Critics take aim at Obama’s Speech to kids
(MSNBC's Shuster on reaction to Obama school speech: "Some sort of Bigotry" may be involved".)
(G.O.P. upset over President Obama's School Speech and Education.)
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(Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter talks about the pleas from some members of the GOP to keep children home from school on the day President Barack Obama gives a speech. Has the rhetoric gone beyond paranoia and become detrimental to education?)
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(Many parents are in an uproar over Pres. Obama's upcoming school speech to America's students, however none of them have said a word about America's failing public schools or our country's high drop-out rate.)
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President Barack Obama's back-to-school address next week was supposed to be a feel-good story for an administration battered over its health care agenda. Now Republican critics are calling it an effort to foist a political agenda on children, creating yet another confrontation with the White House.
Obama plans to speak directly to students Tuesday about the need to work hard and stay in school. His address will be shown live on the White House Web site and on C-SPAN at noon EDT, a time when classrooms across the country will be able to tune in.
Schools don't have to show it. But districts across the country have been inundated with phone calls from parents and are struggling to address the controversy that broke out after US Education Secretary Arne Duncan sent a letter to principals urging schools to watch.
Districts in states including Texas, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Virginia, Wisconsin have decided not to show the speech to students. Others are still thinking it over or are letting parents have their kids opt out.
Some conservatives, driven by Radio Pundits and Bloggers, are urging schools and parents to boycott the address. They say Obama is using the opportunity to promote a political agenda and is overstepping the boundaries of Federal involvement in schools.
"As far as I am concerned, this is not civics education — it gives the appearance of creating a cult of personality," said Oklahoma state Sen. Steve Russell. "This is something you'd expect to see in North Korea or in Saddam Hussein's Iraq."
Arizona state schools superintendent Tom Horne, a Republican, said lesson plans for teachers created by Obama's Education Department "call for a worshipful rather than critical approach."
The White House plans to release the speech online Monday so parents can read it. He will deliver the speech at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Va.
The White House on Friday dismissed the criticism as pointless the furor.
"I think we've reached a little bit of the silly season when the president of the United States can't tell kids in school to study hard and stay in school," presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters. "I think both political parties agree that the dropout rate is something that threatens our long-term economic success."
Critics are particularly upset about lesson plans the administration created to accompany the speech. The lesson plans, available online, originally recommended having students "write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president."
The White House revised the plans Wednesday to say students could "write letters to themselves about how they can achieve their short-term and long-term education goals."
"That was inartfully worded, and we corrected it," Higginbottom said.
In the Dallas suburb of Plano, Texas, the 54,000-student school district is not showing the 15- to 20-minute address but will make the video available later.
PTA council president Cara Mendelsohn said Obama is "cutting out the parent" by speaking to kids during school hours.
"Why can't a parent be watching this with their kid in the evening?" Mendelsohn said. "Because that's what makes a powerful statement, when a parent is sitting there saying, 'This is what I dream for you. This is what I want you to achieve.'"
Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, said in an interview with the AP that he's "certainly not going to advise anybody not to send their kids to school that day."
"Hearing the president speak is always a memorable moment," he said.
But he also said he understood where the criticism was coming from.
"Nobody seems to know what he's going to be talking about," Perry said. "Why didn't he spend more time talking to the local districts and superintendents, at least give them a heads-up about it?"
Several other Texas districts have decided not to show the speech, although the district in Houston is leaving the decision up to individual school principals. In suburban Houston, the Cypress-Fairbanks district planned to show the address and has had its social studies teachers assemble a curriculum and activities for students.
"If someone objected, we would not force them to listen to the speech," spokeswoman Kelli Durham said.
In Wisconsin, the Green Bay school district decided not to show the speech live and to let teachers decide individually whether to show it later.
In Florida, GOP chairman Jim Greer released a statement that he was "absolutely appalled that taxpayer dollars are being used to spread President Obama's socialist ideology."
Despite his rhetoric, two of the larger Florida districts, Miami-Dade and Hillsborough, plan to have classes watch the speech. Students whose parents object will not have to watch.
"We're extending the same courtesy to the president as we do with any elected official that wants to enter our schools," said Linda Cobbe, a Hillsborough schools spokeswoman. Cobbe said the district, which includes Tampa, has gotten calls from upset parents but said officials don't think the White House is trying to force politics on kids.
The Minnesota Association of School Administrators is recommending against disrupting the first day of school to show the speech, but Minnesota's biggest teachers' union is urging schools to show it.
Quincy, Ill., schools decided Thursday not to show the speech. Superintendent Lonny Lemon said phone calls "hit like a load of bricks" on Wednesday.
One Idaho school superintendent, Murray Dalgleish of Council, urged people not to rush to judgment.
"Is the president dictating to these kids? I don't think so," Dalgleish said. "He's trying to get out the same message we're trying to get out, which is, `You are in charge of your education.'"
Ire, accolades precede speech to kids
A Presidential speech urging students to take responsibility for their own academic success is turning into a political flashpoint in Charlotte and the nation.
