Obama effort to get hearing with U.S. schoolchildren falling flat

President Obama has met with the pope, the queen of England and will address both houses of Congress next week.

But his efforts to get an audience with American schoolchildren for a pep talk are falling flat.

An Obama speech to students about academic success, to be broadcast over cable television, radio and the Internet on Tuesday, won't reach many Tarrant County students.

Most Tarrant County school districts will not make it mandatory viewing for students. Many districts say they don't have the technology to provide it. Others will give parents the opportunity to have their children skip it if teachers show it in class.

For many districts, the 11 a.m. speech conflicts with lunch and curriculum plans so administrators are opting against live showings. Many districts are recording the 15-to-20-minute speech for teachers who want to use it in class later or will post a link on their Web sites for students and parents to access.

The 63,500 students in Arlington schools won't be watching the address live. The district will post an Internet link to the speech and provide a recording for teachers.

Arlington Superintendent Jerry McCullough said the district didn't hear about the address until Wednesday around noon. Administrators decided it was best not to interrupt the regularly scheduled lesson plans and activities.

"We just decided that with our technology we can access it and use it later as an instructional resource," he said, adding that such use would have to be "appropriate to the district's curriculum."

Some parents have objected to the address, seeing it as an attempt to inject politics into the schools. Some families plan to keep their children home. The U.S. Education Department said Obama's speech will focus on goal-setting and working hard in school, not policy matters.(continued)

No. It’s not that simple.

My middle schooler will still have the 2+ hours on his total of absences. That doesn’t sound like a big deal, but if I do run into problems with an illness in the future, that 2+ hours will still be deducted. He could end up failing a core class that he will need to advance to the next grade.

Trust me, I have done the configurations every way imaginable, and it just isn’t worth pulling my kids out. It isn’t my fault that this speech is causing such havoc in my family’s planning. I blame the White House.

This morning we discussed the president’s upcoming speech, the fact that they will be pulled out of class, that they are not being punished, and that their parents have decided that the president should not be spending his time talking to them in this way.

My middle schooler understood my point that if the president wants to talk about education with him I do not support it, because the president should be concerned about dealing with me, the VOTER, and not my child.

And my elementary school child understood that her parents would watch the video with her, only if we think it is appropriate for her to view. I told her this should be a family decision. She is fine with this.

My children are highly intelligent and can being removed from the class because they understand this is not punishment.

In the grand scheme of things I guarantee you that my children will not have significant trauma or even memory of the event in years to come. I’m the mother. I’m making the decision that is best for my children. They will be fine.

I am outraged. I know the school principals got the “letter to the parents” on their desks on Wednesday. I was speaking to the elementary school principal while she was preparing the letters to go home with students, so she read it to me over the phone.

If you go the school board website, the letter is unavailable for view, yet.

They have waited to send this letter home from the schools until this afternoon, the Friday before the holiday weekend. There will be parents who are still unaware of the controversy, or worse yet, are unable to make changes to their plans because of this inconvenience.

I have NEVER gone to a school board meeting. But, I am considering going to the next one, to let them know that I believe the entire school board dropped the ball by not allowing parents to have enough control in this issue.

I just looked at our local paper which is available online. There is no mention about the speech, how the schools are handling this, what the school board’s decision has been, etc.

I called the education writer and said I did not understand why nothing was being mentioned.

He said he didn’t know that the schools were sending letters home to the parents, that nothing like this has ever happened in the past... a president doing a speech like this, etc.

I told him that I can go to the education page and read about what is happening in Mississippi and NYC schools, but not my own child’s school.

He said he will be making calls to look into the story.

I will be interested in seeing how this is covered.

Broun warns of dictatorship
Congressman stays on message - freedom at risk
By BLAKE AUED | blake.aued@onlineathens.com | Story updated at 12:12 am on 9/3/2009

MADISON - U.S. Rep. Paul Broun is again raising the specter of Democrats turning the United States into a totalitarian state.

Broun, R-Athens, apparently has not changed his belief that President Obama may be a fascist since he made similar remarks in Augusta in November and then in an Associated Press interview.

He told a meeting of the Morgan County Republicans on Wednesday night that Obama already has or will have the three things he needs to make himself a dictator: a national police force, gun control and control over the press.

“He has the three things that are necessary to establish an authoritarian government,” Broun said. “And so we need to be ever-vigilant, because freedom is precious.”

As he did when comparing Obama to Hitler and the Soviets last year, Broun cited a speech Obama gave in Colorado during the campaign last July calling for “a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded” as the military.

In the speech, Obama called young Americans to serve both at home and abroad, and said he would expand the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps and other volunteer opportunities. Broun, however, said Obama was referring to a national police force.

“’The liberals say, ‘What is wrong with Americorps?’ “ Broun said. “Well, this is not Americorps.”

Broun also said he thinks the national media is openly supporting Obama’s policies. He also said he believes the president and Attorney General Eric Holder will enact new gun-control policies.

Holder said in February that he wants to renew a Clinton-era ban on assault weapons, but Obama said in April that he is putting the issue on the back burner.

Broun also cited the dozens of so-called “czars” Obama has appointed to oversee areas like the troubled car industry as evidence that he is overstepping his bounds to seek power.

“They’re developing a shadow government that (does not) answer to the American people,” Broun said.

At a town hall meeting in Clarkesville last month, Broun called Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid a “socialistic elite” and agreed with a constituent who said they might use a flu pandemic to declare martial law.

“They’re trying to develop an environment where they can take over,” Broun said. “We’ve seen that historically.”

More than 1,000 people combined turned out to hear Broun speak mostly on the topic of health care at town hall meetings Wednesday in Madison and Greene County.

About 300 attended the Madison meeting. At Lake Oconee, the audience filled three 300-seat movie theaters, where Broun spoke on the invitation of three local doctors who have been giving presentations on Democrats’ proposals for health care reform, said Bob Cowles, one of the organizers. Broun spoke live in one theater, while crowds in the other two listened in over a closed circuit.

Health care reform also is about Democrats seeking more power, Broun said.

“It gives them more power, more control over your life,” he said.

Health care is too expensive, he said, and he attributed the cost to government regulations like HIPPA, a 1996 patient privacy and insurance portability law. Rather than create a government-run insurance program to compete with private insurers, the current system’s framework should be kept, but with changes like expanded tax-free health savings accounts, more tax credits for medical expenses and tax breaks for doctors who provide charity care, Broun said.

“Just like (when) you have a dog with fleas, you don’t kill the dog, you put on a flea collar,” he said.

Broun has scheduled another town hall meeting for 10 a.m. Tuesday at the Oconee County Civic Center.

http://www.michaelsavage.wnd.com/

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.