Should the president be able to address school children
 

Next week the US president is planning on addressing all of the nation's school children in a televised address to encourage them to keep up with their studies and stay in school.

Extreme right-wing conservatives are calling this an opportunity for the president to indoctrinate and brainwash America's children with socialist ideals.

What do you think?

I think nutters say anything to get airtime, and should keep to making tinfoil hats.

What are they going to do, break into the transmission like the lo-techs in Johnny Mneumonic?

Under all this is a feeling of fear. Obama is a relatively young, modernized president; a real change from the staid old boys' club like Dubya.

But take the abovementioned with a grain of salt, since I'm Canadian. We have enough trouble with a gloryseeking senior citizen wanting to destroy the government just to give him the power he lusts after...

Just by saying "extreme ring-wing conservatives", that automatically debunks anything that comes after it ;)

I'm sick of people calling him a socialist. First off, he's not. Second, even if he were, it's not like capitalism has done so well for us. ;)

I wish he would actually do something about education instead of talking about it....

Capitalism has been benificial to the world and I do not think that he needs to be broad cast into the schools. Drop out rates were lower in the last couple of years and it dose seem a bit socialist to broad cast yourself into class room. have you read 1984 next he is going to give morning reports of the "successes" of his administration.

Was it socialist when Ronald Reagan did it? Was it socialist when George Bush Sr. did it?

We all know where George Bush Jr. was on the morning of 9-11-2001. Was it socialist then?

The problem isn't (and never was) the president addressing school children. Many other presidents have done the same. Justified concern was raised when the Dept. of Ed. sent out guidlines to all the nation's public schools that included suggested homework assignments to write letters to the president about how they could be good servants to the president and help promote his policies and such. The administration admitted their (again) overstepping and has redacted all the pertinent comments and suggestions.

This is Mao type shit folks, and they were hoping to slide it by before anyone thought about it too much. Fortunately, we still live in a country where public officials are watched and taken to task by responsible citizens.

Well, frankly, I'd rather Obama have his tongue cut out...

Still, it's pretty dumb if the President of a country can't even talk to his children... America is very divided... perhaps it's time for another civil war? This time you've got nukes...

Let's take a step back into reality, please. There was never anything asking school children to write papers about "they could be good servants to the president" and how they could "help promote his policies". That is a complete exaggeration of the truth which is school children were going to be asked what they could do to help the president.

Literally : Students were going to be asked to "write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president".

This could be telling the president he needs to make new jobs because my daddy lost his. This could be telling the president to stop the war in Iraq.

Tksensei, you have been duped by the conservative media machine.

Conservatives protested this innocuous question, and it has since been revised....leading only to more conservative criticism, and outlandish claims like tksensei gave above.

Do you have any links to news articles for this?

The fact that this is FOX News should be enough.

White House Withdraws Call for Students to 'Help' Obama - Political News - FOXNews.com

*chuckles* Fox News.

Not even FOX News is making the claim that tksensei is, which is why I said it should be enough.

That's just stupid. It seems a lot of Republicans don't have much faith in their political system... probably due to an overflow of faith somewhere else...

But he's the President; get behind him if you want your country to stay strong.

If you really think you've got a problem, then don't just whine, start a civil war!

Ah, okay. I just had to have a chuckle over Fox News being mentioned in this thread.

George Bush Sr. did it as well, and George Bush Jr. went to an elementary school on the morning of 9/11/2001. It is a bit of a presidential tradition to speak to school children on the first day of school. But for some reason when President Obama wants to do it it is called indocrination and brain washing.

MMM,

Two things jump out at me.

One being the so called right-wing extremists, second being conservative media machine. For whatever reason has it occurred that there *might* be a little evidence that would point to socialists tendencies? Van Jones comes to mind. That said, the White house has acknowledged that the wording may lead some to believe in negative way in a honest way. To this the country is VERY polarized right now, even more with health care people are up in arms over everything. Now the question is, are they honest about what they believe?

there is some truth in ignoring the far-lefts/rights, and not giving them a platform.

PolitiFact | Republican Party of Florida says Obama will "indoctrinate" schoolchildren with "socialist ideology"

We searched previous media reports to see if former President George W. Bush ever gave a nationwide address to schoolchildren, but based on our search, it appears he did not. He did, however, regularly visit individual schools and discuss the importance of education with students.

We did learn, however, that President George H.W. Bush addressed the nation's students in a televised speech during school hours in 1991. ''I can't understand for the life of me what's so great about being stupid,'' Bush said, according to news reports from the time. He told students to ''block out the kids who think it's not cool to be smart'' and ''work harder, learn more.''

Democrats at the time criticized the speech. "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 Democratic majority leader in the House of Representatives.

