Obama has taken it upon himself to become teacher-for-a-day for all students in this great nation on Tuesday. He will be giving a televised speech into the nation's classrooms. And though the White House is not releasing the text in advance, they have sent out directions for teachers on how to guide student discussions before and after the speech.
Creepy. The first thing that came to mind on this was the Marine Video at the town hall where David Hedrick stood up and exclaimed "STAY AWAY FROM MY KIDS!" I certainly feel that way where Obama and his politics are concerned. I called both schools just now, the public elementary school and the private preschool and neither will be showing it because they don't have cable or televisions in the classroom. When I told them what a relief that was, the office lady told me I was the third call in a row to ask the same question and give the same response.
I have seen a number of blogs speaking out against this plan. I also saw one speaking in favor, and I found that one interesting. Especially the comments in response to the article. Joanne Jacobs writes:
President Obama will deliver a speech to students on Sept. 8 at noon (Eastern). He “will challenge students to work hard, set education goals, and take responsibility for their learning,” says the Education Department.
But some see it as indoctrinating kiddies to venerate the Great Leader.
Stephen Green and Dana Loesch are urging parents to keep their kids home from school that day.
The advice to teachers from the White House Teaching Ambassador Fellows is raising hackles. Before the speech, they’re urged to prep students by asking them:
Why is it important to listen to the president and other elected officials like the mayor, senators, members of Congress or the governor? Why is what they say important?
Too respectful of authority, write Green and Loesch.
After the speech, suggestions include discussing “main ideas from the speech, i.e. citizenship, personal responsibility, civic duty.” That doesn’t seem sinister. But there’s also:
• Students could discuss their responses to the following questions:
What do you think the President wants us to do?
Does the speech make you want to do anything?
Are we able to do what President Obama is asking of us?
I think the president is going to ask kids to work hard in school and teachers will try to get them to pledge to work hard in school and most of them will work just as hard this year as they did last year. (The law of inertia is the supreme law of the universe.) If parents think their kids are being turned into Obama Youth, they can tell them at home not to trust politicians.
Here are some of the more noteworthy responses:
Of course we have no way to know what President Obama will say. Is there some reason this can’t be done at home on Tuesday evening? How can an educator even make a professional judgment about the educational value of this exercise without seeing at least the text in advance? It will, in fact, disrupt normal school activities and there are too many disruptions like this already. Even if the content is innocuous, this has all the qualities of a political stunt designed to build the President’s stature. The president is NOT educator-in-chief of the United States. His office has no educational responsibilities at all. Finally, there IS something fishy about a political leader using the public schools to reach students without their parents’ explicit consent. Some of us do not consider this man to be any kind of role model for our children. I would keep my children home from school if their school agreed to this.
Remember:
“All that is necessary for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing…”
However the question is: Are there any good educators in the USA?
How wonderful that our President has taken such an interest in our children! This little lesson will be followed by him using our children for the Census, the civlian army, and who knows what else?
Exciting times are upon us!
But, for some reason, I feel like I’ve heard all this before.
hmmm…could it be this writeup about Stalin?
“This public portrayal of Stalin is highly selective. The many, many millions who died in the Gulag, in mass deportations or in mass murders are mentioned only as a kind of aside. Stalin’s purges of his closest colleagues and revolutionary comrades are given short shrift. The terror that made people afraid to speak their minds openly, that made children turn their parents in to the police, that stunted families and friendships, is absent from most contemporary accounts.”
Good work, Comrade Barack Hussein Obama!
There are multiple problems with this. The 2 most egregious ones are:
1. They aren’t releasing a transcript in advance so parents can judge content and appropriateness to decide on participation.
2. There are specific references in the syllabus to “new ideas” and “Are we able to do what President Obama is asking of us?”
Just these 2 reasons are enough for me to pull my children out of participating.
They say this is unprecedented. It is unprecedented because it is inappropriate and sinister. Yet again, the President is plumbing new lows.
Combine this stunt with his aims for the NEA (arts endowment) to illustrate his pet schemes [edited to add the White House is recorded in a telephone conference with 75 top artists instructing them to make propaganda posters and other artwork to support Obama's main objectives with health care, energy and other policy goals] and this is really creepy, as it Nazi-style, dear-leader creepy.
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