Parents and lawmakers speak out against Obama's speech to students

[deepimpact2]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

It seems to me that we're at an intensely polarized point politically, so it wouldn't have been asking too much for the Obama administration to have reflected on the idea of how it would be perceived before they unveiled the plan for the speech AND to have worked more closely with the lesson planners at the DOE so the first set of lesson plans that the talk radio and TV personalities latched onto didn't contain anything that could seem like indoctrination through the schools.

On the other hand, this has been one of the worst topics for misinformation I've ever seen from the usual right wing suspects. The topic of the speech isn't controversial. There is no honorable opposition to the idea that kids should set goals and value their educational opportunities. It shouldn't be fundamentally threatening for the President to address school kids.

On final note as a teacher: the administration really needed to get the word out much earlier than they did. Almost any teacher could have worked some aspect of the speech into his or her curriculum had the teacher been given advanced notice. If you just publicize something the week before though, most teachers will have lessons planned already. Unless they can really justify dropping the instruction planned, you aren't going to get the participation you hope for.

Similarly, noon on the east coast as the time makes it pretty hard logistically for all the kids at any east coast school to watch it since it's going to be right in the middle of lunch, probably. At a small school where everyone eats at the same time, it's easy to move things around or even to have the kids watch while they eat. But anyplace big enough that they have multiple lunch periods, this is going to be really hard.

(And if the solution is to Tivo or record for broadcast later, why did it need to be during the school day anyway? Obama could have sent out tapes or video streaming to make available for teachers to use at their discretion.)

I agree that there is nothing fundamentally threatening about the topic of the President's speech. However I disagree about teachers needing that much advance notice. Part of being a good teacher is being flexible. There may be days when your lesson plan won't go according to "plan." A teacher should always be prepared for that. Furthermore, with the way things happen in schools nowadays teachers should be prepared for unannounced interruptions (fire drills, bomb drills, sudden visits from dignitaries). When Chief Justice Roberts interrupted my Torts class the professor was mildly taken aback but he wasn't going to tell Roberts he couldn't come in because he didn't have time to incorporate it into the lesson plan. And besides, based on the topic of the speech, what would be so difficult about incorporating it into a lesson plan?

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by deepimpact2

I agree that there is nothing fundamentally threatening about the topic of the President's speech. However I disagree about teachers needing that much advance notice. Part of being a good teacher is being flexible. There may be days when your lesson plan won't go according to "plan." A teacher should always be prepared for that. Furthermore, with the way things happen in schools nowadays teachers should be prepared for unannounced interruptions (fire drills, bomb drills, sudden visits from dignitaries). When Chief Justice Roberts interrupted my Torts class the professor was mildly taken aback but he wasn't going to tell Roberts he couldn't come in because he didn't have time to incorporate it into the lesson plan. And besides, based on the topic of the speech, what would be so difficult about incorporating it into a lesson plan?

The difference is that Obama could have easily given more advance notice. It didn't need to sprung on people the week before.

And I don't know what your education was like, but a generic "stay in school, kids" wasn't part of my lessons very frequently.

There are a lot of ways the logistics could have been a lot better to get closer to 100% participation.

Think about it: if this had been well-planned and the specific content explained by the White House or DOE a month or two ago, there'd be pressure on districts to figure out how to show it. Instead, I suspect that the participation rate for any state that this isn't the first day of school will be far from 100%.

If this is the first day for a district, they had all last week to work out how and where they would show it. If it wasn't the first week, they were actually teaching, planning, grading, dealing with discipline, and probably didn't have as much time to devote to this. I know my district didn't. I think most of the districts around Atlanta figured out how to handle it in a way that didn't make parents mad; permission slip etc, but didn't send out any information about how to make it work with the lunch schedule or any of the practical concerns if a teacher wanted to show it. That will leave many teachers with the impression that it's much easier just not to fool with showing it.

[deepimpact2]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

The difference is that Obama could have easily given more advance notice. It didn't need to sprung on people the week before.

And I don't know what your education was like, but a generic "stay in school, kids" wasn't part of my lessons very frequently.

There are a lot of ways the logistics could have been a lot better to get closer to 100% participation.

Think about it: if this had been well-planned and the specific content explained by the White House or DOE a month or two ago, there'd be pressure on districts to figure out how to show it. Instead, I suspect that the participation rate for any state that this isn't the first day of school will be far from 100%.

If this is the first day for a district, they had all last week to work out how and where they would show it. If it wasn't the first week, they were actually teaching, planning, grading, dealing with discipline, and probably didn't have as much time to devote to this. I know my district didn't. I think most of the districts around Atlanta figured out how to handle it in a way that didn't make parents mad; permission slip etc, but didn't send out any information about how to make it work with the lunch schedule or any of the practical concerns if a teacher wanted to show it. That will leave many teachers with the impression that it's much easier just not to fool with showing it.

No, most teachers won't have a generic "stay in school" segment on their lesson plan. That still doesn't mean that it isn't relevant, and that it should not be addressed. I'm not sure why these districts are acting as though this is rocket science. When things came up like this in my district, it was never that difficult to plan it out. The lunch schedules were altered, and if necessary, there was extended homeroom. It is the POTUS giving an encouraging message for goodness sake! Seems to me like people would WANT kids to see that. All that other stuff about schedules and logistics? Just plain old excuses...and we all know what excuses are.