Republican Newt Gingrich defended Bush's speech, though. "Why is it political for the president of the United States to discuss education?" Gingrich said at the time. "It was done at a nonpolitical site and was beamed to a nonpolitical audience. . . . They wanted to reach the maximum audience with the maximum effect to improve education."

It's the same old thing going on in politics.

One thing confuses me. The usage of Fox News, to put it bluntly are you attacking or supporting them?
CMPA: Center for Media and Public Affairs

Here's a actual link to the materials for anyone use.
http://www.ed.gov/admins/lead/academic/bts.html\
http://www.ed.gov/teachers/how/lessons/7-12.pdf
http://www.ed.gov/teachers/how/lessons/prek-6.pdf

I don't believe he should be speaking to the students, why you might ask, several reasons. Right now he needs to be working on health care, and putting up a BI-partisan bill. Arguably you can say kids are important, but are they going to go down a drain if they are not spoken to by the president? I question the effectiveness of this (If it inspires one kid to do good then it was a success). One could also say he is wasting around a hour of actual class time, but that arguable too. Education system needs fixen, but talking and trying to inspire people only go so far before reality hits them. Simply put, in a way there are more pressing concerns right now then giving a speech, which could be given at a later date, while also putting the focus on education.

I can see both points. Still, the dept memo was the real concern, and yes, it has Maoist ideas behind it. Besides, if some parent doesn't want his kid to see the president, dumb as it may be, that's thier right.

I am a little surprised, solemnclockwork, you would be against the idea of the leader of America addressing the nation's children.

A ten-minute speech televised to students has nothing to do with health care. Think about it this way: If he were to say "I do not have time to address the nation's children because I need to focus on health care" it would be political suicide, and frankly, BS. So please don't play that card.

Speaking to children on the first day of school is a bit of a presidential tradition, even if not every president has done it. Reagan did it. Bush Sr. did it. No one was up in arms. But why does Pres. Obama elicit such fear? Why do people feel like they need to protect their children from the words of the president? This is unprecedented disrespectful behavior.

I honestly do not know why people would be against this. I have my suspicions, but I will save those for now. I don't listen to conservative radio, so I can only guess that Rush and Sean have a hand in the president=boogieman hate machine that seems quite powerful right now, and is mostly based on unsubstatiated rumors and all-out propaganda lies.

Talk more about the Maoist ideas that the memo had.

Do you mean the lone question "What can I do to help the president?"

Not much unlike "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country," is it?

But if there are other "Maoist" ideas, please list them here.

Ok, good one with the "you people", Great, now I'm a right-wing extremist. (this is what making me mad most of all).

I wouldn't put it passed them to "AstroTurf: the town-halls, would I? Tell was Van Jones a conservative lie?

If it must be said, I DO NOT LISTEN TO RUSH, AND I DO NOT WATCH SEAN ON A REGULAR BASIS, only when I don't want to change the channel and by that time I'm watching the food channel. (I actually find his show boring.)

Let me put into perspective on what I have said.

I don't believe he should be speaking to the students, why you might ask, several reasons. Right now he needs to be working on health care, and putting up a BI-partisan bill. Arguably you can say kids are important, but are they going to go down a drain if they are not spoken to by the president? I question the effectiveness of this (If it inspires one kid to do good then it was a success). One could also say he is wasting around a hour of actual class time, but that arguable too. Education system needs fixen, but talking and trying to inspire people only go so far before reality hits them. Simply put, in a way there are more pressing concerns right now then giving a speech, which could be given at a later date, while also putting the focus on education.

there is some truth in ignoring the far-lefts/rights, and not giving them a platform

Line that up with what you posted. NO where did I say, because of the content of the speech or what he might say, I wanted him to speak DID I? Thanks for putting words into my post.

Where in the hell did I say "you people"?

So with this logic the president should not be throwing out baseballs, going to church, celebrating Christmas, roasting hotdogs, sleeping, or anything that is not about fixing health care or the education system. He would be impeached in a week. Considering the amount of vacation time the last president took, spending a few minutes encouraging students to stay in school seems like a very good use of his time. Those few minutes might make a difference in some children's lives, and dare I say I doubt anyone would be worse off by it.

This thread is going way out of control, and into a black spiral of "Going to end up closed."...

Let`s pull back, and try to keep it out of there.
I will not hesitate to pull the plug if insults keep flying.

Apples and Oranges. by work I mean office time, and by that I mean focus, and time spent on this speech instead of given to health care. Please read what I have posted, I have highlighted several key parts of that paragraph, which should explain I'm not losing sleep over this, and the contrast view I have on the subject.

