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: 09-02-2009
Mon, 09-07-2009 - 4:50pm
Doesn't it make you wonder where Bush was hiding his all those years?
iVillage Member
Registered: 02-19-2008
Mon, 09-07-2009 - 4:52pm
Well apparently this President is lacking in mind control as my school district is still saying no to showing his speech. But I hear C-Span is carrying it, so all those who feel their children would benefit from hearing it can DVR it so they can hear it when they get home.
iVillage Member
Registered: 02-19-2008
Mon, 09-07-2009 - 5:05pm

I usually find people who think like this are concerned with style over substance. I would have liked to have seen the Gettysburg address live, yet amazingly the speech holds up without it.

Same with Senator George Vest's summation to the jury regarding Old Drum.

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-22-2009
Mon, 09-07-2009 - 5:06pm

~others have~

I've only heard of one, but if you have evidence of a number of people saying this by all means share to support your claim. Take care :)

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iVillage Member
Registered: 01-22-2009
Mon, 09-07-2009 - 5:09pm

~all those who feel their children would benefit from hearing it can DVR it so they can hear it when they get home~

Those who have a home (and the internet), sure.

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/11/AR2009071102099.html?hpid=topnews

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iVillage Member
Registered: 02-19-2008
Mon, 09-07-2009 - 5:24pm

BO falling down on the job?

If I didn't have a home my children would have greater issues than BO's speech.

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-02-2009
Mon, 09-07-2009 - 5:27pm
Ah the Gettysburg Address, when my children had to learn that - in 5th grade they had to memorize a portion - we went to Gettysburg so they could recite it where it was originally spoken. It was very moving for them and they still, to this day, at 22 and 20, remember it. So, yes I do think there is a distinct difference from reading it on a piece of paper and 'being there in the moment'. It's not always possible to be there, but when I can I strive to provide that for my children. So sorry you don't feel that way.


Edited 9/7/2009 5:27 pm ET by justjane2009
iVillage Member
Registered: 01-22-2009
Mon, 09-07-2009 - 5:47pm

~BO falling down on the job?~

How quickly did you think your economy could be turned around?

~If I didn't have a home my children would have greater issues than BO's speech.~

Yes, that's right. However, that wasn't my point.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 08-30-2002
Mon, 09-07-2009 - 6:54pm

***How quickly did you think your economy could be turned around?***


Don't you know he was supposed to use his superhuman mind control powers to instantaneously reverse this?


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090907/ap_on_bi_ge/us_meltdown_new_frugality


(I have to admit I was stunned by the statemnt by the woman,, my age, that says she has 6 TV's in her house, and questions the need for a new flat screen. I haven't bought 6 TVs in my entire life, or 6 computers or cell phones for that matter,



iVillage Member
Registered: 02-19-2008
Mon, 09-07-2009 - 10:04pm

Well I suppose I could toddle my children off to the Wakefield High School in Arlington, Va. But I don't think it'd be the same as Gettysburg. Personally I was struck more by the rows of unknown markers than much else.

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