Teachers union president mocked for channeling ‘The Office’ character Dwight Schrute in ‘totally unhinged’ speech
The president of the nation’s largest teachers union is being mocked for a “totally unhinged” speech, with critics comparing the appearance to an over-the-top scene from “The Office.”
National Education Association (NEA) President Becky Pringle wailed on a podium, flailed her hands in the air, and tossed her head back yelling about winning “all the things” during an address to the union in Philadelphia Thursday.
“Our students are depending on us to win all the things! NEA, we have to win all the things!” Pringle declared, striking the podium with her firsts and raising both hands in the air.
“All the things! All the things! All the things!” she repeated, yelling so loudly she heaved for breath between sentences. “We must win all the things! Delegates, we don’t go back. We will keep going forward because we are the NEA! We are the NEA! We are the NEA!”
Critics quickly compared Pringle’s speech to an address given by “The Office” character Dwight Schrute in an episode during which he pounds on a podium and waves his hands in almost exactly the same manner.
“Becky Pringle pulled a Dwight Schrute. She is off-the-rails and desperate to maintain control over the minds of other people’s children,” school choice advocate Corey DeAngelis told Fox News Digital.
Videos comparing the two speeches followed suit across the internet.
“Blood alone moves the wheels of history!” Dwight cried in the scene, pumping his fist in the air.
“It has been a lifetime struggle. A never-ending fight. I say to you, and you will understand that it is a privilege to fight! We are warriors!” he says in the speech, which reportedly used the words of Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini.
Heritage Foundation Education Policy fellow Jason Bedrick called Pringle’s speech an “overwrought hyper-partisan tirade” that did little more than promote the cause of school choice – a cause which advocates using public funds to give parents access to education options outside the public school system.
“Even Pringle’s over-the-top, Dwight Schrute-like theatrics can’t distract from her union’s role in the dismal state of education in this country,” Bedrick told FOX.
The speech was just Pringle’s latest to be compared to the “Office” heel.
At last year’s annual address, Pringle closed with another impassioned performance that National Review writer Jack Crowe described as “unhinged.”
“Dwight’s acceptance speech at the annual paper salesmen’s conference looks measured and on-topic by comparison,” Crowe wrote at the time.
