Curious
What's it going to be like in a classroom when the teacher says, "we're not going to watch a speech by the President. Thomas, Franklin, Jill, your parents have asked that you not watch this."
And then Thomas, Franklin, and Jill have to get up to leave the class. How do the other students react? How do they feel?
I find it hard to believe such an opt out is gonna be a majority most places....
And then Thomas, Franklin, and Jill have to get up to leave the class. How do the other students react? How do they feel?
I find it hard to believe such an opt out is gonna be a majority most places....
posted by mikevotes at
5:33 PM
13 Comments:
Ok, I gotta chime in on this. I really don't know that much about it, but I understand that it is the first time any president has ever done this. I understand that part of the pre-work for kids is to write a "pledge" as to "how they can help the President."
And what I'm thinking to myself are these three things.
1) If this was Bush doing this how would I feel about it?
2) How would this go over here, in a post-communist country, where kids were forced to listen to the doctrines of leaders in school every morning?
3) The fact that kids who's parents don't want them to have to listen will feel somehow ostracized actually makes the whole thing seem that much worse. "You don't want to be the ONE KID who isn't 'participating' do you?"
Now, I'm not piling on the "Obama is a communist" bandwagon or anything, I'm just trying to be objective and look at it through some different lenses. You know I try to do that.
You've been completely okay with this from the beginning, so I'm asking... how would you have felt if Bush was doing this?
By
Praguetwin, at 1:03 AM
First off, it sounds like you've really caught the idea of the worst interpretation of this.
I'm viewing this more as one giant "assembly" where a school's entire student body is gathered in the auditorium to see some presentation, speaker, or group. Those are fairly common here and are usually stay in schhol, don't do drugs, etc. In alot of schools, there've been military recruiting assemblies every year.
So, the idea of this speech to me, sounds more like a national "assembly." (And, frankly, kids don't pay attention to that stuff. Once you hit sixth grade, they're greeted with boredom and class clowning.)
1) If it was a stay in school message, I would probably make fun of Bush doing it. but more in relation to his own intelligence and schoolwork.
2) I think you're assuming a much heavier message. If he was addressing them daily or weekly, that would be a very different thing.
3) The reason I think they'll be made fun of is because it will be revealed that their parents are political nutjobs.
Way back when I was in school, kids were allowed to opt out of the sex ed stuff in health class, and when they had to get up to go, everybody knew their parents where evangelical nuts.
It's not that the kids are not okay. It's more like parent embarrassment. Remember that?
....
Now, let me say, the "how can I help the president" was not cool, but that was the work of someone way inside the Obama bubble and has since been blown out.
The rest of it, though, is absolutely nothing.
Bush went to many, many classrooms to talk about the importance of education, (he held reelection events in classrooms) and other than some jokes about his intelligence, I was fine with it.
Reagan and Bush Sr. also made one of these national broadcasts to classrooms, (Reagan even talked policy in his) I sat through one of them, and they were nothing.
This whole thing is nothing. The Obama folks are trying to take America's top symbol of what education can accomplish, the first black president, and use that to try and fire up a few kids at the beginning of a school year.
For a hundred years, there has been the school motivation, "work hard and you can be president," but for 90% of the population, that was an absolute lie as women, minorities, and the poor had no real shot. This president proves that wrong, for the first time. Minority, women, kids who can't pay for the best schools can look at him and see a symbol that they can make it. That's a big deal in this country, and it should be highlighted.
Way too long a response, but I think you get my point.
By
mikevotes, at 7:12 AM
I really appreciate your long response.
I thought I remembered something from Reagan way back when, but I wasn't sure if it was a space shuttle launch or what. I'll need to do some research to check on the claim that I heard it was "unprecedented."
Once again, thanks for putting so much effort into the response. I appreciate it.
By
Praguetwin, at 7:30 AM
Well summarized, Mike.
The "how you can help the President" bit was one line among thousands, written by staffers in sub departments of sub departments.
