Here was one of the best speeches in Albany today, by teenage rock star/pundit Nikhil Goyal, announcing he will lead a statewide boycott of testing next year.
Good afternoon. My name is Nikhil Goyal. In January 2013,
I graduated from Syosset High School on Long Island. I am a member of the No
Child Left Behind and Race to the Top generation. My generation has been tested
to an extent that is unprecedented in the history of this country, many experts
have said. My entire school career has dominated by endless testing and a
culture of "drill, kill, bubble fill."
My friend and educator Marion Brady once said, "Even
if standardized tests didn’t cost billions, even if they hadn’t narrowed the
curriculum down to joke level, even if they weren’t driving the best teachers
out of the profession, they should be abandoned because they measure the wrong
thing."
My fellow peers, from Portland to Seattle to Providence
to Chicago to Newark to Philadelphia, have been walking out of school,
protesting, and rallying against high-stakes testing, budget cuts, and the
assault on public education. Whether it is gay rights, voting rights, civil
rights, women's rights, in every successful social movement, it is always young
people taking charge, leading the way, lighting the fire out of outrage within
us all.
Wael Ghonim, one of the organizers of the Egyptian
revolution, once said, "The power of the people is much stronger than the
people in power." We may not be in the White House. We may not be in the
halls of Congress. We may not be in our state legislatures. We may not be in
the boardrooms of corporations. But we are in our classrooms and in our schools
every day. And we have in power in numbers.
Next year, we are launching a student-led campaign in New
York to boycott the ridiculous state teacher evaluation tests. Last year, I
opted out of the tests. I left the Scantron blank and left the room.
Thousands of students will do the same.
It's time for our stakeholders to rise up and revolt. We
will walk-out. We will opt-out of testing. We will boycott. We will protest.
And we won't stop until our demands are met.
Nine-year-old Asean Johnson said at a rally to stop
school closings in Chicago, "We are not toys. We are not going down, not
without a fight."
To Governor Cuomo, Commissioner King, Mayor Bloomberg,
Chancellor Tisch: We're coming for you. We're taking back our
children. We're taking back our schools. We're taking back public education
from your hands, from the hands of corporations, billionaires, Wall Street, and
testing companies.
Wake the hell up. I'm not a stupid little kid. Do you
hear me?
