Trevor Packer, BYU’s 2019 Honored Alumnus and head of the College Board’s Advanced Placement Program, gave this year’s Honored Alumni Lecture
PROVO, Utah (October 17, 2019)—As head of the Advanced Placement (AP) Program, Trevor Packer offers young adults college credit and limitless opportunities. He acknowledged the privilege that was afforded to him as a child and the lack of privilege that is afforded to others, “The evidence is that things happen in many children’s lives that prevent them from using and acting on the opportunities that others, like myself, had.” This, Packer insisted, is a crime.
When asked for a solution to this issue, Packer argued that segregating students based on characteristics arbitrary to potential, e.g. “gifted” or not “gifted,” low-income or high-income, etc., is harmful to a student’s true ability to prevail in educational pursuits. It is the job of every man and woman to protect a child’s sacred opportunities to succeed.
“Why is there so much energy around telling us that we do not need to educate all students? We have no room to say, ‘Well, some of us have privilege and can go to college. Others do not need that, and they will be fine,’” Packer implored. The mindset of seeing another as an “other” results in an inability to see fellow men as beings with the potential to learn and share a community. On the contrary, humanity should be an equalizer among the human race; humanity itself is a community.
This way of thinking applies to much more than children and their innate privilege to education—Packer broadened his message by referencing the Book of Mormon and its continual attention to race, class, and migration. The book tells stories of racial persecution and acceptance, greed juxtaposed with generosity, and migrating tribes. Why, Packer asked, would a book written intentionally for this time in humanity’s history focus on such issues unless they were the issues of this generation? The last few hundred years have tasked the world time and time again to face the devaluation of humanity and to prevail against it.
In a landmark example of caring for fellow beings, Packer recounted the story of King Christian and the Danes during World War II and their tireless efforts to refuse Hitler’s attempts to eliminate Danish Jews and others who had found refuge in Denmark. Despite the looming pressure to succumb to a powerful evil, the Danes’ dedication to preserve humanity resulted in the death of only 48 Danish Jews. King Christian found honor in serving the unserved, a lesson that should be taught far and wide.
Stories like this, Packer concluded, are what make the study of the Humanities valuable. He observed that students of the Humanities are reverently and respectfully exposed to a diversity of values and artifacts of human creativity; such an environment fosters celebration and respect for difference, and it reduces skepticism about the human ability to participate in the divine. So much of what is lacking from the modern world can be found in the creative expression of languages, literatures, and philosophies of past times. An intentional, honest study of the Humanities, Packer promised, will result in a rejuvenated belief in the power of all human beings to change and to reach their noble potential.
—Tori Hamilton (Editing & Publishing, ‘20)