This was apparently first given a bit more than a year ago, but it is well worth listening to. She sees through the scam:
It isn’t a matter of agreeing with everything she says – no fully matured, capable adult would. Smart and perceptive as she is, she yet lacks the experience of someone who if 40 or 50 years old. But she’s thinking – she understands that what was spoon fed to her in the public schools is not all there is. It is amazing that someone who went through the whole grind to become valedictorian and yet retains originality of thought.
All is not lost – the youth of America have lots of problems and a gigantic burden we adults have laid upon them in the way we’ve wrecked the family, wrecked the faith and ruined the economy. But they are not lifeless, the young…there is spirit there and a willingness to challenge and demand better. I rest far more content after hearing this young lady speak than I have for a long while.
HAT TIP: Zero Hedge
Blogs For Victory 
“But she’s thinking – she understands that what was spoon fed to her in the public schools is not all there is. It is amazing that someone who went through the whole grind to become valedictorian and yet retains originality of thought.” Mark Edward Noonan
First, the young lady is a contradiction of what she is saying. It is pretty obvious she has the ability of critical thinking from her speach. Second, she is saying that the NCLB testing requirements do not mean a child has learned anything but how to take a test. It is the worst piece of legislation ever passed for the American school children. And Third, she is very young – and like all of us who graduated at her age – thought we had all the answers and were so smart. She has a lot to learn – that is call living life.
And as usual, Mark continues to have serious problems with education. Just do not get that. Public or private –
Well, this young woman has her tender years to explain any tendency to, as Velma says, think she has all the answers. As Vel is far far beyond that stage in her life, I wonder what HER excuse is.
For example, Vel states, with absolute certainty, that “..Mark continues to have serious problems with education………..Public or private.” Wha?????? Of a long long litany of utterly stupid comments, Velma seems intent on trying to top her latest contribution.
Mark has “..serious problems with education..”? What a crock. What Mark has serious problems with, as far as I can see from his posts here, is the lousy quality of public education foisted off on American families, and the control of the teachers’ unions in continuing this shameful decline in educational quality.
NCLB was an effort to rein in this death spiral of ever-decreasing educational quality by establishing a national standard to which even the worst of teachers would have to comply. What does NCLB mean? No Child Left Behind. It was a well-meaning effort to ensure that every child graduating from one grade to another in this nation had at least a basic level of education.
As is the case with all social engineering efforts and experiments, its Unintended Consequences far outweighed its benefits, and in this case canceled out its intentions. What Teddy Kennedy, who helped design the program, and President Bush did not fully realize was the true lack of teaching ability in our “teachers”. I think they assumed that the teachers COULD teach and just needed to know that the results of that teaching would be evaluated and measured against that of others.
And what we all learned is that these teachers simply CANNOT teach. They simply lack the ability to establish a standard of basic knowledge and then impart that to their students. When faced with the tests of NCLB, all they could do was take the questions and teach their students how to answer those questions.
NCLB is not an indictment of George W. Bush, nor is it, as stated in typically shrill and hysterical fashion by Velma, “…the worst piece of legislation ever passed for the American school children..” Sure, the miserably educated like Velma (remember, she is a lawyer, though as she only does contracts for a private company there is a good chance she never passed the bar) are resentful of any effort to point out the lousy quality of that education. But NCLB should have had nothing but a good effect on “American school children”.
The failure of NCLB is an indictment of our entire educational system, of its teachers, and of the teachers unions which guarantee that they can keep their jobs no matter how badly they do their work.
I agree that we should repeal NCLB. It does not work and it never will work as long as we have bad teachers. Instead, I say the feds should get out of education entirely, and leave it to the states, which should implement school voucher programs so parents and students have choices and are not saddled with poor teachers protected by unions.
Sunny,
Amazona pretty much answered for me…but I would like to get an explanation from you as to why you think I’m against education. I’m 46 years old – among the recent books I’ve been reading are The Diplomacy of Annexation: Texas, Oregon and the Mexican War; Bloodlands: Europe Between Stalin and Hitler; Raj: the Making and Unmaking of British India; Europe’s Ghost: Tolerance, Jihadism and the Crisis in the West…this is, sorry to say, an indicator of a man who wants to know more than he did before…in other words, get educated.
I do, of course, have a problem with the slop they pass out as education in the public school system…but I live for a day when I can meet a youth who knows more than I do…
Since I do not read what Amazona writes b/c she has a very nasty way of communicating with others I will only respond to what you write. Congratulations on your reading selections. Give those young people a few years and they will know more than you do. Hopefully, at 46 you have more knowledge than a 17 or 18 year old high school graduate. NCLB needs to be repealed and allow teachers to teach once again – not just prepare their students on how to take a test.
scummy
we need REAL teachers not union thugs who could care less about the students.
scummy
pushing the homosexual agenda is not education.
“Since I do not read what Amazona writes b/c she has a very nasty way of communicating with others I will only respond to what you write. ”
No, you just don’t want to read the truth. Several of us here have proven you wrong on numerous occasions only to be ignored by you and later you return spouting the same erroneous nonsense.
Tired, I have no problem with the truth. What I do have problems with is total disrespect for others and constant snotty responses when one could just respond without all of the nastiness would work better. It is bad enough Mark allows NEO to post truly hateful and bigoted remarks with no admonishment. Amazana is a nasty person, has a serious attitude problem and is an internet stalker. She has no respect for anyone or anything. That is the problem I have with her – not the truth. And since when did her rants contain the truth?
I thought this was pretty true but you won’t even respond to it. Why not?
“As is the case with all social engineering efforts and experiments, its Unintended Consequences far outweighed its benefits, and in this case canceled out its intentions. What Teddy Kennedy, who helped design the program, and President Bush did not fully realize was the true lack of teaching ability in our “teachers”. I think they assumed that the teachers COULD teach and just needed to know that the results of that teaching would be evaluated and measured against that of others.
And what we all learned is that these teachers simply CANNOT teach. They simply lack the ability to establish a standard of basic knowledge and then impart that to their students. When faced with the tests of NCLB, all they could do was take the questions and teach their students how to answer those questions.
The failure of NCLB is an indictment of our entire educational system, of its teachers, and of the teachers unions which guarantee that they can keep their jobs no matter how badly they do their work.
I agree that we should repeal NCLB. It does not work and it never will work as long as we have bad teachers. Instead, I say the feds should get out of education entirely, and leave it to the states, which should implement school voucher programs so parents and students have choices and are not saddled with poor teachers protected by unions.”
Luckee, there is not enough time to fully educate you about the lies and insanity of “Sunny” but here is one example.
She bleats that I am an “internet stalker”. Well, the woman posted for many months using a screen name that turned out to be her own name, and repeatedly stated that she lives in Tulsa and works for an aerospace company. One day, after a particularly crazed series of posts from her, in which she kept insisting she is a lawyer, I googled her screen name to see where else she might post, out of curiosity about whether or not she always sounded so insane.
And her screen name came up as her actual name, and a couple of links down was the name of her aerospace company, with her an an employee.
That is the sum total of my “stalking”. I never went back to try to find out anything else—-I simply did not care to learn any more than she had already revealed. But she is obsessive, and once she gets a hate on for someone it’s Katie Bar The Door.
So far all I have seen from the woman is hysteria, viciousness, and lunacy. So don’t expect her to ever read anything anyone says which does not fawn over Obama (but he is such a NICE young man, and does love his little girls so!). She’s not here to discuss, just to spit and snarl.
How’s the leg?
“And since when did her rants contain the truth?”
Remember: “Truth” to a right-winger means “what I believe.” Actual truth has nothing to do with it at all.