On the front page of our paper the other day was a story about this speech. The local school administrators were not going to allow the students to see the broadcast of Obama's speech--labeling it too "political." What a bunch of horseshit. They should be ashamed of themselves.
http://news.aol.com/article/obama-school-speech-text/658197?icid=mainmaindl1link3http%3A%2F%2Fnews.aol.com%2Farticle%2Fobama-school-speech-text%2F658197
7 comments:
Former Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush delivered similar speeches to students, the White House has said.
was there a big uproar then? i don't seem to remember that at all. it is bullshit. wow, someone telling kids to stay in school, pay attention and don't quit on yourself. wow... scary.
spidey, It's all about dimwitted people being afraid of a black president.
here, they're letting teachers decide if they have time in tight schdules (thanks to standardized tests) to watch the speech. it's not against policy to declare any speech by the president as political or not. i can see how the speech could easily fit into lesson plans for some subjects but not others. moreover, i was in k-12 school for reagan, george h.w. bush, and clinton and i never saw their speeches at school either, so i'm fine with letting the teachers decide if they have time or if it fits into what needs to be taught for the g.d. tests. also, kids COULD watch it at home with family and maybe talk about it. Seems like a radical idea to me.
emma, i don't know if it's the race or the liberal part. i have a feeling that if michael steel were president and making the speech, there would be no one bitching about it.
I don't think this has anything to do with him being black, I think it has lots to do with him being a Democrat. This is embarrassing for those of us who are Republicans/Libertarians,, someone take the microphone away from the idjets. There was some black panel on CSPAN i think it was last night, and one of the participants said, we have got to stop telling our (black)kids about all the things they have counting against them, and instead start telling them that they can do it- empower them not by pointing out their dismal circumstances, but saying with hard work, you CAN be someone. I thought it was great message for ALL children although this panel happened to be convened for discussion of black topics. I know my parents never told me that because I grew up in appalachia, my prospects were dim,, instead they said, hit the damn books! Education is key and a pep talk from the prez is a terrific thing.
Politics,politics, politics...
From the Washington Examiner.com:
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/When-Bush-spoke-to-students-Democrats-investigated-held-hearings-57694347.html
When Bush spoke to students, Democrats investigated, held hearings
By: BYRON YORK
Chief Political Correspondent
09/08/09 7:11 AM EDT
The controversy over President Obama's speech to the nation's school children will likely be over shortly after Obama speaks today at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. But when President George H.W. Bush delivered a similar speech on October 1, 1991, from Alice Deal Junior High School in Washington DC, the controversy was just beginning. Democrats, then the majority party in Congress, not only denounced Bush's speech -- they also ordered the General Accounting Office to investigate its production and later summoned top Bush administration officials to Capitol Hill for an extensive hearing on the issue.
Unlike the Obama speech, in 1991 most of the controversy came after, not before, the president's school appearance. The day after Bush spoke, the Washington Post published a front-page story suggesting the speech was carefully staged for the president's political benefit. "The White House turned a Northwest Washington junior high classroom into a television studio and its students into props," the Post reported.
With the Post article in hand, Democrats pounced. "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 House Majority Leader. "And the president should be doing more about education than saying, 'Lights, camera, action.'"
Democrats did not stop with words. Rep. William Ford, then chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, ordered the General Accounting Office to investigate the cost and legality of Bush's appearance. On October 17, 1991, Ford summoned then-Education Secretary Lamar Alexander and other top Bush administration officials to testify at a hearing devoted to the speech. "The hearing this morning is to really examine the expenditure of $26,750 of the Department of Education funds to produce and televise an appearance by President Bush at Alice Deal Junior High School in Washington, DC," Ford began. "As the chairman of the committee charged with the authorization and implementation of education programs, I am very much interested in the justification, rationale for giving the White House scarce education funds to produce a media event."
Unfortunately for Ford, the General Accounting Office concluded that the Bush administration had not acted improperly. "The speech itself and the use of the department's funds to support it, including the cost of the production contract, appear to be legal," the GAO wrote in a letter to Chairman Ford. "The speech also does not appear to have violated the restrictions on the use of appropriations for publicity and propaganda."
That didn't stop Democratic allies from taking their own shots at Bush. The National Education Association denounced the speech, saying it "cannot endorse a president who spends $26,000 of taxpayers' money on a staged media event at Alice Deal Junior High School in Washington, D.C. -- while cutting school lunch funds for our neediest youngsters."
Lost in all the denouncing and investigating was the fact that Bush's speech itself, like Obama's today, was entirely unremarkable.
"Block out the kids who think it's not cool to be smart," the president told students. "If someone goofs off today, are they cool? Are they still cool years from now, when they're stuck in a dead end job. Don't let peer pressure stand between you and your dreams.
Thanks- we tend to forget that neither side holds the only winning ticket on being jerks.
Sheila, amazing how simple and to the point the messages were! Bush said don't hang out with Democrats and Obama said be like the Republicans and don't give up!
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