I don't believe he should be speaking to the students, why you might ask, several reasons. Right now he needs to be working on health care, and putting up a BI-partisan bill. Arguably you can say kids are important, but are they going to go down a drain if they are not spoken to by the president? I question the effectiveness of this (If it inspires one kid to do good then it was a success). One could also say he is wasting around a hour of actual class time, but that arguable too. Education system needs fixen, but talking and trying to inspire people only go so far before reality hits them. Simply put, in a way there are more pressing concerns right now then giving a speech, which could be given at a later date, while also putting the focus on education.

Repeating yourself time and time again is not going to answer my questions. There is enough time in the day to do both, so this is really a non-argument. I think you would have to agree. If it was veterans or elderly people he was asked to talk to no one would say it was a waste of his time. Why you think it is because it is children is a mystery to me.

Speeches are not avoided because there are pressing concerns, speeches are made because there are pressing concerns. I agree, the education system in America needs work. Maybe this isn't going to fix it, but if 10 kids decide to stay in school rather than drop out because what the president says next week, I think it is worth it. I think you can agree to that.

(Where was the part where I said "you people" and made you so mad again?)

I want to know what he is going to say exactly. It just seems like a good time to (and this might sound awful) try and get the kids to like him. think if he talks to kids they will like him. he is an adult who took time to talk to them and it just seems like a ploy to raise his popularity. Sadly I am biased as he is a democrat so i do not seem to trust him fully. he isn't a bad person but i just believe in different things than him.

Well, since you want to continue that.

You lumped EVERYONE who disagrees with the President speaking into one category, hence why I got mad.

Yes it does, when I highly parts you seem to leave out.


Your post, hence why I went and bold the parts I did. If you read what I have posted there wouldn't be a response in that way, I said that if a child gets inspired then it's Good!

MMM, Again I was not nitpicking how many hours he chooses to spend on anything, but his focus! If it was a non-argument then there wouldn't be any controversy. Just because you see one side, doesn't mean there is not another side to be seen. I would say the exact same thing for elderly and vets, why would you think I wouldn't (you use the words anyone so it does apply to me)? IT IS NOT BECAUSE OF THE CHILDREN, can you please stop with this. It shouldn't be a mystery I have completely given my view on it. where not debating what a speech is, or why a speech should be given.

George Bush Sr. encouraged children to stay in school.

Ronald Reagan encouraged children to stay in school.

Both in exactly the same way that President Obama will do next week.

Why is there an assumption that President Obama has an ulterior motive?

Why dose he need to urge them to stay in school drop out rates have been decreasing so why the alarm now? When he could be working on that ever so important bi-parisan universal health care plan.

First of all don't quote me as saying "you people" then highlight the words "you" and "people" in completely different paragraphs. I assumed you had misread what I had written, and it was a misunderstanding. Now I see you want to treat my posts like a jigsaw puzzle that you can mix and match words with. I don't play that.

You have still not explained why the most important and highest official in our nation should NOT address our nation's children as to why they should stay in school.

"He has better ways to spend his time" is not an argument.

As I child I was taught that even if we didn't like the policies of our president, we should respect him for the position he has earned. That level of respect has continuously been maintained for decades all up until January 20, 2009.

Suddenly people that respected the office of the president of the United States of America treat it as important as the winner of American Idol. The respect is gone. The trust is gone. And it's not because of 8 years of George W Bush.

Is this what we want to teach our children? That the man who fought hard and earned the majority of votes by the American citizens to become our president is deeply suspect and should be questioned at every turn, even at some innocuous events like telling children to stay in school?

What a sad statement for America if that is really true.

It truly sickens me that I have to type these words.

Good night.

I think having unconditional respect for anyone, particularly someone with as much power as Obama, is pretty sickening to be honest.

Dude, we where warned about this.

But no you want to make a fuss out of this when I disagree with you. WoW so I don't care for children since I seem to think the President should at least right now focus on Health care? So I'm a bad American. DO YOU REALIZE how much you being like the "extreme conservative side"?

Do NOT start with the respect issue, the same can be said for both sides of the view when it comes to this issue in the current political environment. YOUR side is NOT blameless, you did it to Bush, but complain when it done to Obama? I HAVE NOT said one negative thing about him, and even said if he inspires a single child to do great THEN IT WAS A SUCCESS. I have a different view then what he should be focused on, SO WHAT, everyone does.

"he has better ways to spend his time" is a argument AS I have backed that up with several instances where time could be spent on something else. You don't agree, but it is a thought out position.

LET ME REPEAT, IN my view there are more pressing concerns to giving a speech (IT is NOT about who he is giving it to, but what it is about, i.e. not health care). Do NOT sit there and spin it, and denies that I have repeatably gave you a answer.

First of all don't quote me as saying "you people" then highlight the words "you" and "people" in completely different paragraphs. I assumed you had misread what I had written, and it was a misunderstanding. Now I see you want to treat my posts like a jigsaw puzzle that you can mix and match words with. I don't play that.

