The president of the National Education Association was widely mocked for his “totally insane” speech, which resembled a hilarious scene from The Office.
Becky Pringle delivered an impassioned monologue on the future of education in Philadelphia on Thursday, calling for sweeping changes to make the system more equal.
But viewers were distracted by her strange gestures and emphasis.
Pringle pounded her fists on the podium and waved them in the air as she repeatedly shouted that the NEA must win “everything” to help “every student.”
Clips of the speech went viral, with many comparing it to a scene from the popular sitcom The Office, in which Dwight Schrute appears at a convention of paper salesmen and delivers a wild speech based on old speeches by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.
During his speech in Philadelphia on Thursday, Pringle delivered an impassioned monologue that many compared to a Dwight Schrute speech in The Office
Pringle gave a speech to 7,000 people at tThe NEA Annual Meeting and Representative Assembly in Philadelphia.
She called for broad change in education to create a “racially and socially just and equitable system.”
“We have worked hard to get rid of a tyrannical, deceitful and corrupt White House, but the reality is that the seeds sown during that terrible period are still germinating,” she said.
She cheered up the audience by waving her hands in the air and repeating important phrases.
“We are the ones who help shape the heart of this nation’s hopes and dreams. We are the ones who hold steadfastly to the belief in the plausibility of the possible,” she said.
“We are the heirs of all those who did this work before us. We must continue. NEA representatives, we can do this work. We must do this work.”
Her speech became more intense and energetic as she continued, saying, “Our students are counting on us to win everything. Everything! Everything! Everything.”
In X, viewers cut clips from her speech and merged them with clips of Dwight giving his speech on the show.
School choice advocate Corey DeAngelis shared the clips online, calling her speech “weird” to Fox Digital.
She got the audience excited by waving her hands in the air and repeating key phrases
Her speech became more intense and energetic as she continued, and she said, “Our students are counting on us to win everything. Everything! Everything! Everything.”
He said, “Becky Pringle did a Dwight Schrute. She’s off the rails and desperate to control the minds of other people’s children.”
Some joked that Pringle probably hired Schrute as her “speech coach.”
In his speech in The Office, Jim tricks him into reading him some quotes from Mussolini, which he has slightly altered to be about selling paper.
Slamming his fists on the stage, Schrute tells the audience, “Only blood moves the wheels of history! It has been a lifelong fight. A never-ending fight. I say to you, and you will understand, it is a privilege to fight!”
‘We are warriors… Rise up and be worthy of this historic hour! No revolution is worth anything unless it can defend itself… We must never rest, for it is together, together that we will overcome.’