President Bush declared war on literacy long before he ran for president. What makes all of these hilarious is that the topic is reading, learning, and, presumably, vocabulary.
| Top Bushisms in the Category of: The War On Literacy | |
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President Bush declared war on literacy long before he ran for president. What makes all of these hilarious is that the topic is reading, learning, and, presumably, vocabulary. |
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| 1. | "Reading is the basics for all learning." - George W. Bush, announcing his "Reading First" initiative in Reston, VA, March 28, 2000 (He means "basis." What makes all of these hilarious is that the topic is reading, learning, and, presumably, vocabulary.) | ||
| 2. | "Laura and I really don't realize how bright our children is sometimes until we get an objective analysis." - George W. Bush, CNBC, April 15, 2000 | ||
| 3. | "Rarely is the questioned asked: are - is our children learning?" - George W. Bush, Florence, SC, Jan. 11, 2000 [AUDIO] | ||
| 4. | "Then you wake up at the high school level and find out that the illiteracy level of our children are appalling." - George W. Bush, Washington, DC, Jan. 23, 2004 [AUDIO] | ||
| 5. | "And if you're interested in the quality of education and you're paying attention to what you hear at Laclede, why don't you volunteer? Why don't you mentor a child how to read?" - George W. Bush, St. Louis, MO, Jan. 5, 2004 [AUDIO] | ||
| 6. | "If a person doesn't have the capacity that we all want that person to have, I suspect hope is in the far distant future, if at all." - George W. Bush, May 22, 2001 | ||
| 7. | "I want it to be said that the Bush administration was a results-oriented administration, because I believe the results of focusing our attention and energy on teaching children to read and having an education system that's responsive to the child and to the parents, as opposed to mired in a system that refuses to change, will make America what we want it to be - a more literate country and a hopefuller country." - George W. Bush, Jan. 11, 2001 | ||
| 8. | "I want to thank your Governor for traveling with me today. It's an honor to be in a presence who has made public education his top priority." - George W. Bush, Rufus King High School, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, May 8, 2002 | ||
| 9. | "So community colleges are accessible, they're available, they're affordable, and their curriculums don't get stuck. In other words, if there's a need for a certain kind of worker, I presume your curriculums evolved over time." - George W. Bush, Niceville, FL, Aug. 10, 2004 (Besides the tortured syntax, anyone with degrees from Harvard and Yale ought to know that certain Latin words, such as medium, bacterium, and curriculum are singular nouns, not plural.) | ||
| 10. | "It's the systems that don't test are those that quit on the kids." - George W. Bush, White House, Washington, DC, Sep. 4, 2002 (Mr. President, my apologies for whomever quit on you.) | ||
| 11. | "He's got his priorities straight. He has faith foremost in his life, and his family are his two priorities. ...And his first priority -- his first priority is to make sure every child in this state gets educated." - George W. Bush, Oklahoma City, OK, Aug. 29, 2002 (Well, it sounds to me like somebody is confused about his priorities.) | ||
| 12. | "If you believe every child can learn, therefore we ought to know whether that's the case." - George W. Bush, Pickering for Congress Luncheon, Jackson, MI, Aug. 7, 2002 | ||
| 13. | "It's in your best interests, by the way, that we have a literate tomorrow. You're irrelevant if people can't read. And we need to start figuring out whether they can or cannot early in a child's career." - George W. Bush, National Newspaper Association 40th Annual Government Affairs Conference, Washington, DC, Mar. 22, 2001 (Wow. All three sentences are weird. Who knew we'd get the trifecta?) | ||
| 14. | "Of all states that understands local control of schools, Iowa is such a state." - George W. Bush, Council Bluffs, IA, Feb. 28, 2001 | ||
| 15. | "I understand taking tests aren't fun." - George
W. Bush, Hamilton High School, Hamilton, Ohio, Jan. 8, 2002 -- Spoken like a true scholar. |
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| 16. | "We expect the states to show us whether or not we're achieving simple objectives - like literacy, literacy in math, the ability to read and write." - George W. Bush, on federal education requirements, Washington, DC, April 28, 2005 | ||
| 17. | "I want to thank you for the importance that you've shown for education and literacy." - George W. Bush, Washington, DC, April 13, 2005 | ||
| 18. | "I learned some pretty interesting lessons as the governor.
And one lesson is that in order for schools to succeed, you'd better have
you a good principal." - George W. Bush, Jacksonville, Florida, Sep.
3, 2003 -- It's unfortunate that grammar lessons weren't being offered at the same time |
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| 19. | "American children are not born knowing what they should
cherish -- are not born knowing why they should cherish American values.
A love of democratic principles must be taught." - George W. Bush,
White House, Sep. 17, 2002 -- I guess "these truths" are not "self-evident" after all. Rather than government deriving its just powers from the consent of those governed, it assures its power through training children to "love democracy". Scary. |
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