Students not smart enough to cheat
By Brian Kirwin | Saturday, April 3rd, 2010 | PolicyGotta shake your head at 32 Newport News HS students suspended for cheating. They got caught using the same cheat sheet during a test. How’d they get caught?
The cheat sheet had several wrong answers!
It’s saddening that today’s teens can’t even cheat without getting it all wrong. Newport News should take immediate action.
Maybe they can model themselves after Norfolk, where the principals and teachers get actively involved in helping the students cheat.
You know public education is getting bad when kids can’t even successfully cheat without the help of a good teacher.
Tags:
Contribute for Conservatism!
Share this post
About the author
The right wants to jeer him. The left wants to censor him. Moderates usually want both. Brian Kirwin is a political consultant and public relations strategist in Virginia Beach with a lightning-rod flair. Brian also serves on the VB Arts & Humanities Commission and frequently appears on Hampton Roads theatrical stages, if only to prove that all actors aren’t liberals. Kirwin’s columns stir up debate and hit the political scene with no punches pulled.
We're 75% there! Thank you to everyone who has so far contributed! Just $2000 to go!
Comments
41 Responses to "Students not smart enough to cheat"
I bet Scott Taylor and Ben Loyola sympathize. They had the right answers, but they weren’t even smart enough to change the order of the congressional reforms they copied from Scott Rigell. I definitely do not either one of them representing me in Congress.
LC, wrong thread, the scandal was last week, and we had the benefit of your multiple posts and righteous condemnation of the campaigns involved. You have identified yourself as a Rigell partisan, and unless you are a going to provide other alternatives, we really don’t care who you want representing you in Congress.
Tim,
Glad you wrote. Yes, after spending a lot of time and effort reviewing all of the candidates, Rigell has earned my support. Unless something changes drastically in the next few weeks, I fully anticipate voting for Rigell on both June 8th and November 2nd. You’re welcome to try to convince me otherwise. Who are you supporting? Or do you just like to try to stir the pot when you can?
As for this being the wrong thread, I disagree. There are marked similarities between what Taylor/Loyola did and what the high school students did. And until Taylor and Loyola withdraw (which they should have done already), I will continue to express my views on the impropriety of what they have done.
I agree with LC; who appointed Tim J the judge of who posts what, where? LC makes a great point about how childish and amatuerish Taylor and Loyola were.
Your supporting Rigell… good, we got it. I’m not on here to convince anyone of anything except that the bomb throwing must stop and hoping that the Rigell flame throwers will stand down for the good of the party. So as a self identified partisan, you are part of the campaign strategy to keep Rigell’s victim status alive in order to get all the sympathy votes you can muster. In doing this, Rigell assumes that we voters are as stupid as Nye does.
Continuing to keep the Rigell sympathy alive and using other scandals to snipe at competitors campaigns is a strategy to keep the party divided in the 2nd district until the Primary is over.
Sustaining this division may seem to be a good strategy for Rigell, but it leaves the rest of the voters hanging, especially those thousands of voters who have signed the petitions of the other candidates.
The damage is being done, and that last thing we need in the Fall is for voters to flip a coin in the voting booth to pick their candidate.
Enough is enough, let sleeping dogs lie. As far as I’m concerned LC, any Rigell supporter who continues to bring this up every chance they get only cares for Rigell getting elected and doesn’t care about the Republican Party. That speaks volumes to me. It won’t help Rigell either. There are other candidates with experience he is up against. Quite frankly, if this continues to be the constant mantra from Rigell supporters, everyone will get sick of it and look to other candidates for leadership that isn’t stuck on “look how bad the other candidates are”.
You can do whatever you wish, this is a free country so far. I just hope you think about it. It’s not helping Rigell, and if it keeps up, it will hurt him.
It’s hard to take anyone seriously if they don’t have the courage to stand by their words with their real name. Establishing credibility with a pseudonym is a tough mountain to overcome, but possible.
This is why our pseudonymous contributors always strive to be accurate, entertaining, and informative. Unfortunately, the pseudonymous folks that appear in the comment section don’t always live up to that example.
First off, I use a pseudonym because I like lurking in the fog a little bit. But if anyone is motivated to really find my real name, just click on my handle and it is not too hard to figure it out.
I got a chuckle out of Brian’s article. Reminds me of when I was in high school. I had a good friend of mine who used to make sure he could always sit right behind me come test time on a certain subject. When I had completed my test, I’d put the answer sheet as far to the right as I could and move to the left to make it easier for him to glance over my shoulder.
While in the Navy, I served as Leading Petty Officer in a command where some of the sailors under me were expected to operate complex machinery. The people in maintenance put together a qualification test to operate the machinery that pretty much expected operators to become engineers. Unless my operators could pass the test, they could not qualify and with the first to take the test, the passing rate was extremely abysmal. I was looking at a shortage of qualified operators and the potential of no longer being mission ready.
