Obama goes back to school

[Hot Mega]

This about sizes up the issue....courtesy FK.....

http://wagist.com/images/political/education.jpg

It's simple to me....if you're doofus enough to be such a political hack that you don't want your kids "brainwashed" by a president...don't send them to school that day.

Keep their asses home with your dumb ass and let the rest of the kids (who's parents aren't stupid) watch it.:dunno:

 

[Hot Mega]

On the local news here in Cleveland, they were interviewing people about this and I think that one lady made a REALLY good point - if Bush was still President, and he did the same exact thing that Obama is going to do, would people still feel the same way about it? Nope. Probably not. So, is it the action that people are upset about or the person doing it?

Of course they wouldn't. I pointed out in a different thread where GWB asked school kids to raise money for the kids of Afghanistan....a commendable, harmless request IMO. But if you're inclined to have a problem with presidents asking kids for help with their policies (something I don't think Obama was ever asking anyway) how can you not have a problem with that??

It's pretty clear to me Obama's intent was to do more than just pay lip service and actually engage the school kids. Something more meaningful IMO than sitting in a classroom pretending to read along with them with an upside down book for a photo op.

He apparently does want to change the approach to some things but some people are just too stupid.

 

[Petra]

What originally got people's panties in a ruffle isn't that the president will speak to school kids (I can remember nearly every president during my school years doing this) but the lesson plan that is to go with it.

Before everyone started speaking out, the lesson plan and assignment revolved around "what are you going to do to help President Obama." Now I believe it's something about your own personal goals to succeed in school.

After reading the speech, I wouldn't have a problem with my kid listening to the speech. It's pretty much "stay in school and succeed." I would have had a problem with my kid doing the assignment in it's original form.

 

[Hot Mega]

Before everyone started speaking out, the lesson plan and assignment revolved around "what are you going to do to help President Obama." Now I believe it's something about your own personal goals to succeed in school.

Where is that quote from? In other words, is that an actual quote from some administration literature or statement..or has someone said that based on some interpretation and we're all now just asserting it as fact?

I honestly don't know if that was actually said or not. I just know in the past people have started talking points based on myths about what was said...then we find later something attributed to someone was actually never said.

 

[Petra]

Where is that quote from? In other words, is that an actual quote from some administration literature or statement..or has someone said that based on some interpretation and we're all now just asserting it as fact?

I honestly don't know if that was actually said or not. I just know in the past people have started talking points based on myths about what was said...then we find later something attributed to someone was actually never said.

It's been all over the news:

A suggested lesson plan that calls on school kids to write letters to themselves about what they can do to help President Obama is troubling some education experts, who say it establishes the president as a "superintendent in chief" and may indoctrinate children to support him politically.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/09/02/critics-decry-obamas-lesson-plan-students/

"When you ask students to write a letter to the president on how we can help you with your new ideas, that is leading the students in an effort to push the president's agenda," Greer told CNN's Suzanne Malveaux on The Situation Room. "Now that the White House got their hand in the cookie jar caught, they changed everything. They redid the lesson plans."

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/09/07/florida-gop-chair-wh-redid-the-lesson-plans/

More search hits on the Obama lesson plan

Honestly, now that the speech has been released by the white house (read it last night myself) and the Dept of Education has revised the lesson plan, people need to knock it off. As I said, I'm not an Obama fan but as it stands right now I can't see a reason to pull your kid.

 

[bodie54]

^^^^^^^^^^
First of all, as your first quote notes, the DOE "suggested" the letter writing to teachers as a possible follow up exercise to the speech - suggested meaning it was not compulsory but completely voluntary. Your first quote also states the kids would be writing letters to themselves, while the second quote asserts they were being asked to write letters directly to the president. So which is it? And in either case, if that's such a big potentially subversive deal, how come nobody uttered so much as a peep when George H Bush wrapped up his 1991 address to America's students thusly:

Let me leave you with a simple message: Every time you walk through that classroom door, make it your mission to get a good education. Don't do it just because your parents, or even the President, tells you. Do it for yourselves. Do it for your future. And while you're at it, help a little brother or sister to learn, or maybe even Mom or Dad. Let me know how you're doing. Write me a letter -- and I'm serious about this one -- write me a letter about ways you can help us achieve our goals. I think you know the address.

 

[Hot Mega]

It's been all over the news:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/09/02/critics-decry-obamas-lesson-plan-students/

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/09/07/florida-gop-chair-wh-redid-the-lesson-plans/

More search hits on the Obama lesson plan

Honestly, now that the speech has been released by the white house (read it last night myself) and the Dept of Education has revised the lesson plan, people need to knock it off. As I said, I'm not an Obama fan but as it stands right now I can't see a reason to pull your kid.

