To the local educators who didn’t allow students to view President Obama’s speech out of fear of political indoctrination or that it didn’t meet the academic content standards:
I share your concerns.
What is this country coming to when a US president urges students to set goals and work hard in school? And he uses taxpayer dollars, to boot.
Yet despite the possibilities of what the speech may have contained, I wonder if a learning experience could have been tied to it. To you social studies teachers, what a great opportunity to discuss the nature of indoctrination with your classes. And you language arts instructors, why not use the speech to meet the content standards that say students should be exposed to a variety of texts that encourage “deep thinking?”
Yes, I do understand the concerns of parents and the angst of students. But I urge you educators to allow your classes to explore controversial messages and also to review the meaning of democracy and freedom of speech.
Furthermore, I believe there is a place for teaching students respect for the President of the United States. I understand that Obama isn't the usual ex-con-rapper-type that school districts often hire as motivational speakers, but he is our president. Socialist or not, he deserves our respect.
In the future, I hope you will think and act outside of the box.
10 comments:
Thank you for saying exactly what I've been muttering about all week- only much more eloquently(your wording being the eloquent part, not mine).
PERFECT. Couldn't have said this better. Wow. Really.
I'm tweeting you right now.
I love the smell of sarcasm in the morning.
Amen and thank you. I will say that my kids actually watched it, but about half the kids did not.
Where in heaven's name did you find that picture?!
my sentiments exactly!!
Testicles should always be kept in a lock box!
My kids didn't get to watch. Grrr. So let me know if you can recommend any home-schooling socialism programs!
Nicely said. What a missed opportunity for those schools who chose not to show the speech. Especially notable is the issue of respect. This would never have happened if our president was an old white guy.
Yes! I'd threatened to take my daughter out of school to watch it, but then realized that our kids didn't go back till Wednesday (wouldn't want the teachers to have to cut short their Labor Day Weekend, would we?)
Living far away from the States these days, if I relied on the news for my opinion about Americans I would be convinced that 95% of us are complete morons. No wonder other countries have such a low opinion of us.
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