There have a been few questions about if students in Rochester Schools will be viewing President Obama’s address on Tuesday morning.
We are not mandating that schools watch the speech and are not restricting it.
We have a goal for the District of increasing student engagement, increasing students going on to college, and increasing the effort of all students. The speech ties directly into those goals. The President of the United States should be able to speak live to students in our schools without anyone worrying about what he will say. We can trust any of our Presidents to talk to students.
I remember going to the one television in my school career and watching Presdient Kennedy, President Johnson and President Nixon. We dismissed school in my hometown when President Eisenhower came to town. It is important that students know our elected officals. Teaching Fifth Grade before the advent of 24 hour news stations, it was much harder to access news. I required homework for students to view the evening news, so they could begin to think about national events.
The following information was sent from American Association of School Administrators: Bruce Hunter, from AASA, met with White House staff last week and they said the address would be entirely aimed at students (secondary more than elementary was his impression), urging them to study hard, stay in school graduate, be good citizens, and aspire to post secondary education – with no policy related message on any subject. The staff told Bruce that the speech will reference web sites and materials that can provide instructional materials related to the need to work hard, have high aspirations, and graduate from high school.
If you would prefer that your child not watch the President’s address, just let the building principal know. If the class is planning to watch the address, your child can be dismissed from the classrom for this time.
Thanks for clarifying this for everyone and being so responsive Mr. Hopkins…as it turns out, the WH and the Dept of Education finally realized that it is not legal for them to have sent out the information they did with respect to the teaching menu…the WH is now planning to release the text of the speech this coming Monday that the President will use on Tuesday…maybe post the link on the districts web page for those interested or concerned?
I no longer have a child in school so perhaps my comments are irrelevant, but I would just like to say that it is entirely appropriate for ANY sitting President to address the nation’s schoolchildren at any time. This particular address, as far as I can tell, has nothing to do with any “agenda” except to instill in children the importance of learning and applying themselves in order to be successful in life. Regardless of the speech’s content, I firmly believe children should be exposed to various viewpoints, obviously considering their age and maturity levels and ability to understand and interpret same. How else can they learn to think for themselves? Parents who fear exposing their children to views other than their own obviously doubt the validity of those views; otherwise, they would realize their children would simply disagree with the content of the speech!
your comments are as relevant as anyone’s…public education is a community thing…I do disagree with your suggestion that people necessarily fear opposing views…for myself, I’m very confident in what my boys understand and they process this stuff pretty well…however, there are a lot of people (parents) who do not expose their kids to any view and they are subject to other people’s will too easily…politics is a very personal thing for many people…I had a particular issue with the menu of activities that were proposed to go along with the message…as long as Obama keeps the message non-political, then there is no problem…promoting staying in school and striving for higher learning are what we need more of from our leaders…
I have grandchildren in these schools, and I pay a small fortune in school tax every year. And I resent every penny I’m forced to pay.
People who want to whitewash this by saying “George Bush did it,” or “Ronald Reagan did it,” first of all are ignoring the fact that when they did do it, the radical left screamed. They are also forgetting how the radical left works. Just for one example, I forget how many times I’ve trudged to the polls to vote against gay marriage yet again. Once the powers that be realize that the public is not interested in their latest daydream about how life should be, they ram it down our throats via judges or the legislature.
The fact that the White House “toned down” their message in response to parent’s outrage means nothing. The original “curriculum” was all about Obama and his ego. “What can I do to help the President?” My grandson is 6 years old–what’s he supposed to do? The kids were to be assigned biographies to read about him? Why? Think about this. What was with that vapid silly celebrity video? This is not about common sense solutions to our country’s problems, it’s about cult of personality–with some cutsey lip service about staying in school and getting good grades.
And so, the left being what it is, Obama will present a toned down message this semester, and having established precedent, will jack it up a little more next semester, and the semester after that. Maybe there will be an opt out allowance, but the classrooms will have become even more politicized than they are now, the indoctrination will become even more radical than it is now, and Christian kids will end up even more persecuted than they are now.
And, of course, us taxpayers can just continue paying for it.
