, I might sign up and contribute something from a student's perspective about some problems with Common Core, and with teacher evaluations," he said on Fox.
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