Sydney Smoot, an incredibly well-spoken 9-year-old, shut down standardized testing in front of a Florida school board meeting last month. Now her speech is starting to go viral.
She was speaking out adamantly against the Florida Standards Assessment. While Smoot likely had some writing help, this girl’s public speaking simply can’t be stopped.
“I consider myself a well-educated young lady. However with FSA tests, my five years of school… do not matter. This testing looks at me as a number. One test defines me either as a failure or a success through a numbered rubric,” Smoot said.
Smoot blew the audience away with her eloquent speech, but only time will tell if the school board really heard her message. In the meantime, someone get her working in public policy.
Photo via Alberto G./Flickr (CC BY 2.0)