VOL. 8 NO. 2
IN THIS ISSUE
Fun at The Little Gym
The Little Gym teachers Katie Vaughn and Sara Logsdon were full of tricks, but their Jazzy Bugs and Giggle Toes students were up to every challenge. “We are ready to practice, so put on your frowning face,” Vaughn instructed her class, which was met with a chorus of “Nooooo. Our smiling faces!”
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Read Farragut Faces on A-3
Larger class sizes ahead for state? Every Tennessee governor in living memory has wanted to be remembered as the Education Governor. Bill Haslam is no exception. He staked his claim to the title by ending 2013 with a victory lap around the state celebrating the National Assessment of Education ranking Tennessee the fastest-improving state in academic growth in 4th grade math and reading scores over the past two years.
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Read Betty Bean on A-4
Complex recruiting Careful now, what happens next is critical. The main event in Tennessee’s level of football is the remainder of the recruiting race that peaks in early February. Recruiting is a high-tech combination of science and art. Evaluation is step one. If it is erroneous, nothing else matters.
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Read Marvin West on A-5
A new column of outtakes and general shop talk has launched in Section B. Shopper publisher Sandra Clark talks this week, but you’ll hear from others as the year wears on. Check it out on B-2
Warm thought on a winter day It’s 7 degrees outside and the ground is crusted in a white mantle. Brrr! Perhaps that’s what turns this silvered-haired noggin to daydreams about turning over the spring soil and watching the garden blossom into summer’s green bounty ... tomatoes, squash, peppers, string beans, spinach, fragrant herbs ... basil, don’t you just love its bright, complex aroma? Ahh!
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Read Nick Della Volpe on B-2
Students’ criticism of Common Core
… has national impact By Betty Bean
Another Farragut High School senior is becoming an Internet sensation. In December, Kenneth Ye, who has a 4.696 GPA, told members of the Knox County Board of Education that excessive reliance on the Common Core State Standards’ high stakes testing is taking a toll on students. Ye has spent summers attending school in his parents’ native country, China, and is alarmed to see American schools emulating the high-stress, data-driven Chinese school systems where desperate students have hooked themselves up to IV amino acid drips while studying for the notorious gaokao college entrance exams. Ye also criticized the role that for-profit businesses like publisher Pearson PLC have been allowed to play in formulating Common Core standards. “As a student who has scored fives on AP calculus and AP statistics exams and who plans to take Calculus 3 at a local college next semester, I can honestly tell you that I am unable to answer or justify your first grade Pearson math question, ‘What is a related subtraction sentence?’” Ye’s speech has been viewed some 30,000 times on YouTube, has been reposted on websites like the Huffington Post and the Daily Caller and is drawing responses like, “Holy Crap. Does this kid have a speechwriter? Impressive.”
Kenneth Ye
Ye’s friend and classmate Ethan Young addressed the school board about Common Core’s effects on teachers in November. Young’s video has garnered nearly 2 million hits. If the details can be worked out, Ye and Young will be going to Nashville to speak to members of the General Assembly at the invitation of state Rep. Gloria Johnson, who is also a Farragut graduate. “I’d put these two Knox County students up against any students in the country,” Johnson said.
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Ye describes himself as a proud Southerner with a taste for country music and sweet tea who is also fluent in Chinese. He says he decided to speak out because he feels he can offer a different perspective on data-driven education. He and his older brother, Kevin, spent their summers attending classes in the Chinese school district where their grandmother was a member of the school board. Last summer Kenneth went to Beijing with the Ameson Chinese Elite, a
Book tell town’s history A new book on Farragut’s history is a must-read for anyone who is interested in the town’s beginnings. For a community that will celebrate just 34 years in existence this year, Farragut is embracing its roots while they are still nourishing the tree. At the same time that “Full Speed Ahead: The Story Behind the Founding of the Town of Farragut, Tennessee,” by Heather Mays has hit the shelves, the Farragut Board of Mayor and Aldermen are also looking at a way to honor the town’s heritage. At an abbreviated (19 minutes) meeting of the BOMA on Jan. 9, Vice Mayor Dot LaMarche asked that renaming Campbell Station Park be put on a future agenda. LaMarche wants the name changed to Founders Park at Campbell Station.
