Posted on 09/04/2009 4:56:07 AM PDT by Kaslin
With President Obama slated to give a televised address to public school students across the nation on Tuesday, schools in the D.C. area – including the school from which Obama will broadcast the speech – are trying to play their cards as diplomatically as possible.
“Most people I've talked to were saying that they were extremely concerned that schools were being used for political platforms,” said Ivy Allen, the assistant public information officer of Loudoun County Public Schools.
Loudoun, like Arlington, Fairfax, Frederick, and Prince George Counties – all districts that surround D.C. – have received a landslide of calls complaining about the prospect of their children being instructed to watch a motivational video crafted by the highest Democratic leaders in the U.S. All of the districts are leaving it up to the discretion of teachers as to whether or not Obama’s address will be shown in classrooms.
Allen said that the reason Loudoun has not encouraged teachers to feature the address in their classrooms is because it is occurring on the first day of school; teachers already have many pre-planned activities for the first day and Loudoun didn’t want to impose on the curriculum. But Allen also said he was “thankful” that a record of Obama’s address would be available to view at Whitehouse.gov so that teachers could view it at a later time if they wished.
Allen has “been so busy answering calls from media and parents” that he hadn’t even considered whether or not Obama’s speech was an “awareness activity” like the “mock election” their schools hosted during the last Presidential election.
Paul Regnier, a spokesman for Fairfax County Public Schools, said that his county had “determined that …individual schools will make the decision” as to whether or not to air the address. But it was impossible to find out exactly what sorts of decisions his schools were making, because Fairfax had designed somewhat of a circle of responsibility.
“Any calls a school would get from the media, they would go back to me,” he said.
Regnier also seemed somewhat disappointed at the calls he had received from parents who were unhappy with the prospect of their children watching the video.
“Some people have said they don’t want their children seeing this, despite being the President of the United States,” he said.
Marita Loose, executive director of the communication services division for Frederick County Public Schools, was more diplomatic in her response, which she issued via a printed statement.
“We are neither encouraging nor discouraging teachers to utilize the President’s September 8th address in their classrooms. No assemblies are planned. If a teacher finds the webcast has a natural, appropriate link to a lesson, she or he may integrate the webcast into instruction,” she said. “Parents who do not wish their children to view the speech may request that they participate in an alternative educational activity. Principals are already aware of these procedures.”
Ken Blackstone, for the director of communications services for the Prince William County Public Schools, had a similar crafted opinion.
“There is no mandate or direction to principals or teachers from the PWCS administration to participate in this address from the President. Like many other similar information items we receive from the U.S. Department of Education, the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE), or other education-related organizations, they are passed along FYI as a potential instructional resource that teachers may choose to use if it is appropriate for their instruction and fits their lesson plans,” he said.
sorta like the White Hut
Study Me and not a bunch of olde dead white guys!
“Some people have said they don’t want their children seeing this, despite being the President of the United States being a flaming socialist,” he said.
When President Bush and others spoke to children in schools, did they offer or suggest lesson plans?
“awareness activity” = government school jargon for
“compliance/conformity drills”
The follow up to this always needs to be "would you be equally disappointed/perplexed if it were parents not wanting their children to be addressed by President BUSH?" 9 times out of 10, they'd find that perfectly understandable.
A caller to one of the talk shows yesterday, when asked why he thought socialized health care would work, responded, “This is the United States of America! Don’t you think we can do ANYTHING better than Canada or the UK?”
It gave me chills, because he was saying something close to the sentiment on your poster.
Public schools are "unclear" about a LOT of things.
Primarily because their NEA bureaucrats lack the education to understand
the philosophical issues involved, namely that statism should have no place
in education, that parents should determine what their children should be exposed
to in terms of values, ideology, and politics, and that Obama and his minions are
crackpots from degenerate Ivy League institutions which have long since
abandoned genuine education in favor of Fabian socialism and social engineering.
They should spend the day reading the Constitution and classic literature instead.
It's a religion.
From the YouTube comments:
SILENCE!!!!...
You have all angered Lord Obama. You must now give tithes and offerings to the tune of 80% of your monthly income, and sacrifice your first born to his administration, and maybe, just maybe, he will spare your lives.
....Or else, prepare to feel his mighty wrath! 
Bwaahahaha!!
I’ve been reading all these leftist wackos deriding the backward hick Southern school districts for their reaction to this mess, and now it’s spread to D.C. Can’t get much “bluer” than that.
ASK NOT what you can do for your country.
ASK INSTEAD what you can do for 0bama.
"• Teachers may engage students in short readings. Teachers may post in large print around the classroom notable quotes excerpted from President Obama’s speeches on education. Teachers might ask students to think alone, compare ideas with a partner, or share their thoughts with the class. Teachers could ask students to think about the following:
What are our interpretations of these excerpts? Based on these excerpts, what can we infer that the president believes is important in order to be educationally successful?
• Create a “concept web.” Teachers may ask students to think of the following:
Why does President Obama want to speak with us today? How will he inspire us? How will he challenge us? What might he say? Do you remember any other historic moments when the president spoke to the nation? What was the impact?
After brainstorming answers to these questions, students could create a “cause-and-effect” graphic organizer."
Nearly word for word what the principal of my son's high school said when replying to me on this topic.
There’s no confusion over Zero’s message. It’s Fascism and indoctrinating America’s children.
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