President to Address Schoolchildren
Posted By J.T. on September 4, 2009
President Barack Obama (D-Ill.) will be speaking to the nation’s schoolchildren on Sep. 8.
The President plans on speaking directly to students asking them to take responsibility for their education and to set goals for themselves. The White House has put together a Public Service Announcement:
Letters have been sent home with kids in local school districts for parents to opt their children out of hearing the address. There has been a public outcry over the planned event stemming from some lesson plans that were sent along with a letter to school superintendents.
Originally there was a section for PRE-6 asking students to “write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president. These would be collected and redistributed at an appropriate later date by the teacher to make students accountable to their goals.” This has been changed to “Write letters to themselves about how they can achieve their short‐term and long‐term education goals. Teachers would collect and redistribute these letters at an appropriate later date to enable students to monitor their progress.”
This is not the first time a U.S. President has tried speaking to children in public schools, but it does appear to be the first time that lesson plans were distributed to teachers. In 1991, then-President George H. W. Bush gave a televised speech during school hours encouraging kids to “work harder, learn more.” Then-majority leader Richard Gephardt criticized the speech, saying “The Department of Education should not be producing paid political advertising for the president, it should be helping us to produce smarter students.”
OPINION -
While I understand that partisan politics means that many people will automatically disagree with the actions of politicians from opposing parties, what the President is doing is similar to what his predecessors have done.
“What will you do for your President” does seem a bit arrogant, and I’m sure parents would have been just as upset had former Pres. Bush decided to do this same speech.
But there is no reason to pull your children out of school just because the U.S. President is giving a speech. The speech is not mandatory and most school districts are giving the children/parents the ability to opt out of listening.
Regardless of your political beliefs, this is a great time for parents to get children involved in politics…
My son’s elementary school had no idea about the Address when I called in about it a day ago. I was told that I would not be welcome to sit in on the Address.
Today, I went to the school to try and get some answers to nagging questions. This time I was referred to the superintendent for any and all questions. The school did tell me that they had no choice in airing the Address, the teachers could not opt-out either, as the “government pays their bills.”
To the question of “What can I do to help the President?” It reminds me of the “Safe Side” video. Remember children what you need to do when an adult asks you for help - yes, turn and RUN!!! Don’t trust the adults that ask children for help!
Why is it important that we listen to the President and other elected officials, like the mayor, senators, members of congress, or the governor?
So we can figure out what they say they’re going to do and call them on their lies.
“At this moment the entire group of people broke into a deep, slow, rhythmic chant of ‘B-B! …. B-B! …. B-B!’—over and over again, very slowly, with a long pause between the first ‘B’ and the second—a heavy murmurous sound, somehow curiously savage, in the background of which one seemed to hear the stamps of naked feet and the throbbing of tom-toms.
For perhaps as much as thirty seconds they kept it up. It was a refrain that was often heard in moments of overwhelming emotion. Partly it was a sort of hymn to the wisdom and majesty of Big Brother, but still more it was an act of self-hypnosis, a deliberate drowning of consciousness by means of rhythmic noise.”
—Orwell, George (1949). Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Th major difference is I could trust Ronald Reagan to say the things kids need to hear and not turn this sort of thing into a political speech.
What we are seeing is the continuing lack of trust for Obama and his administration. The recent Van Jones debacle underscores the administrations inability to execute any good decision making and a recklessness that is un parralleled in our history for a president.
When a president suggests a study guide and works through a extremely liberal NEA to reach kids, we have reason to be worried.
This man is taking us into some risky and dangerous places with total disregard for the basic beliefs and values this country holds so dear. As a result we see democrats and independent, the old guard, and the elderly leaving the democrat party as redefined by Obama, Pelosi, even McCaskill who is a deciple of Obama.