Posted on 09/08/2009 1:53:22 PM PDT by nickcarraway
President Barack Obama delivered his much-debated speech to schoolchildren Tuesday, sticking to scripted talking points on the importance of education, personal responsibility, good study habits and hard work.
"I'm calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education...and to do everything you can to meet them," Obama said in a televised speech aired live at schools throughout the nation. "Every single one of you has something that you're good at. Every single one of you has something to offer."
Leading up to the controversial talk, parents and conservative groups voiced opposition to a perceived federal intrusion into local school affairs. Some questioned Obama's motives and feared he would use the time to push policy objectives.
Following the pushback, districts in Texas, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Virginia and Wisconsin decided to not show the speech to students. Nebo School District in Utah followed suit, issuing a directive last week against televising the speech in class. Canyons School District wouldn't allow elementary schools to show it.
But most Utah schools left the decision to teachers, allowing parents to have their kids opt out. Students who did watch, including 64 predominantly white AP history students at Alta High, say what resonated most was Obama's personal narrative of rising from underprivileged roots to the White House.
"I didn't know his Dad died," said 16-year-old Joseph Gibbons.
"My Dad died when I was young, too. It made him seem more real."
On the political spectrum, Gibbons and most of his peers consider themselves conservative. But most came to class Tuesday with open minds and walked away thinking Obama's message was appropriate and right on point. No one chose to opt out.
"There was no hidden agenda," said 15-year-old Nicole Moody of Draper.
Travis Skene disagreed, suggesting the speech was a political stunt meant to improve Obama's popularity.
"People will forever remember this day and look back and say, 'Wow what a great guy he was,'" said the 16-year-old.
Brent Palmer, principal at Barratt Elementary School in American Fork, said he and the school's PTA decided not to show the speech Tuesday after about 80 parents called to say they didn't want their kids watching it.
Elementary schools that feed into Alta High and other secondary schools in the Canyons School District didn't air the speech due to district-wide testing and technical challenges.
Canyons School District board member Kevin Cromar hopes to remedy that by allowing elementary teachers to air recordings of the speech.
Courtney Droz, a counselor at Mt. Nebo Junior High, will ask her school board to consider adding the speech to the district's media archives, a list of documentaries, news broadcasts and other broadcast material approved for use in the classroom.
"Any presidential address has educational and historical value that's worth preserving in our schools," said Droz.
In addition to issuing an edict barring the speech, Nebo officials also cautioned teachers against watching it in their offices and during prep time, "in case a student should walk by and see it," said Droz.
Obama didn't touch on education policy, though at least one student hopes controversy over the speech draws attention to the need for school reform.
"I realize that's on the back burner as the country deals with more pressing issues," said Moody.
Obama, however, encouraged allegiance to America, suggesting those who give up on themselves also give up on their country.
"The story of America isn't about people who quit when things got tough. It's about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best," the president said.
It was a free political ad beamed to your kids.
This sums it up:
Good message
All for political purposes
It would have been a different message but for the outcry
“Every single one of you has something that you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer.”
It’s too bad the left has no use for personal successes otherwise this would mean something, Barry.
0bama's biological father died in 1982, when 0bama was well beyond his childhood years. 0bama's adopted father, Lolo Soetoro died in 1987.
I really hope this Gibbons guy straightens up before he goes crying to mommy and daddy about 0bama's "losses."
Well what do you know. O had a little sit down with a group of students BEFORE his public speech.
One of the students just happened to ask him why we don’t have UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE and O said he thought we should and we could get it done.
OH REALLY.........UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE
“I didn’t know his Dad died,” said 16-year-old Joseph Gibbons.
I hope Joey’s parents fill him in on obama’s “Dad”.
What a putz.
bam sends flowers every year. Right.
I wonder what they would have thought of the speech he originally intended to give?
Big whoop. Kids are little mush-heads and must be tought how to live. Why should we even care what they think, other than knowing how well Bam is doing to make good little rat voters of the future?
Now we can sit down with our children and discuss our values with them and the importance of what the President said.
Is the video uploaded anywhere yet? I keep checking youtube, but nothing that I’ve found there so far is the actual speech.
If Obama were serious about this farce, he would have given the speech to parents.
In Obama's world, students don't belong to their parents. They belong to him.
A caller to Rush made a very good point: this speech was not announced to the state education departments or to the boards of education of the districts, but the announcement went directly to the principals and teachers. This has never been done before.
Rush didn’t seem to understand the importance of this, unfortunately, but I thought it was very significant that Obama’s forces tried to make an end-run around the elected or appointed officials of the state or district, and go directly to the teachers’ union-warped minds of the school staff.
If he really meant this, he wouldn’t let the left racists trash Bill Cosby.
Anyone who believes the speech he gave is the same as the speech he was going to give before the outcry has got to still be stoned from the Woodstock anniversary celebration a few weeks back!
My son’s summary...
“Stay in school, get good grades, blah blah blah.”
He spent his time reading a book while zero’s message went in one ear and out the other.
This is a fine example of what happens when you let too many bleu state refugees into a red state.
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