Obama's Speech to Children Next Week

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-24-2009
Obama's Speech to Children Next Week
142
Thu, 09-03-2009 - 12:32am

Is it just me, or is this just nuts??!!


 


http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6599457.html


Some Texas parents are asking school principals to excuse their children from listening to a speech that President Barack Obama will make to schools next week on the grounds that it smacks of political indoctrination.


Obama will deliver an address directly to students on the importance of education beginning at 11 a.m. (CST) Tuesday.


“The president will challenge students to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for their learning,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan wrote in an Aug. 26 letter to school principals.


Critics of the president are using the Internet to build opposition and encourage parents to request their children not be forced to listen.


“I think it's inappropriate because it smacks of political indoctrination of the worst kind,” said Brett Curtis, a parent of two children attending Pearland ISD schools. “It's not just a speech. It's a specific curriculum to go along with the speech directly from the president of the United States without review.”


Schools are getting a menu of classroom activities for students, according to the education secretary, designed by teachers “to help engage students and stimulate discussion on the importance of education in their lives.”


Curtis said he would instruct his children to boycott the speech as “a general protest. I know that's going on around the country.”


Most Houston-area school districts will let principals and teachers decide whether to show Obama's speech. Some district leaders raised concerns about interrupting already scheduled lessons, while others said students need to hear the president's expected message of personal responsibility for learning.


Some parents have threatened to keep their children home for the day.


“I just don't see how this would be an indoctrination technique,” said Alief school board president Sarah Wink­ler, who also is president-elect of the Texas Association of School Boards. “It sounds to me like these are all things we try to teach our kids. We want them to work hard and pay attention and do the best they can.”


The Alief district, like Lamar Consolidated, plans to record the speech for interested teachers to show later.


Parents can opt out

The Houston Independent School District has directed principals to give parents a heads-up if they are planning lessons around Obama's speech so parents can opt out their children. Other districts said they would excuse students, though not all plan to send home notes in advance.


“We're not stopping instruction for it,” said Clear Creek ISD spokeswoman Elaina Polsen, “but if it's in line with what's being taught either on Sept. 8th or down the road, teachers may use it.”


Pasadena school officials said they are working to ensure that all schools can access the online broadcast of Obama's speech if they want.


In 1989, President George H.W. Bush used a nationally televised speech to schoolchildren to push an anti-drug campaign.


“It is not uncommon for students to watch a presidential speech that is given during the school day,” said Debbie Ratcliffe, spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency. “This situation is somewhat different in that this speech apparently will be directed to students. But each district can decide how best to handle it for their community.”


Children pulled out of school for the day will cost districts about $35 per child, as state funding for schools is based on daily attendance.


State Board of Education member David Bradley, R-Beaumont, said he objected to the federal Department of Education taking classroom time away from local schools. The speech may be innocuous, Bradley said, “but look at the follow-up activities.”


“Under Texas statute, parents have the right to review all instructional materials. They also have the right to opt out their kids from any program they might object to,” he said, citing sex education as an example.


State Board of Education member Barbara Cargill, R-The Woodlands, said parents have complained to her about the speech taking up valuable classroom instruction time.


One parent told her the president's speech “obligates the youngest children in our public school system to agree with Obama's initiatives or be ostracized by their teachers and classmates,” and does not allow for healthy debate.


‘Wild-eyed paranoia'

President Obama's speech does have its defenders.


“It's hard to imagine anything more ridiculous than attacking the president of the United States for talking to students about the importance of getting a good education and being a good citizen,” said Kathy Miller, president of the Texas Freedom Network, which monitors public education in Texas.


“I wish our elected leaders were responsible enough to denounce this kind of wild-eyed paranoia,” Miller said. “But the problem is too many of them are actually feeding this kind of nonsense — like when the governor flirts with secessionists and State Board of Education members say the president sympathizes with terrorists.”


 


All the kids around here listened to bush's speeches in class.  No one made a peep.  Hmmmmm.


 


 

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iVillage Member
Registered: 08-24-2009
Tue, 09-08-2009 - 6:58pm

Call me an optimist that this might be closing the gap somewhat.


Okay.

