“Teachable Moment”? Peggy Noonan Says Sherrod Speech Should Be Required In Schools

by Meenal Vamburkar | 2:23 pm, July 23rd, 2010

» 28 comments

Okay, you’re probably sick of hearing the phrase “teachable moment.” It’s made quite the comeback amid the Shirley Sherrod hoopla. But in today’s Wall Street Journal, Peggy Noonan has a slightly different take on it. Noonan argues Sherrod’s speech has lessons that students could — and should — learn from.

Noting that “it wasn’t pretty, what was done to Shirley Sherrod this week,” Noonan finds a silver lining of sorts by finding a way to seek redemption:

This September, when school begins, we should make the speech required viewing in the nation’s high schools. It packs quite a lesson within quite a story.

The column also makes the interesting observation that Sherrod tells the story “not in a tone of rage or self-pity but of simple remembered sadness” — which makes the message ring all the more true. The story, Noonan writes, is about a woman who took the painful experiences of discrimination and hatred from her past and channeled them into doing some good for others — but she also acknowledges that “it’s not a perfect speech.”

But speeches don’t have to be perfect to provide good lessons. The most obvious thing to be learned from the Sherrod ordeal is that we’re too quick to judge, and that we should be more skeptical of what the media tell us. Noonan includes these. However, the more important lesson for students — and for anyone else, too, to be honest — is:

And for students? What can they learn? How about: Individuals can change, just like nations. They can get better, if they want to be.

What’s more important than that? What do students need to hear more?

It really can be a teachable moment. It can.

Good point. If high school students graduated having learned, or at least been exposed to, this lesson, they’d be better for it. High school administrations often emphasize that they are preparing their students for the proverbial Real World. Well, a real-world lesson could certainly help.

Peggy Noonan, Shirley Sherrod, teachable moment, wall street journal

BatBoy

They need to cover Shirley Sherrod future settlement.

It will show one how to go from being poor in America to being really really rich!

I am guessing she will get a settlement in the 10′s of millions.
axel360

We need to calm down and stop putting this woman on a pedestal. A week ago, no one knew or cared who this woman was. Now everyone feels the need to apology and feel gratitude is needed. This incident is not going to change anything about race relations or further any type of cause. She did not deserve her name to be smeared, but she all this praise, meritocracy, and adulation is not needed. Where was all this attention when she made this speech in the first place?
roxsteady

Facts please, just the facts! If you want some, stop watching fox. They don’t deal in facts. You’ll always be wrong of you depend on them for actual news. If you want to know what happened to Sherrod and other black farmers, just read the article below from Time.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2006058,00.html?xid=rss-mostpopular
Larry W.

We never know the moment in our lives when we find there is a more just way of living. Some will look right past it. Some will follow it for awhile then go back to their old ways and some will get right back on the good path every time they fall off. Whether Shirley applies herself with every client or is selective will show over time. Whether we apply ourselves to solid principles or not is up to each of us. I just hope I can get back on after each time I fall off.
http://apostrophejones.com Apostrophe jones

Peggy . It’s time to feed the cats . All 17 of them . Then take them for a walk .
torgman

BatBoy said:
They need to cover Shirley Sherrod future settlement. It will show one how to go from being poor in America to being really really rich! I am guessing she will get a settlement in the 10’s of millions.

Doubt that Breitbart’s pockets are that deep.
timzank

For the love of god, she’s just another overpaid under-performing leeching civil servant with a fat pension coutesy of you and me (before her next lawsuit gets settled which it will) and a bad attitude. Listen to her words, she’s not at all past identifying people in terms of race.

She’s a user and a taker. Take her color out of it, she’s just another opportunist looking to cash in.
http://apostrophejones.com Apostrophe jones

Oh yes , Peg . While you’re on your catwalks , if you run into Traitor Joe Klein , ask him why he turned over the Journalist to Tucker . And if you’re still walking after dark , don’t trip over Maureen Dowd .
http:.//www.seriouslypissed.blogspot.com Throckmorton

roxsteady said:
stop watching fox. They don’t deal in facts. You’ll always be wrong of you depend on them for actual news. If you want to know what happened to Sherrod and other black farmers, just read the article below from Time.

