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CAT Tracks for September 4, 2009
PERMISSION SLIPS |
...to watch a Presidential speech?
A "sign"...that Southeast Missouri has not yet entered the Age of Enlightenment.
Bet if Tuesday's speech were to be delivered by former GOP Vice Presidential candidate, former Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin...they'd be scheduling assemblies and renting big screen TVs!
On the flip side...
Gotta luv the Obama administration's "apology" for a lesson plan that was perceived by critics as "politically charged"...
Whatever...
Ol' Will had it right..."Much Ado About Nothing".
From the Southeast Missourian...
School administrators make plans for Obama education speech
"That was inartfully worded, and we corrected it," Higginbottom said.
By Alaina Busch ~ Southeast Missourian
Local school districts are mostly letting teachers decide whether President Barack Obama's Tuesday speech will fit into their curriculum.
The president will address students throughout the country at 11 a.m. Tuesday to talk about succeeding in school. The address will be broadcast on the White House website and C-SPAN. The U.S. Department of Education sent letters to school administrators and posted materials on its website to help teachers guide discussions and activities relating to the speech.
The Jackson School District is leaving the decision to participate up to individual schools, said Dr. Rita Fisher, assistant superintendent. She said about three concerned parents called administrative offices about the speech Thursday morning.
The district posted a message to parents on its website addressing its stance on the issue.
"If it fits into their instructional schedule, they are welcome to watch the streaming video with their students, and if they have other things scheduled, they can decide not to view the speech," it said.
If parents do not want their children to watch the speech, they can send a note and their child will be excused, Fisher said.
Daniel Buckenmyer, the parent of two students who attend West Lane Elementary in Jackson, said he will have his children excused from the speech.
"I'm just afraid its going to be used as a political speech instead of what it's being billed as," he said.
He said he talked with several other parents who said they did not want their children to be indoctrinated by one end of the political spectrum. He said he does not mind the president talking about staying in school, but if the discussion includes politics, it crosses a line.
"I'm afraid of the line being grayed," he said.
Scott City schools will leave the decision up to teachers if they have access to and can incorporate the speech into their schedule, said superintendent Diann Bradshaw-Ulmer.
"We'll probably stick to our normal routine for the day," she said.
She said the elementary school received a couple of calls from parents not wanting their children to see the presidential address. The district will honor parents' wishes if they want to opt out, she said.
Nell Holcomb superintendent Darryl Pannier also said the school will leave the decision up to individual teachers. The speech will occur during lunch time, so many students may not have the opportunity to watch. The school's routine will also be irregular that day because it is dismissing at 12:30 p.m. for the Tour of Missouri, he said.
"Our day's in disarray anyways," Pannier said.
Officials at Cape Girardeau schools said the speech was not an issue because students will not be in class that day. It is one of four days set aside for professional development for teachers.
The White House plans to release the speech online several hours beforehand so parents can read it.
"I think it's really unfortunate that politics has been brought into this," White House deputy policy director Heather Higginbottom told The Associated Press. "It's simply a plea to students to really take their learning seriously. Find out what they're good at. Set goals. And take the school year seriously."
She noted that President George H.W. Bush made a similar address to schools in 1991. Like Obama, Bush drew criticism, with Democrats accusing the Republican president of making the event into a campaign commercial.
Critics are particularly upset about lesson plans the administration created to accompany the speech. The lesson plans, available online, originally recommended having students "write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president."
The White House revised the plans Wednesday to say students could "write letters to themselves about how they can achieve their short-term and long-term education goals."
"That was inartfully worded, and we corrected it," Higginbottom said.
And, no, Southeast Missouri is not alone...
Not surprisingly, the Great State of Texas leads the way!
And people wonder why "universal health care" is as doomed as doomed can be...
Bipartisanship...is dead! Has been for a long time...
Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, et al should be financing the efforts of the Obama Administration in "public education"...should be inviting them on their respective shows.
For all we know, the President or his stooge (Arne Duncan) will insult the supervising teachers by extolling the virtues of charter schools and merit pay!
I mean...they've ripped those pages from the George W. Bush playbook...and added money!
But...NO!...if they aren't in charge, if a Democrat is at the helm, then it's evil.
Of course, no one ever accused Rush (and Sean, et al) of being "enlightened"!
From Education Week...
Obama's Plan to Speak to Schoolchildren Ignites Furor
By Matthew Haag and Theodore Kim, The Dallas Morning News (MCT)
A groundswell of parent opposition to President Barack Obama's speech next week to students on the importance of education has forced some school districts to question whether to air it live in classrooms.