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-24-2009
Tue, 09-08-2009 - 6:59pm
My point is that he didn't say he was wrong. He knew he had to say something since he is the one who started this with his nonsense. In my eyes, that's exactly what he did with his statement, he "shrugged it off."
iVillage Member
Registered: 09-02-2009
Tue, 09-08-2009 - 7:50pm
I have posted this elsewhere tonight but I will say it here as well. I was one of the few teachers in my school to show the speech - unfortunately I live in a very conservative area. While I had to send a letter home telling parents, so they could choose to allow or not allow their child to see it, none of my children were absent and none of my children brought a note saying they couldn't see it. The speech came on right after lunch, when my children usually display their most challenging behaviors, and my students were on their very best behavior - even my unmedicated ADHD students were quiet, still, and very attentive. It was moving for me, as I voted for him and loved his speech, but also as a teacher it was moving for me to watch my students watch him. I actually had tears in my eyes. When I connected to the internet and my students saw that the audience on the screen were also students and I explained that he would be giving the speech at a school they got really excited. They wondered if he would ever come to our school and then they decided - not my suggestion - to pretend that they were in that auditorium as well. (6th graders are still so young - gotta love them!) It was so much fun to watch them watch him - I know I already said that but it really really was! The conversations we had after the speech were great - mostly led by the students - and when it was time to get back to work I heard lots of encouragement between students. It was a wonderful afternoon!
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Tue, 09-08-2009 - 8:43pm

What a

 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-02-2009
Tue, 09-08-2009 - 8:56pm
Thanks, but I can't take credit for anything - kids are just so much fun and when they have a chance to see a president talk to them it does move them. They really felt he was talking to him and they really felt respected by him and that, I think, is the key. One of my goals as a teacher is to treat my students with more respect than they show me and in that way I hope that they will learn to respect themselves, me, and others. Students at the lower end of the socioeconomic strata are used to feeling disrespected - and really don't we all just want a little respect? I think they got that from the president today and they know it.
Community Leader
Registered: 04-05-2002
Tue, 09-08-2009 - 9:33pm
It doesn't matter what he achieves, some people, even on this board, question everything, even his academic background, despite his having attended the top schools. I wonder how they'd view him if he'd had Sarah Palin's educational background and she was found more than qualified by those people.










Community Leader
Registered: 04-05-2002
Tue, 09-08-2009 - 9:38pm
I think we're reading the same statement differently. I took it to mean he was wrong about what he thought Obama was going to say but I could see taking it your way, too, that Obama changed his message because of his influence. I don't know how he meant it exactly but will give him the benefit of the doubt (again, call me an optimist--lol, unlike Bush with his," Fool me once shame on,,,shame on you, fool me twice, well, you can't get fooled again..."). But, he still came out to say that he encouraged people/children to hear the speech. Too many won't hear anything Obama says, even if it's a positive message, because of fear or hatred. So, he's risen above that.










iVillage Member
Registered: 09-02-2009
Tue, 09-08-2009 - 9:40pm
Sarah Palin was supposed to be 'just like us' women wasn't she? That was supposed to be her attraction. Of course, I have a masters degree and graduated Summa Cum Laude, so I don't think she quite makes that mark for me. She never sounds coherent, her word stew is enough to make English teachers across the country cringe - as an aside, I really wonder how many teachers could stomach voting for her? Hopefully she has shown enough of her true colors with her quitting office, with 18 months to go, so that she is no longer viable, but given what we have seen lately she just may be their top pick. So sad really.
Community Leader
Registered: 04-05-2002
Tue, 09-08-2009 - 9:42pm
That's great that you did and it's nice to hear your students' responses. I really think they planned the timing of it poorly. My son said they showed it during lunch at school. No one could hear so no one noticed. It was the first day of school and kids are too excited to talk to their friends. Students who didn't want to see it could be excused. Teachers have the option to show it the next few days in class if they want. I hope they do. My daughter was in music class and there wasn't an opportunity there to watch, although the rest of the school did.










Community Leader
Registered: 04-05-2002
Tue, 09-08-2009 - 9:48pm

Definitely. I never understood the attraction of saying she was just like us and we could relate to her and that's why she should help lead the country. Personally, I want someone far more intelligent than an average person to be in charge of this country. I read in the paper about one woman at a rally who said, "Yeah, she has a pregnant unmarried teen daughter. There are more of us who have pregnant unmarried teen daughter than attended an Ivy league so I'm voting for her!" Really?

There are so many intelligent Republican women out there, Olympia Snow comes quickly to mind, Condoleeza Rice, Christine Todd Whitman. I wonder how they felt about having Palin lead their party.











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