The White House has posted President Obama’s talk to school children that will be piped into classrooms across the nation Tuesday September 8th, 2009 at 9 a.m PDT. You can click here to read it.
It appears President Obama will avoid any mention of divisive political initiatives and will urge students to work hard in school. In the speech released today he turns to stories of other successful students to make his case.
Lesson plans had been sent out in advance of the speech. They apparently asked students to consider what they could do to “help the president.” These words helped ignite a political firestorm in which conservative critics accused the White House of trying to indoctrinate children to Obama’s political agenda. The administration later changed the wording of the assignments.
Please weigh in on how you feel about the President’s talk tomorrow.
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11 Responses to President Obama Will Speak To Students
I think it is great that Obama is speaking to students about the value of education. I like the idea that most students across America will get to participate in this. It is a nice way to bring students together as the school year gets started.
I found a lot of the flak about this over the last week largely partisian based. It’s unfortunate that we never seem to be able to get past this divide for even a short moment.
That said, I do think Obama’s people should have released the speech earlier to calm any legitimate concerns some parents might have had. I think it would have been preferable to have it published last Friday and have it available in newspapers as well as the internet.
Anya, I agree that it’s unfortunate that we never can’t get by the partisan stuff. I was surprised that some schools were not airing this and some parents did not want their child to hear the speech. I would think that for the history of the moment and just to show respect for the office that it wouldn’t be controversial at all. It just seems that it all so complicated to listen to the president’s speech. I understand that is a motivational/inspirational type of talk. But, even if you don’t agree with his political you can discuss it with your children.
In summer camp, they interupted our all our fun to go and make us sit and listen to Nixon resign. Just for the history of it. I could have done w/o that as a child. (I was pretty young).
“But, even if you don’t agree with his political you can discuss it with your children.”
I agree. I also think a certain respect should be shown the Office of the President. I have seen both sides guilty of not doing that. Unfortunate.
I remember being a young-in and watching Nixon resign. My mom and aunt were so excited. It went totally over my head!
Yeah, I think that was my first television memory – Nixon’s resignation.
The knee-jerk partisan reaction is depressing to me. When you have actual members of Congress accusing Obama of attempting to indoctrine American children with Socialist (!) concepts, there doesn’t seem to be much of a middle ground for rational discussion.
I’m personally shocked and appalled by the response that Obama’s speech got from many people. Some even have said that President Obama should not be “allowed” to address school students and that it was “creepy”. How in the heck is it “creepy”? Even if I don’t agree with him (and I do!) it’s his right as President to address the nation or any particular part thereof.
At the risk of starting my own little firestorm here, I’ll state this: the negative reaction that Obama’s speech stirred up strikes FAR more of partisan propaganda than his speech ever did.
In related news, I find myself appalled at the South Carolina congressman who shouted at Pres. Obama during his speech tonight, calling him a liar. Is this what we’re coming to? The lack of civil discourse is just disgusting.
I agree Jennie. On a positive note though at least he didn’t throw his shoes. Actually, I’m not sure which is worse.
Hah. Well, I guess if you go by “sticks and stones…”, shoe-throwing is worse. I expected some people would be comparing it to the British Parliment or to historical examples of rowdiness in Congress, and I was right. Either way, I just don’t think it’s appropriate.
Jennie, it was actually encouraging to read how many were appalled by what Wilson did during the speech. I have read that apologies were given and accepted. But before that:
By that time, Wilson’s House Web site had crashed and he had taken a brutal beating on his Twitter page for breaching protocol and good manners during a presidential speech to a joint session of Congress.
It was good to see a call for proper decorum.
The uproar over the President’s address to school childern caused him (or his writers) to rewrite it. So even the White House recognized that there may have been something “offensive” (for lack of a better word) in the original draft. I believe the final version was great, but I am not so sure that the original version didn’t deserve some criticism.
I am a Democrat, so it wasn’t all partisan criticism.
Ann, I’d heard that too, but it confused me because my understanding was that the content of the speech wasn’t publicly released ahead of time. So how would people know what was changed and whether the original version was likely to cause a bigger stir?