I went and took the test. I came back and developed a training program that taught the test. If someone higher then me in the Chain of Command thought my operators were going to need to know a host of facts and figures about the length, width and free-board of the equipment, my sailors were going to have it memorized. Every day I kicked the podium and taught my men what someone thought they needed to know. Realize that at times I had men that were challenged to read even at an elementary school level. But I taught the test and I got my operators qualified. After they passed the test, I went back to teaching them how to operate the equipment instead of only maintaining it.
I will note that for my efforts, the first time my sailors went up for testing, the results were so good that one of the engineers was motivated to grab a microphone and announce how close to acing the test one of my sailors came. They had been facing complaints on just how ridiculously difficult their test was.
In passing, I will note that the sailor who’s name they choose to praise for his superior test results later was identified as being gay. With the identification, they took him from me and put him to work cleaning toilets until they finished processing him for discharge. I hated to lose him, he was one of my most promising charges.
You people took Brian’s amusing post about the incompetent cheaters and turned it into another thread about a “scandal” in a Republican nomination contest that was boring last week when it was extensively beaten into the ground here?
Greetings,
Folks, this is not an amusing post, and very much serious business here in Norfolk and will determine the future reputation of our city.
The Norfolk City Council and Mayor races (May 4) are reaching critical mass. I think there might be some developments in the next week or so regarding public education in Norfolk. Just not sure exactly what.
The fact that the 2nd Dist race took over this thread is kind of disappointing. I was really looking forward to some honest input. I’m really tired of the achilles heel of substandard schools forming the primary argument for families not to stay in the Mermaid City.
The City of Norfolk is a pretty nice place to live–has all attributes of culture, diversity, civic organizations, Opera, Symphony, Bayfront living, beautiful neighborhhods with mature trees and sidewalks. Our only obstacle is our struggle to maintain a school system that works.
Pam Brown
Pam, while I think it’s a bit silly to think that Norfolk’s only problem is its schools, it still is a major problem.
Norfolk schools are laughable, and Norfolk’s silly clinging to appointed school boards is a major part of the problem. Norfolk’s silly ward system, where a majority of Council can ignore any one section of the city and never lose a single vote, is a problem.
Millions spent downtown while a few block away neighborhoods look like someone’s filming a Mad Max sequel.
And, yes, schools that are good enough to attract people. I haven’t seen anything Norfolk has been interested in other than malls, bars and light rail…things that don’t require residency to enjoy.
BK:appointed school boards: point to somewhere in Virginia where the change from appointed to elected school boards has improved schools in any way. As a source of employment for political hacks, elected school boards are great. However, I can’t see that they’ve made any difference whatever in terms of results.
Steve, next time you’re in Virginia Beach, I’ll tell you the story. A referendum for elected school boards passed with 87% of the vote. No one will argue that the schools of today are better than the schools under appointed school boards. In fact, the overwhelming majority of localities in Virginia have elected school boards, and seem to avoid the scandals and low results Norfolk has shown.
BK: not sure that argues for elected school boards. Richmond, where I live, has had bad schools under both appointed and elected boards. Probably a little worse under the elected boards, as far as wasting money without appreciably changing results.
Well, electing bad people doesn’t improve on appointing bad people. Electing good people does.
Of course, so would appointing good people;-)
It’s easier to elect good people to school board than appoint them. Believe me, I could tell ya stories. Voters know the difference. Norfolk should give them the chance.
Your naive faith in the wisdom of voters is touching. Cue, “America the Beautiful” on the soundtrack.
Brian,
Some of the Norfolk City Council candidates are advocating for an elected School Board as part oftheir campaign. I know Randy is, and so are the other 2 running in Ward 5.
Attending the first Civic League Forum in EOV last Thurs, I can tell you that the millions spent downtown is a major issue, along with crumbling infrastucture and flooding.
I think all of the items you state above has resulted in a plethora of candidates compared to what we normally see. The guy running against Paul Riddick is actually in my Sorensen class. I think you would like him.
I know the people in Wards Corner are fed up, they have gotten the shorter end of the stick than those of us in Ward 5, Ocean View and downtown.
Sorensen? Don’t get me started. Steve, if ya wanna experience naive, attend a Sorensen class.
I agree with Brian that the performance of the elected school board at the Beach has been overall very beneficial. That change has the added effect of providing another method of preparing for city council. However, I think appointed boards can work as well if council appoints people based upon intelligence and commitment, not politics. In regard to Sorensen, that is another outstanding way to prepare oneself for competent performance in governance roles at the state and local level, and it establishes civility as an important norm for office holders and aspirants.
Sorensen taught me that “civility” means conservatives shut up while moderate liberals and extreme liberals agree with each other.
Why don’t you go get a quote from John Cosgrove or John Hager about Sorenson. We need pragmatic leaders whom can work together on common goals and that’s what Sorenson teaches. Better yet why don’t you do a podcast with Hampton Roads Sorenson Alumni and lets see who’s naive!