Obama announced the speech weeks ago, but opposition and concerns spread rapidly Wednesday morning through conservative social networking Web sites and radio talk shows.
By midday, school districts in North Texas say, they were inundated with hundreds of phone calls from parents urging them to not show Obama's speech at school.
Some parents threatened to keep their children home from school if the video was aired.
"We had no idea that there would be a public outcry," said Laura Jobe, a Mesquite ISD spokeswoman. "It caught us by surprise."
Cody Cunningham of the McKinney ISD said: "We rarely hear of parents pulling children out of history or government classes where they're studying the politics or historical significance of a previous president."
The White House said earlier that the speech -- to be shown on C-SPAN and educational stations — would focus on "the importance of education, the importance of staying in school, how we want to improve our education system and why it's so important for the country."
Other presidents, including George H.W. Bush, have given similar speeches directly to students.
But some Dallas-area parents said Obama's speech amounts to partisan propaganda. His critics have been even harsher.
Jim Greer, chairman of the Florida Republican Party, said Tuesday that the speech used taxpayer dollars "to spread President Obama's socialist ideology."
The White House said Tuesday that Obama hopes his speech will inspire students and encourage them to set academic goals.
"It's not a policy speech," said White House spokesman Tommy Vietor. "It's a speech designed to encourage kids to stay in school, which I think is a nonpartisan goal."
School districts across the country have the option to choose whether they show the president's address, which he's giving at 11 a.m. Dallas time Tuesday at a Virginia high school.
But vitriolic e-mails and angry calls from parents flooding school district phone lines Wednesday morning forced many area districts to make quick decisions about airing the speech:
• Plano ISD said it won't show the speech but will put links to the video on its Web sites.
• Rockwall ISD said it might make watching the video optional in campus libraries.
• The Dallas and Richardson districts are expected to decide today how to proceed.
Susan Dacus, a Wylie ISD spokeswoman, said, "All parents I have talked to have been very negative."
School officials there have decided not to make his speech a districtwide activity but will let teachers incorporate it into the day's lesson. Other districts, including Carrollton-Farmers Branch and Mesquite, said they will probably do the same.
Suggested lessons
Arne Duncan, Department of Education secretary, informed principals of the speech in a letter sent last week. He encouraged students to complete suggested lessons that go along with the speech.
One lesson plan for students in kindergarten through sixth grade suggests children write down what they would say to students if they were president. Another asks students to discuss, "Is President Obama inspiring you to do anything? Is he challenging you to do anything?"
McKinney ISD will make viewing the video optional. "It's a unique opportunity," said Cunningham, the district spokesman.
Allen school administrators have encouraged teachers to show the video, but officials spent some time Wednesday urging parents not to withhold their children from school that day. Allen, McKinney and other districts say those absences won't be excused.
Yet, parent Bill Hogsett said he figured half of the Frisco parents he knew would keep their children home from school Tuesday.
"It doesn't matter if it's a Republican or Democrat. We have a problem with the government intruding on our lives," said Hogsett, who has a 5-year-old son in kindergarten.
Garyld Miles, a father of twin first-graders at Eddins Elementary School in McKinney, shared similar concerns.
"It's dangerous grounds for a president to ask students to advocate his policies for reform for education," he said. "That's exactly what he's doing."
Duncan said the intent of the speech and the lesson plans has been misunderstood. The president, he said, won't be lobbying for policy changes but will be calling for a "shared responsibility" among students, parents and educators "to ensure that every child in every school receives the best education possible."
'Tool of indoctrination'
Obama's speech has ignited partisan passions among conservative groups, which accused him of injecting politics in the classroom.
Neal McCluskey, associate director of the Center for Educational Freedom at the conservative Cato Institute, said the lesson plans accompanying the speech are "troubling."
"Reasonable people can disagree" about Obama's policies, he said. "But they don't want their kids to be indoctrinated. This is potentially a tool of indoctrination."
Fred Moses, chairman of the Collin County Republican Party, said he had not heard anyone who was concerned about the speech.
"As long as the president is not talking about his agenda or policies, we all need to encourage our kids to do better," Moses said.
Barb Walters, president of the Texas Democratic Women of Collin County, contended the outrage is mostly manufactured.
"Emotions are running so high in politics," she said. "People are just shoving signs and fists into people's faces these days. Whatever happened to civil discourse?"
Larry J. Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, said he doubted that Obama would risk criticism by giving a political speech.
"If this is simply a pep talk by the president of the United States to schoolkids," Sabato said, "to me that is in the category of mother and apple pie and the flag."
Staff writers Todd J. Gillman, Sam Hodges, Jessica Meyers, Matt Peterson and Valerie Wigglesworth contributed to this report.
