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Hey! Obama! Leave those kids alone!

Submitted by mike from nc on Thu, 09/03/2009 - 23:02
in

President Obama will address the nation’s school children on Tuesday. I guess that would be fine if he were doing it at a time when parents and their children could gather around the television and listen and discuss it together. Or when parents could decide they didn’t want their children to listen to the President at all. But there is something creepy about the President of the United States going live on television into our schools during a normal school day. That sounds like something Chairman Mao might do. What’s next? His face painted on the side of buildings all over town? Why is President Obama taking this time? Is his ego really that bloated? What does he have to say to our kids that is so important, so worthwhile, that the learning process has to be suspended to accommodate it? Why does he want to talk to them without their parents around?

 That will be time that no math will be learned, no science will be taught, no language skills learned. (I would say it would be a time when no history will be taught, but that seems to be the case already.) If he wants to encourage them to stay in school, to study hard and to strive toward good grades – great. But he can do that with a Public Service Announcement.

I don’t intend to allow my children to participate unless I’m allowed to be with them. Obama is not a teacher, so he is not the reason my sons are in school. He will be interfering with the reason they are there. I’m equally concerned about how the teachers will handle the affair. There are some conservative teachers, but academia is clearly a stronghold of liberalism. The idea that the president’s message may be innocuous and benign is not the point. If this precedent is established, that may not always be the case. This is a bad idea, and shouldn’t happen. Our schools should at least try to be propaganda free zones.

I suggest finding out if your kid’s school will be participating. If so, see if you can go with your kids. If that doesn’t work, maybe we should all find some real educational activity for our kids – away from school.

Here is the “study guide” from the White House suggested to be used in conjunction with the speech;

During the Speech:

• As the President speaks, teachers can ask students to write down key ideas or phrases that are important or personally meaningful. Students could use a note-taking graphic organizer such as a Cluster Web, or students could record their thoughts on sticky notes. Younger children can draw pictures and write as appropriate. As students listen to the speech, they could think about the following:

What is the President trying to tell me?

What is the President asking me to do?

What new ideas and actions is the President challenging me to think about?

• Students can record important parts of the speech where the President is asking them to do something. Students might think about: What specific job is he asking me to do? Is he asking anything of anyone else? Teachers? Principals? Parents? The American people?

• Students can record any questions they have while he is speaking and then discuss them after the speech. Younger children may need to dictate their questions.

After the Speech:

• Teachers could ask students to share the ideas they recorded, exchange sticky notes or stick notes on a butcher paper poster in the classroom to discuss main ideas from the speech, i.e. citizenship, personal responsibility, civic duty.• 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?

In the interest of real learning, I suggest a few additional talking points;

  • Can you find which part of the Constitution allows the president to use tax dollars to buy banks, car companies, and insurance companies?
  • Where does the federal government get the authority to implement health care policies for the citizenry?
  • Where does the President plan to put the war prisoners when he closes the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba?
  • Why did the President call the policeman stupid when he arrested the professor in Massachusetts?
  • Where is the President going to get all the money he needs to pay for all the stuff he is buying?

That should make for an interesting afternoon discussion time, don’t you think?

more at http://commonconservativesense.com

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Can we PLEASE have Buckley back?

Submitted by Mead50 on Fri, 09/04/2009 - 10:11.

This week there has actually been some interesting discussion on this site for once - all about the harm that the willfully stupid have been doing to the Republican Party.

This diarist says:

President Obama will address the nation’s school children on Tuesday. I guess that would be fine if he were doing it at a time when parents and their children could gather around the television and listen and discuss it together. Or when parents could decide they didn’t want their children to listen to the President at all. But there is something creepy about the President of the United States going live on television into our schools during a normal school day. That sounds like something Chairman Mao might do.

Well, actually, it sounds like something Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush would do. Or, do be more accurate - it is something they actually did do. Hell, Reagan even used the opportunity to talk to school children about cutting taxes!

Did you find that a bit creepy?

Criticize the substance of anything and everything he says. But please - drop the nonsense.

Obama is no Ronald Reagan

Submitted by mike from nc on Fri, 09/04/2009 - 18:10.

Reagan was hosting a NC high school class in the White House for a Q and A. The session was broadcast to high schools only across the country. Nowhere near the same thing  as Obama's egomaniacal stunt.

My Daddy used to tell me the best thing to do when you find yourself in a hole was to stop digging. Put down the shovel, Mead.

So then when you learn that he also addressed

Submitted by Mead50 on Fri, 09/04/2009 - 19:14.

middle school students in 1988 and the speach was broadcast into schools, you'll be creeped out?

 

Get it right

Submitted by mike from nc on Fri, 09/04/2009 - 19:32.

A direct cut and paste from your link.

"I want to congratulate all of you from John A. Holmes High School in Edenton, North Carolina, on your great achievements this year and on your upcoming graduation. And a special greeting to Rob Boyce, the principal of this fine school.

As you know, my remarks are being broadcast live over radio and television to high school students throughout the country."