Wow...thanks Petra! You're right about one thing, it has been all over the news but the claims are totally unsubstantiated and would appear to be patently false.

This is what the how the Fox article attributes the suggestion that Obama is asking kids for help....

Students in grades pre-K-6, for example, are encouraged to "write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president. These would be collected and redistributed at an appropriate later date by the teacher to make students accountable to their goals."

The "pre-K-6" hotlinks to this....

http://www.ed.gov/teachers/how/lessons/prek-6.pdf

On that link it says the word "help" one time in the whole document...here...

What can students do to help in our schools?

The quote from your CNN source is from Florida Republican party chairman Jim Greer who does nothing but recite the same baseless myth.

I still haven't seen anything or anywhere in which Obama is asking or was going to ask students to help him.

 

[Petra]

At this point, I think it was "write a letter to yourself about..." Or at least that's what my friends who are teachers are saying and they got them memo. But by this point due to the backlash the DOE and White House probably changed the plan several times to whatever it currently is now. So did they say help the president originally? Only the folks that wrote it really know.

You're right Bodie...it's "suggested" meaning the school doesn't have to do it. I've heard from people with kids that some schools are having the kids do the assignment, some aren't, some are sending permission letters home, and some are leaving it completely up to the teacher.

But I just wanted to clarify that this is what most people are/were throwing a fit over...the lesson plan and not necessarily the speech. Of course, I think the die hard republicans would bitch even if it was a 30 second "stay in school" because somehow it would have subliminal messages.

And of course Fox news...take that one with a grain of salt. Of course, there's always a measure of truth in madness.

 

[Facial_King]

jasonk, you just don't have any good arguments here...

 

[jasonk282]

I as have stated before it ws NEVER about the speech, I for one think the president should let the students know how important a good education is and so should parents as well. I also have no problem with them writting letters to the president as Bush 1 had them do. What I have a problem with is the lesson plans that the DoE included for the speech. Why not let the individual teachers come up with an actavity for that day? Also they are airing the speech I think at noon which on the east coast will be right in the middle of lunch and since most high schools have numerious lunches some students are going to miss this speech. On the west coast it will be 8am and some of the younger students will not even be in school at the time of the speech. So form a logistical standpoint he might not even get his message across.

 

[Dexter Brown]

There are few men in this country right now that would be in a better position to stand in front of my children and tell them that with hard work and education you can be whatever you want to be considering he is one of 43 men to be in his position in the history of the USA.

That being said, public school is in itself brainwashing, from day one they start the Pavlovian conditioning, they teach you things they know are wrong (Columbus discovered America, bears hibernate, etc) and feed you stuff they claim to be food.

 

[ChefChiTown]

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/09/07/florida-gop-chair-wh-redid-the-lesson-plans/

"When you ask students to write a letter to the president on how we can help you with your new ideas, that is leading the students in an effort to push the president's agenda," Greer told CNN's Suzanne Malveaux on The Situation Room. "Now that the White House got their hand in the cookie jar caught, they changed everything. They redid the lesson plans."

Honestly, now that the speech has been released by the white house (read it last night myself) and the Dept of Education has revised the lesson plan, people need to knock it off. As I said, I'm not an Obama fan but as it stands right now I can't see a reason to pull your kid.

I don't see a reason to pull your kid out of school either. It's just another example of panicky, cry-baby Americans that are trying to make a fuss about nothing, just because they didn't get what they want; a white President. Plus, in all honesty, are the kids hearing this speech reeeeeally going to give a shit about it? Or, even know what the fuck Obama is talking about in the first place? No, probably not. We Americans are just completely ignorant and we enjoy over-reacting about eeeeeverything.

People think that Obama is going to try and brainwash our kids, which is not only a ridiculous accusation, but a paranoid thought process. Plus, if these parents truly care about their children being brainwashed, then maybe they should start making a big fuss about the things in our society that actually do brainwash our kids. Maybe they should start boycotting the Disney Channel and refuse to let their kids watch Hannah Montana, which is filled with a high level of sexuality, especially considering it's a kid's show. Maybe they should start boycotting the radio and refuse to let their kids listen to Britney Spears, which does nothing but fill their kids' minds with the belief that girls should a life full of sex and partying. These are just some of the things that are really fucking with their children, brainwashing them and turning them into mindless zombies that do what society tells them to, but, where are the Obama hating parents raising their voices about these kind of things? These parents don't care about their kids - they care about not having a white President.

Also, I remember when I was in school, we were given an assignment in which we had to write a letter to President George Bush Sr. and/or Barbara Bush, where we had to tell them what we could do in order to help our country. Where were these parents then? Absolutely nobody had a problem with our assignment back then and nobody made a fuss about it. But, since it's Obama, NOW parents have a problem with it? :dunno:

Come on America...grow the fuck up already.