In context, the question really is "what are your ideas for schools/education that would help the president make better polices." As originally written, it did have the whiff of the cult of personality. This isn't good when same fraction of America really thinks he's a walking Manchurian Candidate...
By
-epm, at 8:37 AM
PRaguetwin, it's not worth digging back. They were non-events, as this one will be.
....
EPM, I didn't really dig into it, as I figured it was someone inside the Obama bubble going too far, so thanks.
By
mikevotes, at 9:40 AM
We have become so hypercritical that a simple question, 'what can you do to help your President' which certainly could be interpreted to mean 'what can you do to help your country' is now interpreted in the worst possible way. It was a misguided question given the political climate but not worthy of the bitter response. Isn't staying in school, working hard and becoming a productive member of society 'helping your country'?
I wish Bush would say something like - relax folks. or Laura Bush or Nancy Reagan or John McCain. Are there any reasonable Republicans left? I really think they need to try and calm this bit of hysteria. It is disturbing to hear all of this hate talk against the President especially coming from so-called soccer moms.
By
Ptelea, at 10:02 AM
Yeah, I get that, but I also think PRaguetwin's point applies here. If this was 2004 and Bush was asking kids to think about how they could help their president, that would have caused uproar.
And if you're waiting for some Republican to stick their neck out to contradict the crazies, you will be disappointed. Within that party, that has a huge cost and very little upside.
By
mikevotes, at 12:26 PM
I believe that George H.W. Bush made such a nationally broadcast address to school children, too. From what I've heard, there were complaints from politicians about him getting free "ad time" prior to an election, but no uprising of the electorate about his efforts to indoctrinate the school children.
By
Molly, at 12:42 PM
He did, and there were complaints from 2 or 3 Dems.
The difference is that he made his speech in a election year as a pretty plain campaign ploy. That was the complaint, that he was interrupting schools for his reelection.
(And, it didn't influence anybody anyway. Really, how much influence is a TV message at school going to have, anyway.)
By
mikevotes, at 1:50 PM
mikeVotes: If this was 2004 and Bush was asking kids to think about how they could help their president, that would have caused uproar.
Maybe - but would any schools have opted out of showing it as a response to the outcy?
Trying to compare the hatred for Bush with the hatred of Obama doesn't work for me.
Bush's approval rating was about 90% after 9/11. The entire country was behind him. Sure, the Left tried to derail Iraq, but they failed. So Bush truly was allowed to succeed or fail on his own. Bush EARNED his hatred.
The same can not be said for Obama. He has been hounded by irrational, fear-based criticism since day 1. And the biggest names on the right loudly and proudly crow about their intentioned plans to destroy his presidency.
The level of hatred over this school speech issue is, of course, ridiculous. And shamelessly so. But it's achieving actual results, which will embolden the next ridiculous display of outrage over Obama's next plan or idea.
The left were never so indulged when Bush was in power. Code Pink did not have a national cable network that championed their cause the way the Tea Baggers do.
By
Mickey, at 7:24 PM
A very good and fair argument.
And, no, schools would not have opted out. First because the political treatments of the parties is very different, but also because the Dems wouldn't have had such a unified voice complaint.
The message coordination coming primarily from talk radio, then echoed on the Fox shows really does galvanize their people to get intensely upset about just one thing, and to use the same words to describe it.
By
mikevotes, at 10:54 PM
Mickey - thank you - you have really put words to my feelings on this. It is kind of scary - like the way end of life counseling is being removed from the health care bills to appease the wingnuts who fabricated the 'death panel' nonsense. These people are doing very real harm to our country and way of life.
By
Ptelea, at 1:10 PM
Please look at the list of suggestions from the Department of Education before you pass judgement on the context:
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=133495398067
I had a lot of trouble tracking it down, but when i did it turned out to be no more than a list of suggested projects to help student retain the material.
If you wanted to simplify the sentence "what can I do to accomplish in my own life some of the goals the president has set out for us?" how might you do it differently?
By
Unknown, at 12:59 AM
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