The idea has been brewing for a while, says Sue Stuhl, parks and leisure services director, and picked back up after the dedication of the Heritage Trail at the
park in the fall. “The Parks and Athletics Council now has it on the agenda for Tuesday (Jan. 12) and will probably make a recommendation to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen,” says Stuhl. “It is ultimately their decision.” While honoring the town’s founders, Mays’ book gives readers the best possible way to learn history: through the actual people involved. In her preface, Mays says that the idea for the book wasn’t hers. Mayor Ralph McGill asked her if she had any interest in writing a history of the 1980 founding of the town, and Mays agreed to take on the project. The book took shape through interviews and recollections of several dozen people who were either intimately involved in the process or were family members of those on the forefront. It starts at the beginning, with the frustrations of resi-
cultural exchange program that took a group of American students to Beijing to study along with Canadian and Russian students and several hundred of their Chinese counterparts. He worked closely on projects with Chinese students, and learned that they wanted to study overseas. “I asked them why, and they talked about how free and open in it is in other countries. They are very smart kids, but you could see a difference between how they work and how American stuEthan Young dents work. The American way is based on our innovative thinking. We pride ourselves on being a nation of free thinkers.” Ye’s father, Chuntao Ye, is a vice president at Denso Manufacturing. His mother, Yingdong Gan, was a researcher at the University of Tennessee’s Center for Environmental Biotechnology who now is a fulltime caregiver for her parents. Kenneth is a server at Aubrey’s restaurant in Farragut, as was Kevin before he started college at the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton School of Business. Kenneth hasn’t decided where he will go to college quite yet, but he’s hoping there will be sweet tea available wherever he ends up.
through personal recollections dents in the Concord area about unchecked development, unrepaired roads and unbridled flooding. The book progresses from a meeting at the home of George and Julie Dorsey, when the “incorporate” idea was first said out loud, to the victory. It ends with a short update from 2012. The book is a good read. There’s nothing like hearing the sequence of events from those who were making them happen. Imagine getting John Adams to talk about the first Continental Congress. “Full Speed Ahead” is also clever in its layout, with the ghost of Admiral David Farragut lending his presence to the groupings: The Revolution, The Battle, The New Government. “Full Speed Ahead” is available for $19.95 at the Farragut Folklife Museum Gift Shop at Farragut Town Hall, 11408 Municipal Center Drive.
Honken promotes teacher recognition By Sandra Clark
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JJanuaryy 13, 2014
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By Sherri Gardner Howell
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Alderman Ron Honken says the town of Farragut should launch a recognition program for teachers rather than simply acknowledging teachers who are recognized by others. “That’s just recognizing the recognition,” he told members of the town’s Education Relations Committee. “I’d be willing to bet that half of the people who live here came because of the schools,” he said.
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Honken is serving his first term on the BOMA. He suggested that the ERC propose inclusion of school information in the town’s annual report. The budget for the report is $22,000, and Honken said printing two or four more pages would add only an incremental cost. “You won’t have trouble finding content,” he said. “The problem you’ll have is to limit your content.” ERC chair Mark Littleton said he
liked both of Honken’s suggestions. He asked committee members to think about both ideas and come to the committee’s February meeting prepared to discuss them further. “Don’t worry about what you bring. We’ll put every idea on the table,” he said. ERC members, all volunteers, are Littleton, Michael Singletary, Kristen Pennycuff-Trent, Nancy Wentz and Julia Craze. The committee meets at 4 p.m. each first Tuesday at town hall.
Troyer reappointed Lucinda Troyer was reappointed to another one-year term as municipal judge by the town’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen last Thursday. In response to a question, town administrator David Smoak said the judge “has done a great job, and we have a good working relationship.” Smoak said the court meets monthly, “9-10 times a year.”
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