I'm sorry, but in respect maybe I should have worded it better, but the content REMAINS.

If it sickens you, then don't type those words to make you out to be the better person in a opinionated question. So if you choose yes your right and choose no your the devil?

MMM, go look in the mirror you find you starting to act like those who you disagree with so much.

Flashback 1991: Gephardt Called Bush's Speech to Students 'Paid Political Advertising' | NewsBusters.org

So Dems complained like crazy when Bush Sr did it, so what's good for the goose...

Besides, Obama has already proven himself untrustworthy several times, he refused to release the contents of the speech (why is it such a big secret?), his "homework" included the phrase "How can you help the President?", which suggests something the President is asking of the kids, not just "stay in school and study hard" (because why would kids need to "help the President" if that were the only message?) Obama is a weasel, and if I had kids, I sure wouldn't allow them to be subjected to Obama's lies and indoctrination like this.

At the risk of fishing in troubled waters, you know how many times my school got a spoken message from the P.M.?

Not even once. Oh there was a general mixed messages of "All you young people need asbos, STAY IN SCHOOL! Wait! let me give you a hug first, oh but by the way, your exam results are a joke and you're failing the nation" but that was all on a national news level. It might have been quite interesting to hear what these politicians had to say for themselves and how they wanted to approach ME.

If you ask me, this sounds like a cracking opportunity for teachers to get kids thinking about politics on a more relatable level. "Ok, kids, Obama's had his say to you, now what do you think? what did you agree with/disagree with?" and if it's all really a big sinister lie, the kids will smell a rat.

Seriously, give them some credit, they can't all be mindless meat-sack dupes. The schools with kids who's parent's like him will probably already like him. The one's with parent's who don't, won't be swayed, or if they are, mummy and daddy and teacher will 'expose all Mr. Obama's nasty little lies' and it will be back to square one regardless. Some ~might~ disagree with their parent's opinions, but I doubt they'd voice it. Not for some man who lives a million miles away from their own realities.

Is it a waste of time? The message itself isn't bad and it seems to me like the good and the bad of the reasonings (on BOTH sides of the argument) are pretty balanced. I mean, people can gnash and wail and say "it's a popularity stunt" but... everyone can perhaps already see that, and it's not really getting him much popularity is it? Just a lot of negative controversy. "Won't someone think of the children!?" well sure, why don't you? You can't disagree with what he says unless you let him actually say it. You can only throw a tantrum about what you THINK he might say, which is unfair.
That's simply taking the mere fear of one person putting words into the mouths of babes and actually planting your own opposing ones instead.

IF it is really such an issue, even if you disagree with it, can't you just talk it over with your kids? Emphasis the 'good' messages and express your doubts about the others. The older kids will appreciate a dose of adult honesty, or a chance to make their own opinions and the younger ones probably aren't interested anyway. Write him a letter. Let them write him letters. Get the comm. channels open and busy, criticize if you want, but it doesn't seem to me like snarling and fear-mongering is doing America, or the kids, or the reputation of an otherwise great nation any good at all.

I never said "you people". I never said you don't care about children and I never said you were a bad American.

I can't continue this with you, solemnclockwork, you are aren't arguing against what I said.

it is interesting that politicians complained about the use of funds for Bush Sr's speech, but that isn't the complaint that people are making about Obama's speech. The Republican Party of Florida said Obama would "indoctrinate" school children with "socialist ideology," forcing them "to watch the president justify his plans for government-run health care, banks, and automobile companies, increasing taxes on those who create jobs, and racking up more debt than any other president."

That is different. It also creates paranoia about the president, making him into a boogie man that we need to protect our children from. What kind of message does THAT send to children? That is much more insidious and ugly.

And well stated Columbine. I think you have situation pretty well summed up.

I just wish America would just stop being so judgemental about the man. Ever since the inaugeration, he's had an invisible camera on him the whole time watching his as well as his family's every move. That's not the way it should be. I just can't take this anymore. And now the people are losing confidence in him. For what? What did he do to have the people lose confidence in him?

This Democrat/Republican Rightwing/Leftwing bullshit is all an act, a distraction from the real problems in our society. It doesn't matter who you vote for, where they stand.


Truth is, our Government is ran by the Federal Reserve - we are slaves to inflation and the Federal Income Tax.



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As MMM pointed out, the two cases are hardly alike.

It's sad how so many people are going to try and censor their children from a simple "Stay in school" speech and feed them lines about how terrible Obama is, when they spent the previous 8 years screaming at people who didn't stand to support the president or wear a little American flag pin.

When you purposely don't let your children see opposing points of views (though you could only possibly be opposed to this speech if you were anti-schools) you are purposely brain washing them.