Please look up the meaning of the word

Submitted by Mead50 on Fri, 09/04/2009 - 20:04.

"also" in a dictionary - I'm sure your neighbors have one you can borrow!

Media Matters: On November 14, 1988, Reagan addressed and took questions from students from four area middle schools in the Old Executive Office Building. According to press secretary Marlin Fitzwater, the speech was broadcast live and rebroadcast by C-Span, and Instructional Television Network fed the program “to schools nationwide on three different days.” Much of Reagan’s speech that day covered the American “vision of self-government” and the need “to keep faith with the unfinished vision of the greatness and wonder of America” but in the middle of the speech, the president went off on a tangent about the importance of low taxes.

So, please state for the record: creepy? not creepy? if not creepy, why, and why is Obama doing the same thing creepy? Is it because talk radio told you that when Obama does it it is creepy, but they kept silent about when Reagan and Bush did it? Would you care to admit that you were not even aware of the previous addresses to students by Presidents when your wrote your OP?

Yeah, Obama should leave them

Submitted by andrew2275 on Fri, 09/04/2009 - 10:18.

Yeah, Obama should leave them alone. I think it is obama's new tricks . Thanks for this great article. Tour Bus New York

Obama School Speech

Submitted by Cordell on Sat, 09/05/2009 - 06:12.

This has been a very intriguing issue eversince it was released over the internet or via television. As the day of the speech was fast approaching, so as the comments made by different people. There is set to be an Obama school speech next Tuesday, and it is igniting quite the controversy.  Part of the rumored content is going to be his recommendations for public school curriculum, which has conspiracy theorists, and even some educators, geared for protesting the line being blurred between politics and education.  (If people actually read the history textbooks, they'd see the fix is already in – but enough of that.)  The Department of Education is already criticized heavily for being too easily dominated politically.  Home school advocates believe this will herald a rise in home schooling.  American schools are already in enough trouble without the Obama school speech making things worse, and it's starting to look like payday loans and private schools are a good idea.

Crazy

Submitted by rbottoms on Sat, 09/05/2009 - 11:03.

There is set to be an Obama school speech next Tuesday, and it is igniting quite the controversy.

What controversy. It's more fake batsh*t crazy manufactured outrage from the Right.

Idiots

Submitted by rbottoms on Sat, 09/05/2009 - 11:44.

Remember Glenn Beck's mysteeerious video of Obama's Secret Negro Army? It's pretty much the foundation of his entire conspiracy theory on the impending takeover of the country by armed Obama thugs, and serves today as the linchpin of the "Obama indoctrination" nontroversy. "Stop, stop, stop!" Glenn Beck cries -- as the Secret Negro Army declares its intentions to become doctors and lawyers. (Shudder!) Beck acts like it's a mystery who these "dangerous" black children are. "They've sealed this as tight as a drum," he says with his characteristic nervous urgency. The subtext is clear: be afraid! Be very afraid of this mysterious video! Obama's Secret Negro Army has been positively identified...as high school step dancers. But wait! Beck's video was made during a rehearsal. Maybe there's still some mystery here? Anyone still not convinced had better enjoy step dance practice videos, because there are at least 567 of them on YouTube alone. How could Beck be unaware of all this? He's got a multi-million dollar contract and a horde of investigative journalists at the Fox News Channel, and he can't get this basic information in two weeks? Please. It took me five minutes and cost nothing, and I've never watched step dance before in my life. Obama's Secret Negro Army is a fabrication, and so is the outrage. Putting Farrakhan in between two Black Panthers at a polling station and a student step dance video is pure, unadulterated racist fearmongering. Glenn Beck is a racist, and a disgustingly obvious one. That's no mystery at all: to date, 57 sponsors have already figured it out. The Marching Cobras:

The COBRAS have won over 280 first place awards and trophies in competition and their List of special performances reads like that of a professional group. They've starred in several television commercials and other media advertising campaigns, have been invited to perform Twice for the President of the United States, and have done a TV pilot show in Hollywood with all expenses paid for their efforts. But like most success stories, it hasn't happened overnight. They started practicing in all kinds of weather in Willie Smith's front yard and walked five miles to their first "public" performance. Adult volunteers attracted to the glamour of the popular group have come and gone, sometimes causing (as adults are so much more prone to do than children) more trouble than they were worth. Willie Smith has remained the heart and soul of the COBRAS throughout its 34 year history, building the organization with "blood, sweat, and tears" and every penny he could spare from the meager salary of a teacher. While the last few years have been kinder, only a man of true dedication whose chief concern was "his kids" could have stuck it out through so many lean years. He freely admits that he loves performing; being what he calls "out front". And, he certainly enjoys the success of the COBRAS. He's a "public figure" whose accomplishments are seen by many as an outstanding example of commitment to youth. Although personally the recipient of numerous public service awards, Willie gives the credit for all it to God.

Only idiots or people with a serious agenda would attempt to turn this story in one of fear and intimadation. P.S. I hate your editing widget.