At issue: President Obama's 15-minute address to students at noon next Tuesday – and the U.S. Department of Education's detailed instructions on how to prepare students for it.
Some see it as an attempt to force government in general and Obama's beliefs in particular into the minds of kids. They're especially outraged by activity guides that suggest students discuss such questions as “What is President Obama inspiring you to do?”
“I am simply basing my opinion on what Pres. Obama has done thus far in his presidency, appointing czars with communist and socialist ties and speaking out against America and our founding fathers,” Hildi Chinigo of
Matthews wrote in an e-mail to the Observer.
Others see something to celebrate: “I think it is wonderful that the President is going to speak to schoolchildren,” wrote Maddy Baer of Charlotte. “Whether or not you voted for him or support particular policies, he is a role model of achievement for all young people.”
And still others are aghast at how much adult political bitterness is spilling onto a classroom event.
“Gracious, how deeply can this culture divide itself and still hold as a nation?” wrote Tish Signet of Mooresville.
As national bloggers and talk shows urged parents to keep their kids out of school, school districts around the region reassured families that no student would be forced to watch the speech.
All Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools will show it, but parents can request that their kids not participate, said spokeswoman LaTarzja Henry, who said central offices have been bombarded with calls and e-mails.
“This is more of an opt-out thing. We're encouraging participation,” she said.
Officials in Cabarrus, Union and York County, S.C., also said student participation is optional and teachers have discretion about how to work it into lessons.
Some districts say no
Faced with criticism from GOP lawmakers and regular citizens, districts in states including Texas, Illinois, Virginia and Wisconsin have decided not to show the speech to students.
White House officials agreed Thursday to post the speech online Monday so teachers and parents can be prepared. They also revised study guides that were “inartfully worded” – rewriting, for example, a line that suggested students “write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president.”
But White House deputy policy director Heather Higginbottom stood by the overall approach: “It's simply a plea to students to really take their learning seriously. Find out what they're good at. Set goals. And take the school year seriously.”
She noted that President George H.W. Bush made a similar address to schools in 1991. Like Obama, Bush drew criticism, with Democrats accusing the Republican president of making the event into a campaign commercial.
At South Charlotte Middle, Principal Christine Waggoner said she's trying to avoid letting political conflict create student drama. She notified parents in her electronic newsletter that students who want to opt out should privately tell their homeroom teacher. Those students will go somewhere else during the speech. For instance, she said, eighth-graders will watch in the cafeteria during their normal lunch time; students who aren't watching can eat in the courtyard.
She said teachers have the Department of Education activity sheets, but it's up to them to create lessons. For instance, a weekly career-education class will probably focus on goal-setting. “Everybody can set goals,” Waggoner said. “I don't think they need to listen to a speech.”
Politics and the Classroom
Obama will speak at a high school in Arlington, Va., on a day that's the first day of school in some states (Carolinas kids started last month). The speech will air live on C-SPAN and videostream on the White House Web site.
As the White House site describes it, “the President will talk directly to students across the country on the importance of taking responsibility for their education, challenging them to set goals and do everything they can to succeed.” White House officials said Thursday they'll post the remarks Monday at www.white house.gov , allowing schools and parents to be prepared.
Bloggers, politicians and talk-show hosts seized on the speech and the Education Department's push to get schools to participate, getting the word out even before education officials had sent out news releases.
Florida's Republican Party chair, Jim Greer, issued a statement saying “President Obama has turned to American's children to spread his liberal lies, indoctrinating American's youngest children before they have a chance to decide for themselves.”
N.C. GOP chair Tom Fetzer joined in with a different tack: “This speech is clearly political in nature and has no place in the classroom. Our focus should be improving our students' test scores, not the President's approval rating.”
Tammy Bruce, a Los Angeles-based conservative talk-show host, posted on Twitter that Sept. 8 should be “skip day,” adding that “parents are the moral tutors of their children, not a lawyer from Chicago sitting in the WH.”
In Charlotte, talk show host Tara Servatius brought up the topic on WBT radio, complete with an online poll on whether listeners would let their kids participate.
A Moment for Teaching
Ken Gjertsen, a school board member and CMS parent, said he had several e-mails from upset parents Wednesday. He said he understands concerns about whether the speech will be political and disrupt classroom time, but he won't keep his children away.
“It's a president of the United States who is deserving of respect, and if we can instill that in our schoolkids, that's a good thing,” Gjertsen said. But he added that it might have been smarter to schedule the speech in the evening, when children and parents could watch and discuss it together.
Amy Farrell, executive director of Kids Voting, applauded the chance for students to hear the president speak in language aimed at them, in a classroom setting.
“I would like to see this become an annual trend. It would be a neat thing for students to look forward to,” she said.
Farrell, whose nonprofit group promotes civic education, urged parents to seize the moment for a lesson: “Part of civic dialogue is there are going to be people you don't agree with. We need to teach students not to just yell at them or not go to school.”
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Sources: MSNBC, Whitehouse.gov, Politico, Huffington Post, Charlotte Observer,
News & Observer, AJC.com, Media Matters, WRAL, Creepygif.com, Google Maps
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