The President’s school speech has been released today. I’ve been waiting with bated breath for it to appear online to see what he planned to say that was causing such a ruckus.
So let’s take a look at the main points of this address shall we…
- It’s the first day of school for many students in the US. (Gasp!)
- Teachers, Parents, and Government are responsible to teach, motivate, and set high expectations. (Ahhhh!)
- Students are also responsible for their education. (Oh, the horror!)
- Examples are given of three students who come from diverse backgrounds and very little means who have taken charge of their future by staying in school and putting forth effort. (How dare he!)
- Tells students that failure is a part of success in life. He doesn’t want those failures to stop them from working hard in school and life. (OMG!)
- Restates that parents, teachers, and families do everything they can do to help kids achieve, but the bottom line is that students are in control of their education and their lives. He asks that they take that control and make us proud of them. (How offensive!)
When this issue came to light last week, I was appalled. As I said in the previous post, angry. How could a large group of people be opposed to the President of the United States speaking to our youth about their education. How? Even more upsetting that this group was against the speech BEFORE IT HAD EVEN BEEN RELEASED. How could they know what is was going to say. Which shows it isn’t about the content, but instead about the person giving it.
We have an entire generation of school students who have been raised in a world where things have been made easier for them – cell phones, computers, text messaging, DVR, video games – and not always for the better. A lot of these kids wait around for others to do “it” for them, and if it doesn’t happen then they don’t put forth any effort on their own.
I see it on a regular basis at my school. The teachers there stand on their heads to motivate our kids and we still have a level of apathy from many of them. There are lot of reasons for this, but what it comes down to is that they are failing because they aren’t making the choice to succeed.
I don’t care if he (and hopefully one day she) is republican, democrat, or alien (which some believe the current one is) if the President of the United States stands up and tells our kids that it’s their job to make “it” happen, I think a lot of them will listen. How is that a bad thing?
AMEN!
ReplyDeleteWell this is just scandalous. How dare he talk to children about doing their best and setting goals and achieving and fulfilling their potential? That's just socialist rhetoric. I can see what he's doing to us, America. He is slowly brainwashing us into striving to be better, happier, and more successful than we already are today. Ooooo, this just gets my goat! Who knows what else he will do? Eliminate discrimination? He'd better not!!! I like my country nice and discriminatory, thank you very much.
ReplyDeleteThe school superintendent for my county and also the surrounding counties have banning the viewing of the presidental speech in the classrooms here. (Lee and Collier counties in Florida)
ReplyDeleteI agree 1000% with you! Kids today have it WAY TO EASY! Everything is handed to them on a platter..
ReplyDeleteThe kids here will not be seeing the speech in school. Something about the teachers not waning the kids in school in the middle of the night.
My boys and I will watch the speech the next morning.
It is my understanding it was the lesson plan parents objected to, not the speech itself.
Yes, and so many of these same people would've been thrilled to have "another" president talk to their kids. Don't we want our prez to give a damn about our youth?
ReplyDeleteGreat post.
I so agree with you Pumpkin! What is the flipping deal! Do you know I didn't even know this was going on. Sometimes people make me sick. I just feel ill that anyone would have any problems with this at all. Maybe I am not as conservative as I think I am... CRAZY!
ReplyDeleteThis whole things boils down to racism. I'm appalled.
ReplyDeleteA kindergarten teacher I know was asked if she was going to keep her poster of Barack Obama up in her room. Of course she is--he's the POTUS for goodness sake.
Great post PD. Thanks for getting me to think about this.
ReplyDeleteJust a warning, you might want to moderate your comments for a few days. I've had a lot of anonymous diatribes and worse show up in my comment section since my post on this.
These are sad people with little better to do than hate.
YOu go, girl. Worth the wait for you to simmer down and then speak. Love ya!
ReplyDeleteHow? It's called, "we got nothin and nobody to go up against this guy so we're just going to rant and rage against anything he wants to do."
ReplyDeleteThanks for a great post.
And why was there never any "controversy" when Bush talked to students? The whole thing makes me so angry.
ReplyDeleteIt's a fight against the person and also a distractionary tactic to take the heat off health care.
ReplyDeleteObama's campaign focused a lot on education and reducing the drop out rate and increasing continued education opportunities. This isn't some new passion or a silly canned speech.
Apparently the guy in Florida who first (or at least, most visibly) raised this issue is now claiming credit for forcing the President to re-write the speech to remove all the secret coded Hypnobama-like indoctrin-o-mational stuff.
ReplyDeleteIf he hadn't of warned us, your kids would be coming off the school bus as socialist Muslim zombies this evening.
Sigh.
You just can't make this up.
Very inspirational speech I loved how he aimed for our kids of today to plan for tomorrow, its not giving them political empowerment or guiding them in the wrong direction as the media portrayed but its giving them hope that through all the struggles and storms you may cross you will come out the hero In the end way to go Mr. President.
ReplyDeleteWhen we first heard of the "swine flu" I harped on my children to wash their hands regularly and with tons of soap. Shortly there after, we were in the car and Obama was on the radio saying, ". . . wash your hands." My children said, "Was he talking to us?" Of course I said yes. The girls washed their hands dilligently from that day forward. I'm thrilled that our president gave this speech to the children of America today. who knows how many of them will seriously take action and work a little harder in school this year. I guess we'll never know, but wouldn't it be wonderful if at least this speech touched 1 child who may have thought to give up on his dreams? I applaud the speech and am happier to be an American.
ReplyDeleteI am just appalled that it is the first day of school in some places and I have been in school for a while now!
ReplyDeletelMnop
I don't know. I just think that the President is the President and should not be censored, just because certain people voted differently.
ReplyDeleteWhat is next? Local TV stations making the decision on whether or not to run the State of the Union Address because their veiwers don't like the President?
Where does it end?
Oh! and I forgot to say that I agree with you about kids not being able or willing to do anything that is not handed to them already done.
ReplyDeleteCalculators for instance.
I went to K-Mart the other day and the clerk could not work out what 107 minus 55 was and spent at least 5 minutes running around to all the clerks asking for a calculator.
Then there is text message spelling which has somehow carried over into other aspects of life.
"i cant cum 2 work 2day cuz i sik. cya"
can you imagine what their resumes look like?
Kaishon's school did not show or talk about the speech. I was irritated. He is the President. No matter if anyone likes it or not, and goodness gracious, I am so glad that someone cares about our kids! RIDICULOUS!
ReplyDeleteI agree completely. However, I would like to give the neo-cons out there that opposed the speech a special thank you... I haven't had nearly enough reasons to roll my eyes in total disgust lately, and I am grateful to them for providing me with that special opportunity.
ReplyDelete