Brian you’ve never been know to shut up on anything so why’s Sorenson different?
Uhm, because I don’t need to ask elected officials what my opinion should be.
Bob, at least you could spell Sorensen correctly while you defend it. Now hand the laptop back to the Mrs. and let the adults talk.
Brian is a hoot, and no one could ever accuse him of civility. In my class, we had such diverse Fellows as Sean Connoughton, the now Secretary of Transportation, and Rudy McCollum who went on to become the Mayor of Richmond. To say the least, each class is extremely well balanced between democrats, republicans, and independents, and by geography as well. No shrinking violets, but while no punches were pulled in the lively and intense discussions, civility did reign. Fellows meet the highest level of officials in state and local government and I believe these relationships endure. Yes, John Cosgove and Ken Alexander are graduates, and they speak to each other as well. Please, don’t take Brian’s sour grapes as any real indication of the efficacy of this program. It is top notch.
“Pragmatic Leaders” who “work together”?????
Wanna know my Sorensen experience? We had a mock General Assembly that faced a budget deficit and overwhelmingly chose to raise taxes so high that there was such a surplus that we had to re-appropriate all of it just so we could spend it all.
Boy, that taught me a whole lot. It taught me that an Institute led by a New Jersey Democrat campaign staffer and a class full of Democrat staffers from Richmond can raise taxes to the moon and spend like crazy, since none of them have to be e-l-e-c-t-e-d.
I made a motion to re-commit the budget, and the “pragmatic leader” who was acting as Speaker of the House didn’t know what that was, so she ruled my motion out of order even though I had a second. I then offered an amendment that reversed the tax increase, but she didn’t know what an amendment was. I made a Point of Order and…well, you get the drift.
My first day at Sorensen, the happy liberal facilitator asked us all to list things about “our ideal community.” We all did.
He then asked what we thought government should do to accomplish those things.
His heart and face sank after taking many liberal activist ideas and writing them on the board because he allowed me to offer “Who says it’s government’s role to create ‘the ideal community.’ ”
Everything came to a halt. Why, of course government’s job is to create the ideal community for us, they said. What else would people want government for?
I said, to protect individual liberty for citizens to be able to freely pursue their own ideals.
Well, that discussion was ended by Mr. New Jersey, since if I questioned the assumption, we couldn’t proceed with the exercise.
Don’t get me started on Sorensen. I’ll have to play you the “Back to School” economics class scene.
Oh, and then there was the time a Professor gave his liberal lecture, and 3 conservatives in the room were criticized for asked questions about his “facts” and offering a rebuttal.
Oh, and the time when I was asked to “not comment” on our listserv email debates, because I was making Democrats mad.
Want more?
Brian, stop digging. Fact is, the fact that your were unpersuasive is your fault, not the classes fault. When my class went through the budget exercise, we cut the budget; the point is, the exercise provides a simulation of what the budget negotiators go through. It is a learning exercise. Your negative opinion about Sorenson does not surprise me; your interest seems to lie mostly in the election process, not governance, and while the political leaders programs at Sorensen does devote some time to getting elected, most of the sessions deal with policy.
Seems like Sorensen and you would like governing without troublesome things like elections
Mike Barrett,
This might be the only time I agree with you…but I believe Sorensen will be beneficial for me and all of the others in this class. I might be the only Norfolk Republican to ever to be selected….
Bryan yeah I spelled your name wrong too why don’t you shove your opinions up your nose. Want to talk about civility how about disclosing how many campaigns you’ve worked for but never disclosed it on Bearing Drift and still offered your adult unbiased opinion!
Bob, did you drop your pacifier or something?
Hey Brian anybody ever tell you to your face what an asshole you are, because believe me next time I see you anywhere you can count on it! I find it interesting that you aren’t listed as an alumni of Sorensen, couldn’t cut the mustard them mean old dems wouldn’t listen huh? Speaks volumes as your ability to articulate an argument without resorting to personal attacks! I can only imagine you as a Delegate or Senator quiting because your bill got killed, (but that’s never going to happen is it) I think you know where I think you can shove that pacifier pal!
I look forward to seeing you, next time I visit the mental ward.
You call me an “asshole” and then talk about the “ability to articulate an argument without resorting to personal attacks”?
I realize most people get either looks or brains, but since I have both, you must’ve been the guy who got neither.
I give as good as I get and I will see you in person with a pacifier pal! You should rename this thread; “Kirwin not Smart Enough”! Poor guy didn’t have what it takes to cross the finish line!
You give as good as you get? Never figured you to be a Log Cabin Republican…
Hey Bearing Drift! I give you the mighty Bloger Brian Crying Kirwin, now Brian go do some real work and post something we might want to read, now here’s a hint for you, Arizona “Firearms Freedom Act”.
You can read?
I am on the verge of tears I’m laughing so hard at this
Another groupie with a pacifier in Brian’s fan club….
Leave your response