Monday, September 07, 2009

Tomorrow's Obama school speech: Yes or No?

If you haven't heard, tomorrow morning, President Obama is going to give a speech to the students of our nation's schools via the whitehouse.gov website. He and his handlers have insisted that the speech is simply a "stay in school and do your work" pep talk. Tonight, I finally had the opportunity to read and preview his speech, and to tell you the truth, as much as I find the man's politics to be horribly repugnant, the speech isn't half bad.

As long as Obama sticks to simply telling kids to stay in school and what not, I never had a big problem with the speech itself. What I had a major problem with was the fact that until tonight, I could not preview the speech to see exactly what he was going to say. Further, the lesson plan from the Department of Education website that accompanied the speech - which has since been removed - instructed teachers to do such things as have their students write a short essay in which the students would write about how they could help our president. This leaves students with the impression that they work for our president and not the other way around. I would have had a big problem with that assignment.

However, after previewing the speech and seeing the president actually has some rather candid things to say, I believe I will actually show the speech tomorrow. Either live, or delayed, as I am sure it will be instantly posted on YouTube.

Now don't think I have gone all soft on our Marxist Commander in Chief. I am still very wary about having any president piped directly into our nation's schools. Even though his message might be a good one, the precedent that is being set here, no matter how benign the subject matter, is one that needs to be addressed with my students. My first question to them would be to ask how they would feel if President George W. Bush was going to speak to them directly instead of their hero Barack Obama. I will discuss with them the notion that although this speech was very non-offensive, what if future presidents (including Obama himself later in his presidency) use their direct access to the nation's schoolchildren in order to push for policies and legislation that are near and dear to that president's agenda? I will discuss with them how a practice like this could be used or abused in the years to come. I will let my students hear Obama's message in my classroom, but I will still require them to think about discuss the ramifications behind its delivery.

If you want to read the speech yourself before Obama gives it tomorrow, you can read it at this link here. Otherwise, here are some of my favorite passages:


But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.
And that’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself...

But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying...

I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work -- that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you’re not going to be any of those things.
But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try...

The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.
It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.
So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?
I am not above giving credit where credit is due: overall, President Obama's speech is an excellent one. But politically, I still oppose him on every front.

Oh, and one more thing. I noticed that Obama ends his speech with "God Bless America." I wonder if the ACLU is going to sue him for that one. After all, they sued to have schools take down the very same words from their marquees in the wake of September 11, 2001.

Good Day to You, Sir

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

I too will show the speech. I think for the population I work with it will be highly relevant. However, students will be taught that they never make an oath to the President personally.

Anonymous said...

I love the speech and what I love about it most is that ANY president of our country could be speaking and it would be relevant. My hope is that our black population, who worships our president with such enthusiasm, will listen and learn. I especially like the part about being a rapper or a basketball star. I am a primary teacher and even my young students think they are going to the NBA. I will be showing the speech tomorrow!

Lisa said...

Students should be able to listen to the President's speech

W.R. Chandler said...

Lisa,
Tell that to the Democrats who in 1991 investigated the G.H.W. Bush administration for doing what Obama is doing this morning.

Would you be OK with Bush or Reagan doing the same thing? Just looking for some consistency.

jerry bates said...

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.

Anonymous said...

And its not a precedent. It has happened in the past. George Bush did it. Seriously.. learn before you speak!

W.R. Chandler said...

Anonymous,
Seriously... learn before you comment. If you would simply read any excerpts from Obama's autobiography, pay special attention to his description of his relationship with Frank Marshall Davis - a communist poet and activist whom Obama described as a mentor, not to mention the company he keeps, such as Van Jones and Bill Ayers. Not to mention his attempts to incrementally nationalize various industries such as banking, auto, and health care. What, you think unless Obama stands before a microphone and says, "Hey everyone, I'm a Marxist," then he's not one?

And yes, his speech today is indeed a precedent. Although George Bush did it too (and I have acknowledged that), Bush had nowhere near the popularity with impressionable youngsters, nor the access to such immediate media access (internet) that Obama and any future presidents of either party enjoy today.

Nice talking to you whoever you are.

The Vegas Art Guy said...

I will at a later date once I have a lesson for it. It did not fit what I was teaching today.

Anonymous said...

I think what the President said today was very good, however, " . . . all men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree." (Credited to James Madison on July 11, 1787)
I think we have forgotten this truth.

George

Anonymous said...

Having Marxist friends does not make one a Marxist. He has espoused a grand total of zero Marxist policies. He has never framed his view of history as the inevitable and deterministic progression driven by class differences and technological change. He has never espoused the abolition of all private wealth and the holding of all property in common. But hey, if you teach kids and you think that he is a Marxist, its only a few hundred students a year who get a poor education.

W.R. Chandler said...

Personally attack me all you want Anonymous, the fact still stands that the man surrounds himself and has always surrounded himself with fellow travelers and espouses the belief that we should "spread the wealth around."

Of course he doesn't openly espouse Marxist philosophy - otherwise he would never be elected. If you want to spend your life being purposely obtuse, then I feel sorry for anyone who has to be around you on a regular or irregular basis.

Anonymous said...

What will it hurt? Every other president did it as well except for Bush. I think this is just another excuse that everyone is looking for to bitch about Obama, get over it!

W.R. Chandler said...

Every other president except for Bush did what?

This wasn't about Obama giving a speech to schoolchildren. This was about Obama's administration releasing a lesson plan to teachers instructing them to have students write a letter to themselves where they ask how they can "help our president," and then not releasing the text of the speech. Help him do what? I know I was wondering, and it wasn't until I got the chance to finally read the text of the speech a mere one day before it was to be given that I was finally reassured that Obama was going to keep his remarks benign. Had he just released the stupid speech two weeks ago when he released the lesson plan, he could have saved himself a lot of trouble.

Darren said...

Chanman, save yourself the trouble and delete the comments that attack you personally. Don't feed the trolls.