Posted on 09/08/2009 8:42:39 AM PDT by Patriot1259
A controversy has erupted over President Obama’s plan to address your children today in schools all over the U.S. Conservatives have rallied in opposition to the president’s address saying that the president’s agenda may not be one of education or inspiration, but of indoctrination. Those accusations have targeted the “Lesson Plan” that is to accompany the speech, rather than the speech itself.
Following the conservative backlash, the White House issued a statement saying the “Lesson Plan” had been “inartfully worded” and the president and his people began to position the planned speech and lesson plan simply as a call from the president for kids to stay in school and study hard.
(Excerpt) Read more at thecypresstimes.com ...
Our school starts tomorrow. Principle said no speech... hope he tells the truth!
The uproar began when we saw the accompanying lesson plans to follow the speech:
President Obama's plan to inspire the nation's schoolchildren with a video address next week erupted into controversy Wednesday, forcing the White House to pull out its eraser and rewrite a government recommendation that teachers nationwide assign students a paper on how to "help the president."
My school opted out of presenting the speech. Reasons sited were:
1) No constitutional authority
2) Disruptive to the school day
3) Not planned into the education plan which was solidified back in the spring planning sessions.
4) Brings no value to the current curriculum
5) Creates controversy that if embraced would create an additional overhead on the staff as some students would be allowed to opt out of the session
6) Streaming the media from the Internet would be disruptive to the existing bandwidth.
Regardless of our schools policy, our Advanced learning Sophmore Grandson is a conservative and knows Barky’s BS when he hears it.
Teach them history and teach them well FIRST and you won’t have to worry about the marxists bustards brainwashing them.
My school system is not showing it.
Their policy is school time is for learning. If the parent wants the child to watch the peach, they should record it and watch it as a family.
I don’t know if my kids’ school is showing it. It’s a private Christian school with conservative values (very, very pro-life, and very anti-gay marriage).
I don’t have a problem with the showing the speech.
If my kids were in the public school around here (California), I would have a problem with them showing it. I wouldn’t trust the teachers not to spin it into a message that I don’t like.
“inartfully worded” my royal Irish ass. Nothing this regime does is ‘inartful’. It is calsulated right down to the proposition and the punctuation.
They just got caught, is all. They’re learning that they can’t bamboozle folks the way they used to. What follows is dangerous indeed.
The teachers need to receive an essay from the students demanding to see all the usurpers school records from kindergarten and until now, including his long-form B.C.!!!
Our school has decided NOT to show the speech. They were inundated with phone calls. ;-)
NO OBAMA!
I wound up being the first parent to call the day before school started last week.
Nothing official in writing, but kids have been told it will be shown in Social Studies only at noon at the teachers’ discretion. Opt out is available. These are high school kids.
My son doesn’t have Social Studies this year. (He’s taking US Govt - already knows teacher is Republican. I’m glad - sorta - but wish he would make the kids think for themselves or at least QUESTION things themselves.)
Like Hitler, they want to reach your kids.
We also have ours in a private Christian school. I would be LIVID if they showed that MONSTER as someone with human credibility. Obama is just plain EVIL with a smiley face. I want kids to see through the evil smiley face and DISCRIMINATE.
I contacted the school admin and school board last week who told me there would be no disruptions to the regular school day. Then went back on their word and issued a blanket statement that said it would be up to individual teachers and decided to send “opt out” forms. Given their mixed messages and not taking a stand, I decided to give the kids a P.A.S.S. for the day.
Homeschool.
Arne Duncan doing the warmup now.
The crowd goes wild (sort of, LOL)
First statement from Farmington (MI) public schools from the list-serve last Thursday:
District Response to President Obama’s September 8th Speech
Farmington Public Schools was notified by the U.S. Department of Education that President Obama would be speaking to students via a web-based address on September 8, 2009 at noon.
The first day of school is generally a very full day for teachers and students, and many students will be either at lunch or in a classroom with previously planned activities taking place at that time. At all levels, elementary and secondary, it will be up to the teacher’s discretion if and how they will incorporate the speech into their classroom lessons. We trust the expertise of our teachers.
We have received a few calls from parents who are concerned about the District showing the President’s speech in the classrooms. Therefore, out of respect for all viewpoints, parents will be allowed to follow the established procedures if they would like to take their child(ren) out of school during this time.
It is our understanding that the President’s message is not a policy speech and that the intent is for students to work hard, set high educational goals and take responsibility for their learning.
2nd repsonse 3 days later... (Notice the change from teachers discretion to the superintendents recommendation...)
Message from the Superintendent
In response to President Obama addressing all students on Tuesday, September 8, I am very dismayed that the Detroit Free Press misconstrued the District’s position. In a Detroit Free Press story on September 4, 2009, the Free Press reported that Farmington Public Schools is encouraging parents to pull students from class if they are uncomfortable with their child(ren) hearing the President’s speech.
I want to assure you that is not what we sent out on our list serv nor posted on the District’s web site. It is also important to note that the Detroit Free Press did not contact the District to comment on President Obama’s speech.
In fact, the District’s sentiment is quite the opposite. However, in order to support our schools, we felt it necessary to let parents know their options. We were hoping to alleviate additional calls to schools’ main offices as the first day of school is quite busy already.
I have personally reviewed the President’s speech and believe it is entirely appropriate for all our students to view, and thus, I am recommending that our teachers show it during the first week of school. The President’s speech may be read on the home page at www.whitehouse.gov. The District strongly supports President Obama’s message of the importance of education, working hard and taking responsibility for learning. These are the same messages that our students are hearing from every adult in their lives from parents, teachers, principals, school board members, and civic leaders. We want all our students to recognize the importance of getting an education and being given (and take advantage of) every opportunity to learn.
We thank you for your support and best wishes for a wonderful school year ahead.
Sincerely-
Superintendent Sue Zurvalec
My letter to the super here:
Dear Ms. Zurvalec,
While I respect Farmington School District’s official position on the Presidents address to students, I hope that it is NOT part of my children’s first day of school... Unfortunately for all of us, EVERY speech that this President makes has been a politically motivated speech to inject the President’s policies in to any and all aspects of Amercian life. I do not look to Washington for direction on how my family should live our lives. Frankly, I object to the obsession many have with having a central government fix everything. In the process of fixing everything, our government has taken control of many of our basic American institutions (Banking, Auto, Health Care, Education, etc). We would be better served in Farmington, in the State of Michigan and the United States if we had less government intrusion in our lives. The classrooms need to return to the basics and focus on reading, writing and arithmetic and not fall into the trap of political indoctrination.
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