Absolutely!

I would put her in place of O right now! No reservations! :)

I love that kid!
I'm sure she didn't write it, but she sure read it well, and the "stop!" gesture was so adorable I just wanted to hug her. Kudos to her and most certainly her parents.

One very smart and articulate little girl! My children are long past the age when these issues would affect them personally. However, listening to my younger friends with children in school, I am appalled at the way parents are told what they can and cannot do and what they must and must not do! I am even more appalled that they do not stand up as a group and protest, but instead frequently follow like sheep with a "there's nothing you can do about it" attitude!

Seems like a great speach, that was unlikely to have been written by the girl; however, her performance in reading it was an indication of oratory excellence.

Separate from Common Core, I took standardized tests all through school, and don't see the issue with seeing where students are. This doesn't work through some qualitative measure...sorry to any "we all are winners" advocates. How is a college supposed to judge entrants? Grading varies school-to-school. Skin color?

Love like the idea of using performance against tests (beginning/middle/end) to see how the student progressed through the year. What a great way to measure how the teachers are doing!

Awesome. That kid has moxie!

In some states if you don't take all the medical steps recommended by the school to treat your kid's "behavior problems" you'll end up with all sorts of grief. At the very least DCF will show up at your house. Sometimes they'll leave with your kids in tow and then you have an expensive nightmare fighting a system that's rigged against parents to get your kids back. Imagine the trauma, even if they're treated like royalty it's a permanent shock to their psyches.

I hope your friend finds a way to home school them.

was there any follow up news reports on the story with a response from the school? probably not because they don't know how to respond to a thinking person even at the age of a 4th grader.

I saw the clip of that girl a few days ago. She's certainly well-composed while speaking. Lots of adults are so nervous that their hands shake and their voices are unsteady. She also speaks loudly and very clearly for a young woman and doesn't have the halting speech that young readers usually have. Very impressive self-confidence.

Alas, when I heard her use the word "rubric" I knew that it had been written for her. (Back when I was on the Bd. of Ed. for my town's regional school the principle of the middle school used that word. I'm not shy, or proud, so I asked her what "rubric" meant. More than one other board member was glad I asked.)

There's nothing wrong with writing a statement for your daughter to read, but keep it close to age appropriate. The presentation was impressive but for me the content lost sincerity when it was much too sophisticated for a 4th grader to have produced.

No kidding. I wonder what the reaction was from the board??

Watching her, I was thinking the same thing!
I was also thinking Pink Floyd "Another Brick In The Wall."

maybe that light at the end of the tunnel is
a sunrise on a new day where SHE is our
nominee for president! -- j

I know nothing of the FSA, but that performance was absolutely fantastic! That young lady is going places.

child abuse, all of it! -- j

A friend of mine has 4 kids in public school and the apathy drives her crazy. She is 100% against common core but she says she can hardly get other parents to listen let alone do something. A lot of damage has been done. The medical clinics idea is frightening. I remember when my nephew was young and the doctors put him on Ritalin. He was like a zombie. My brother took him off it immediately but some parents just do as they are told.

Over the past decade I was introduced to our public school system - pretty intensely as I have a kid with special needs. Let me tell you, the system f'ing sucks. Bigtime. Public schools are now seen as nothing more than the conduit to get to the kids, medicate them, screw with them, break their spirits. And, as I can see from your comment, you see the difference. The kid is the one with the spirit in that room. The adults, like almost every other adult in this country, have already been broken. This is why you're seeing crap like Common Core, etc. I did some work years ago where I got to see plans to start putting medical clinics on elementary school grounds throughout California. Why would they want to place medical clinics on public school grounds when over the past 30 years we've been told they can't afford to have a school nurse? Frankly, it freaked me out. A lot. At the same time I saw those plans (actual building plans for me to do some engineering on) our governor signed two laws: one to make parents endure a lecture before opting out of giving their kids every single vaccine on the schedule, and another allowing schools to give medical treatments to kids starting at the age of 12 without any parental consent.

I'm telling you...there is some bad juju going on.

That little girl kicks ass, too.

I have to say that, having taken standardized tests all through my schooling in the 60's, some of which went on my 'permanent record' and affected my future such as the SAT, I wonder at how suddenly all the students are speaking up against it. What has changed?

The answer is simple: schools and teachers are now having it go on THEIR 'permanent record' and affecting their future. What was just fine when only the student's future was on the line is suddenly terrible.

Wow. I hope the parents did more than clap. They should have gone one by one to the podium to agree with everything she said and apologize for not having the guts to say it themselves.