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

[ThetaPrincess24]

Originally Posted by KSigkid

Ah ok. I'm not sure if they required a permission slip. As I said, I think the whole idea of permission slips to listen to political leaders (the President and other elected officials) is pretty ridiculous.

I agree! I dont see its point.

[Jill1228]

Originally Posted by court4short

Just found this gem of a comment:


So many things wrong with this..the spelling kills me, but has this idiot never heard of a comma or apostrophe? Apparently not, but she still thinks she's smarter than the President of USA. Hmph.

yup, she should be sitting in the class with her kids, because someone failed her dumb behind! It could be worse...she could have committed horrible apostrophe abuse--you know, thinking the apostrophe makes stuff plural.

[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?

[deepimpact2]

Originally Posted by DaemonSeid

What's even worse, when reading some of the comments, it seems that some of the writers need to be in class with the kids.

lmao

[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.

[deepimpact2]

Originally Posted by AGDee

It seems to me that the noon hour would be ideal for something like this because most of the kids are at lunch. Are cafeterias really not equipped for this type of thing? Isn't that where assemblies are always held? I've never been in a school where the cafeteria wasn't equipped for this. I have been in many that didn't have TVs in every classroom.

It is state law in Michigan that public schools cannot start school prior to Labor Day. Historically, the only reason that kids have summer off was to work on their farms, so it makes sense that the primary "growing season" would be different regionally. Additionally, most of our schools do not have air conditioning, so starting in August would just be ridiculous most years. We generally don't need air between September and mid-June, so schools weren't equipped with it. When schools started installing A/C, some of them then started school prior to Labor Day, which put a HUGE dent in our tourism industry. So, our previous governor proposed the law that schools cannot start until after Labor Day. It will be the first day of school for all the kids in Michigan. I see this as a pro for timing as well. They don't do anything the first day anyway.. they usually don't even get their books the first day. I imagine, as a teacher, I'd be happy that there was something to fill up the time on that first day because it only takes so long to go over a syllabus and classroom expectations.

I don't see how the President speaking directly, motivating and encouraging kids to stay in school, is all that different from the children watching Channel One every morning. As much as I disliked Bush, I never objected to news stories on Channel One about things that he said or did. I only jokingly objected when my son, in second grade, had to do an oral presentation on a President and happened to randomly be assigned W and was supposed to give the speech as though he WAS George W., like an autobiography.

One of my first thoughts was, I wonder if every child that Bush was reading to on the morning of 9/11 had permission from their parents to be in the room when the President was there. I can't even imagine. I know for sure I didn't have to get permission to see Mondale speak when he came to my high school.

This man IS the President of the United States. Agree or disagree with his policies, he is our President. I really disliked W strongly, to the point that I couldn't even look at him anymore by the end of his Presidency, but I would never object to my children hearing him speak in school. It *is* educational to learn about our government, to learn how to discuss politics in an intelligent way and to discuss our freedoms as citizens of the United States. I can't imagine wanting to squash that. We see some insane statistics about how many Americans can't name the Vice President or the Speaker of the House, etc... and we wonder why???

WELL said. And I thought about Channel One as well when I first head this. We never had to get permission to watch Channel One and it definitely took up instructional time. However, the sentiment was that watching Channel One was educational. I fail to see why this would not also be perceived as being an educational moment that could take up some instructional time. it is only ONE day out of the entire school year.

[DrPhil]

Taking off Obama-talks-too-damn-much hat/

It's just bad timing. His approval ratings have declined and clueless people are fighting at townhall meetings over healthcare reform that they haven't researched.

People are afraid that we've elected a socialist (we may have, time will tell) and that he is going to send some George Orwell vibes to the kids. "Stay in school so that you can pay for the healthcare of nonfamily members...and then we'll put a number on the back of your head."

The fear does not have to be well-founded or accurate. Fear usually isn't. But, I liken it to Bush giving a speech to the kids after America transitioned from thanking Bush for conquering terrorists to being pissed about the Iraq war. Did he give a speech then? I wouldn't know.

ETA: After all of this muchtadoboutnuthin, I hope his speech goes well and is well received, as other POTUS' kiddie speeches have been.

/putting on Obama-talks-too-damn-much hat

[DaemonSeid]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

Yeah, I'm not angry about it or anything, but I think the whole thing is kind of a pointless gesture.

But maybe he will be able to reach a few kids who identify more with his story than they did with previous administrations'. It's certainly not going to hurt.

If you have a room of 100 and you reach 10 or 1. You have done your job.

[AOII_LB93]

Oh that crazy Obama...trying to fill our kids heads with socialism! (duck to avoid sarcasm)

http://www.whitehouse.gov/MediaResou...SchoolRemarks/

I like the message. Go Mr. President!

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by AOII_LB93

Oh that crazy Obama...trying to fill our kids heads with socialism! (duck to avoid sarcasm)

http://www.whitehouse.gov/MediaResou...SchoolRemarks/

I like the message. Go Mr. President!

The content looks great.

[KSigkid]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

The content looks great.

Looks fine to me; I just don't undrestand what people were expecting. Did people really think he was going to be giving a stump speech to school children?

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by KSigkid

Looks fine to me; I just don't undrestand what people were expecting. Did people really think he was going to be giving a stump speech to school children?

No. I think it was the first batch of lesson plans that allowed the right wing hype machine to creeped them out. If you ask kids to write letters about helping the President, people who oppose that President's agenda are going to freak.

I still don't think it's going to get shown in a lot of places, but maybe folks will watch at home later.

[KSig RC]

Originally Posted by KSigkid

Looks fine to me; I just don't undrestand what people were expecting. Did people really think he was going to be giving a stump speech to school children?

Yeah . . . basically, if you're in opposition to this specific message, you're an absolute lunatic.

It's a great speech, and it's well-targeted - maybe some crazy folk will get pissed by the "ethnic" names used in the anecdotes, but it's not intended for Jimmy Catholicschool Prodigy anyway.

[DaemonSeid]

I have a nice brown shirt I am wearing tomorrow....hmmm