I read the CNN/Times link (no liberal slant with this business model, eh?), and yet I did learn more than I did when I watched on FOX. For instance, were you aware that some nasty white people were mean to Negroes back in the 60′s and 70′s? Doesn’t that prove that all white people should be made to feel guilty forever? And I’m pretty sure you won’t hear that on FOX…
notsofast

Yes, in Russia, NKorea, Cuba and Venezuela.
JunkJunk

timzank said:
She’s a user and a taker. Take her color out of it, she’s just another opportunist looking to cash in.

This woman worked hard in the trenches day in and day out in the face of all sorts of adversity. And she continued to work in the best interests of ALL poor people despite what happened to her, her father, and her family. She was living an anonymous life until your hero, Andrew Breitbart, decided to attack and smear her. HE is the one who propped her up. If you don’t like it, you can do one of 2 things: 1) complain to Breitbart and stop supporting rightwing media, or 2) go to hell. Do both if it floats your boat.
Azarkhan

In a word: nauseating.
WideAwakeNow

She made some seriously bad racist statements. She realized she was wrong and changed her statements to some different seriously bad statements. So, now she’s not a racist she’s merely a maoist. Ah. That’s better.

What’s wrong with this country is that people don’t see being a socialist as bad as being a racist. I say it’s every bit as evil.
WideAwakeNow

JunkJunk said:
This woman worked hard in the trenches day in and day out in the face of all sorts of adversity. And she continued to work in the best interests of ALL poor people despite what happened to her, her father, and her family. She was living an anonymous life until your hero, Andrew Breitbart, decided to attack and smear her. HE is the one who propped her up. If you don’t like it, you can do one of 2 things: 1) complain to Breitbart and stop supporting rightwing media, or 2) go to hell. Do both if it floats your boat.

Breitbart posted his video WITH the exculpatory language that should have exonerated Ms. Sherrod and her remarks. What is he supposed to do…force the media outlets to air all of it? …The media ignored the last of the tape even when they did play it and ran with the racist comment part.. Breitbart wanted to highlight the NAACP’s inclination to beat up the Tea Party while simultaneously engaging in the very thing they say they hate in the Tea Party. Breitbart did nothing wrong. The media outlets and the WH got this one wrong. …But I still think they are making this woman out to be some kind of victimized saint. puh-leeze.
timzank

JunkJunk said:
This woman worked hard in the trenches day in and day out in the face of all sorts of adversity. And she continued to work in the best interests of ALL poor people despite what happened to her, her father, and her family. She was living an anonymous life until your hero, Andrew Breitbart, decided to attack and smear her. HE is the one who propped her up. If you don’t like it, you can do one of 2 things: 1) complain to Breitbart and stop supporting rightwing media, or 2) go to hell. Do both if it floats your boat.

You wanna cite that bio for us? Also, what do you suppose her annual salary is at the USDA? $150k or $200k a year, plus cadillac (zero deduct) health care, and a 90 % pension? Also a gas allowance & per diem probably about $100 a day as she travels around Georgia?
Iris

Whenawakenod, OH poor sad britefart boo hoo hoo what was he supposed to do, he didn’t do anything wrong, leave him alone, boo hoo hoo, the whole world hates him for nothing, and the victimized saint is going to sue him boo hoo hoo, what to do, what to do!
Hey, maybe all you old britefart fans can find an old barn somewhere and put on a show, yeah you can sell tickets and show all britefarts faked videos and give the 2 dollars you make from the ticket sales to the britefart legal defense fund, wow what a great idea
timzank

Iris said:
Whenawakenod, OH poor sad britefart boo hoo hoo what was he supposed to do, he didn’t do anything wrong, leave him alone, boo hoo hoo, the whole world hates him for nothing, and the victimized saint is going to sue him boo hoo hoo, what to do, what to do!Hey, maybe all you old britefart fans can find an old barn somewhere and put on a show, yeah you can sell tickets and show all britefarts faked videos and give the 2 dollars you make from the ticket sales to the britefart legal defense fund, wow what a great idea

Iris, he ran a video that was leaked to him, just like every other news outlet does. Get over it.
Iris

tiz, I know poor britebart its soo, so sad. cheer up tiz, the best is yet to come, the part where he loses his pants in a lawsuit and the whole world laughs!
Grammie

What basis is there for a suit against Breitbart or the USDA? Briebart put up a video on the net of her speaking in a public venue. No different than the coverage that Joe the plumber got from BHO approaching him in front of his home.