 

[Baill Inneraora]

There are few men in this country right now that would be in a better position to stand in front of my children and tell them that with hard work and education you can be whatever you want to be considering he is one of 43 men to be in his position in the history of the USA.

That being said, public school is in itself brainwashing, from day one they start the Pavlovian conditioning, they teach you things they know are wrong (Columbus discovered America, bears hibernate, etc) and feed you stuff they claim to be food.

Bears don't hibernate? Why wasn't I informed of this? Damn public education!

:Shakes fist in anger:

 

[Facial_King]

jasonk, you're just getting pathetic and desperate now. School lunches??? School lunches!!!???!! Please. You lost the argument. Bow out with some dignity.

Best cartoon yet about Obama's education speech and the hysterical reaction to it:
http://wagist.com/images/political/education.jpg

This one's quite good, too:
http://www.courier-journal.com/graphics/2009/09/marcmurphy.jpg

 

[Dexter Brown]

Bears don't hibernate? Why wasn't I informed of this? Damn public education!

:Shakes fist in anger:

Yeah I know, next thing you know they will be trying to teach you that the forefathers wanted government to be involved in religion because they put 'in god we trust' on our money and 'one nation under god' in the pledge of allegiance (hint, they didn't) :1orglaugh

 

[Friday on my mind]

So did America and it's children make it through the day?:dunno::rofl:

 

[jasonk282]

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/o...rats-investigated-held-hearings-57694347.html
In the words of Biff Tanner Well well well lookie what we have here^^^^

Um excuse me Dems, but you did exactly what the republicans did, only they did if BEFORE the speech and you did it AFTER the speech.

Democrats pounced. "The Department of Education should not be producing paid political advertising for the president, it should be helping us to produce smarter students," said Richard Gephardt, then the House Majority Leader. "And the president should be doing more about education than saying, 'Lights, camera, action.'"

But when President George H.W. Bush delivered a similar speech on October 1, 1991, from Alice Deal Junior High School in Washington DC, the controversy was just beginning. Democrats, then the majority party in Congress, not only denounced Bush's speech -- they also ordered the General Accounting Office to investigate its production and later summoned top Bush administration officials to Capitol Hill for an extensive hearing on the issue.

What say you?

 

[meesterperfect]

Alot of people don't trust him.
Especially around their kids.
Its simple fact.
You can make accusations as to why all day.
Everyones got there reasons but its still true.

I think after all the concern he and his have probably altered the speech, but I feel pretty confident he was going to mention race at least once, you know re-enforce that guilt complex in whites and the hate complex in blacks.
Keep everybody uneasy and divisive.
after all, wasn't that a main conributer to him getting elected?

 

[Rekrul]

I've been in absolute disbelief over the sickening partisan reaction from the idiotic wingnuts in this country to this. No wait, it's not partisan at all. It's just plain BULLSHIT. Their only motivation for this is not having voted for the man, and their desire to undermine everything positive, or even traditional, he tries to do.

When I was in the kindergarten, Reagan did this exact same thing. In fact, my teacher taped it so we could discuss it in parts over a two week period. When I was in elementary school, Bush 41 did it too. And when I was in middle school, Clinton did it. I wasn't in the classroom for Bush 43 myself, but I do recall him being in a classroom reading a book about a goat when a certain event happened. I'm sure presidents that were in office before my time in school addressed students on this subject as well, though not necessarily televised. It's practically become a tradition, at least in the last 50 years anyways, for the leader of this country to encourage students to do their best and to stay in school.

And now you have a gang of sore fucking losers who are so bent out of shape that they're out of power that they're actually telling students not to go to school to hear a speech about the importance of education and staying in school?!

 

[jasonk282]

I've been in absolute disbelief over the sickening partisan reaction from the idiotic wingnuts in this country to this. No wait, it's not partisan at all. It's just plain BULLSHIT. Their only motivation for this is not having voted for the man, and their desire to undermine everything positive, or even traditional, he tries to do.

When I was in the kindergarten, Reagan did this exact same thing. In fact, my teacher taped it so we could discuss it in parts over a two week period. When I was in elementary school, Bush 41 did it too. And when I was in middle school, Clinton did it. I wasn't in the classroom for Bush 43 myself, but I do recall him being in a classroom reading a book about a goat when a certain event happened. I'm sure presidents that were in office before my time in school addressed students on this subject as well, though not necessarily televised. It's practically become a tradition, at least in the last 50 years anyways, for the leader of this country to encourage students to do their best and to stay in school.

And now you have a gang of sore fucking losers who are so bent out of shape that they're out of power that they're actually telling students not to go to school to hear a speech about the importance of education and staying in school?!

Ugh it was never about the speech, it was about the lesson plans.