Yesterday, Zeke Stokes sent me the above video, with the following terse comment:
Just when you think we’re making progress.
Once again, this was Zeke Stokes, not some guy who gets his jollies making fun of the S.C. public education system.
I looked at it and thought, "the poor kid," yet resolved to put it up on the blog as inherently interesting — but only after I put up several other things that had more substance. I didn’t get around to posting those things yesterday, and since Jon Ozmint is coming in in a few minutes to talk about all this, and we still have pages to produce, I’m probably not going to get to those things today, either.
Meanwhile, the blasted newsroom scooped me on this. They even blogged about it. Ah, well.
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After two million views on YouTube, I really wish you’d just left this alone. Stage fright fried the brain of a 17-year-old girl. We don’t need to pile on here. She has enough peers willing to do that.
Hopefully, her appearance on some TV talk show this morning redeemed her, and you can post video of her making sense, too.
All things considered, the video David Letterman ran last night from a George Bush speech really was more pathetic — and much more relevant.
He, after all, should have got past his stage fright by now, shouldn’t he?
Gosh, weldon, beat up on Zeke — he started it.
But you’re right; I did feel sorry for the gal. And if enough of y’all agree with weldon’s assessment, I’ll take it down.
In the meantime, here’s the reference to her "second chance" — it was already linked from the news story.
I had not heard about Letterman, and don’t find anything from LAST night, but this was posted on YouTube five days ago. This is the closest I’ve found to what you’re talking about.
Stage fright? I’m sure this is not the first time she’s been on stage.
17? On the NBC news a couple nights ago was a story about an 18 year old female who was headed to boot camp and Iraq via the “Quick Ship” program. She may see combat in 3 months.
The fact that Zeke Stokes sent you that video speaks volumes. As the mouthpiece for Jim Rex, I guess he didn’t want to talk about the decline in SAT scores in SC. I saw Jim Rex’s feeble attempt to spin the results by talking about ten year averages and spending more money on more programs that will produce the same result.
We’ve had many years of PACT in place with the supposed intention of creating better students. It has done absolutely nothing to improve the quality of education and probably has done more to harm it. PACT will have a purpose when students who do not achieve a BASIC score are held back from promotion. Until then, it’s all just a bunch of numbers that high paid educrats can pore over looking for that one statistic that might be positive.
So far, Jim Rex has done nothing to alter the education system. He offered a pathetically weak school choice plan that has been weakened even further by lack of support from the legislators. He COULD do something dramatic, historic, and positive by simply eliminating PACT altogether and letting teachers get back to teaching – plus use all the money wasted on PACT to put toward paying better teachers more.
Ms. Lexington will come out of this fine. I’m guessing she’ll end up with a TV deal and a reality show. Dumb worked for Jessica Simpson…
So, Randy, is this girl who’s headed to Iraq ready to answer questions about why Americans can’t find the United States on a map?
Or should Miss Teen South Carolina be ready for a few weeks on Parris Island?
What does one have to do with the other? Why should we be eager to make fun when one of our own, not a public official, not even an adult, makes a mistake on a national stage?
Is that the price Miss Upton should pay for being pretty? Or are you saying we should excoriate her because she’s not going to Iraq?