She was not a civil service employee but rather had an appointed position, in other words served at the pleasure of the admin. They pressured her to resign, she complied. Who does she sue for what under that scenario? Additionally they have offered her another job that she has declined. As far as I can se that is the end of that story.

As for the news coverage just who could Joe the Plumber sue when the MSM reported widely on confidential info about him illegally leaked by a Dem state official for no other purpose than to harm him.

I think the two situations are roughly analogous and based on my JD from all the Law & Order series I say she doesn’t have a legitimate case. :)
roxsteady

Until Nooners puts down the Bourbin and apologizes to Lisa Jackson for claiming that Jackson attended a fundraiser during the height of the Gulf Oil spill when she hadn’t. In fact, the even had NOT taken place yet and Jackson had already cancelled her appearance, I don’t want to hear anything from this drunken, loony, washed up, old woman. Put down the booze Pegs and call AA!
roxsteady

Sorry, that’s Bourbon!
felixw

Peggy Noonan is no fool, but she so desperately wants to be liked by liberals, that she periodically dishes up some dubious proposal like this one … Maybe it helps her maintain access to the radical chic cocktail parties given by her leftwing friends.

How about making the Bill of Rights required reading at schools? Judging by their policies, the Democrats have no clue what is in it.
am_underground

Like so many other have commented, her payday is a coming and it’s going to be big. As for a teachable moment, you bet it is. She knew or should have know her vocal tone and inflexion, body language and facial expressions, when relating how not wanting to help a white farmer, would and did have her all black audience saying amen and right on, she got caught up in the moment of adoration from her kind. In truth, she should have stopped them in their tracks and told them this was a story of her own redemption about racism and not fuel their racism as it did.

I don’t feel sorry for her and I don’t think she deserves a dime from the courts. She’s got a job offer, let her go back to work and earn a living like everyone else.
am_underground

Forgot, to all those who want to jump on the Fox bashing, those who thinks it’s so right wing, don’t forget Mr. Dan Rather of CBS who thought he’d throw Bush under the bus on his military service, can you say totally fabricated in your liberal tongue?
stevor

Sure, use it in schools AS LONG AS THEY TELL THE WHOLE STORY!

So, how did she get that job in the first place, given the Pigford Farms case:

Too bad this isn’t being shown much.

http://biggovernment.com/bshapiro/2010/07/22/congressman-sherrods-hiring-should-be-investigated/#more-147466
Tommy Christopher

stevor said:
Sure, use it in schools AS LONG AS THEY TELL THE WHOLE STORY!

So, how did she get that job in the first place, given the Pigford Farms case:

Too bad this isn’t being shown much.

http://biggovernment.com/bshapiro/2010/07/22/congressman-sherrods-hiring-should-be-investigated/#more-147466

Except for, um, on this site? The WHOLE TRUTH:

http://www.mediaite.com/online/gop-congressman-steve-king-wants-new-shirley-sherrod-smear-investigated/
Tommy Christopher

It should be noted that our own Steve Krakauer said the same thing about Sherrod’s speech last week.
Arkansas Steve

Here’s the problem:
Shirley’s original speech (all of it) would have made a GOOD teachable moment.

But have you heard some of Shirley’s racist rants on CNN & NBC afterward? She has proved the only racists associated with this story are Shirley herself, and the leader of the NAACP.

Lots of others on all sides made mistakes, but the NAACP boss has kept his mouth completely shut. Only Shirley accused people who disagree with her as wanting to go back 50 years.

When I first heard her speech, I thought: THIS ISN’T SO BAD, WHY ALL THE FUSS.
When I heard the last part, I thought: WOW, THIS IS A GREAT WOMAN!
After hearing her remarks on the alphabet media, SHIRLEY, I DON’T EVEN RESPECT YOU ANYMORE.

I’m sure you don’t care. You’ll wind up suing somebody……