Never in our brief American history have we had such a radical individual hold the office of the President of the United States as our current president, Barack Hussein Obama. For anyone to claim that his pending speech to the school children of America on September 8th is no different than what the parents of these children were exposed to by previous presidents such as Ronald Regan or John F. Kennedy is someone who, in my book, has not been paying attention to what President Obama has been saying or doing over the past seven (7) months nor did they do their homework on candidate Obama prior to the November 2008 election.
There is no way that I can in good conscience allow my son to sit in class and listen to this man speak to him as a student without me being there by his side to immediately interpret the real meaning of Obama’s words. Additionally, I will not allow him to put himself in the position of being a target for ridicule by either the school faculty or his peers who do not understand how ignorant this president is of our country’s history and culture. Unfortunately, I have zero confidence that the teachers and staff at his school will contribute in a meaningful way to a balanced discussion following his speech based on past experience. For example, last spring my son was put in a very uncomfortable situation by disagreeing with his social studies teacher when she claimed that Obama is “the best president we’ve ever had.” This from a social studies teacher? History decides who the great presidents of the United States are, not middle school teachers a mere two months into a president’s first term. Rest assured Obama will be far from one of our great presidents if he continues along his current path.
I was completely flabbergasted when I read what Mr. Hopkins posted to his blog on September 4th because, less then 24 hours prior to his posting while attending a school board committee meeting which I attended because he had not (and still has not as of this date) responded to an email I sent him Wednesday afternoon expressing my concerns about the lesson plans the Obama administration sent out to our schools, Mr. Hopkins told me personally that each school principal would decide whether or not their students would be exposed to the president’s live speech at school and stated parents would be notified prior to September 8th accordingly. Am I to assume the middle school students will not be exposed to this speech during the school day next Tuesday because no such notification has gone out to the parents of those students? To say “(w)e are not mandating that schools watch the speech and are not restricting it” does not answers that question nor is it consistent with his comments made the evening prior to his blog posting.
Mr. Hopkins may believe that “(w)e can trust any of our Presidents to talk to students,” but I most certainly do not trust President Obama … not when I have personally read the original propaganda that was put out by the Department of Education, not when I understand Obama’s radical background and the background of his radical and criminal friends in and around the White House, not having heard Obama’s claims that doctors remove tonsils and cut off feet for profit, not knowing his ties with the Chicago Annenberg Challenge and domestic terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, not with his association with criminal organizations such as ACORN and Project Vote, and so on and so forth.
No, I can not trust President Barack Hussein Obama to speak to my son unfiltered nor would most parents if they truly understood what Obama means when he says he wants to “fundamentally transform America” and “we’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded” as the U.S. Military. If my son wants to follow in my footsteps by swearing to defend the United States against all enemies both foreign and domestic through military service, that will be his decision to make when he is an adult. However, I will not allow Obama to use my son to begin the gathering of a civilian national security force in much the same way as was done in 1930’s Germany with the indoctrination of school children.
Let us not forget that we are talking about the same administration whose Department of Homeland Security published a report in April that referred to those who devoted years of their lives in the defense of this great nation potential domestic terrorists as well as those who believe strongly in the freedoms guaranteed by the First and Second Amendments. Similar to the actions of Obama’s Department of Education late last week, DHS had to backtrack from that agenda due to the outrage it caused among many freedom-loving Americans. Now, just today, Sunday, September 6, we hear that one of Obama’s many radical, racist, ex-con czars has been forced to resign once the light of day exposed him for what he himself had publicly stated – that he’s a self-avowed communist. Every parent should ask themselves before allowing their child/children to be exposed to the president’s speech Tuesday at noontime not just what the president will say during his speech but they should also question the ideology of the people who have penned the words on his teleprompter.
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=108915
Groups question legality of Obama speech to kids
Prohibition against fed ‘control’ of curriculum cited by lawyers
Posted: September 05, 2009
11:10 pm Eastern
By Bob Unruh
© 2009 WorldNetDaily
A lawyer
whose work has included myriad civil rights disputes and who has practice before the U.S. Supreme Court is accusing President Obama of trying to push his social agenda by reaching out directly to young children, bypassing parents who may challenge his statements.
And what Obama plans to do on Sept. 8 with a planned speech directly to students in public schools across the United States may even be illegal, according to Mathew D. Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel as well as dean of Liberty University School of Law.
“Obama has pushed his political agenda to the extreme by forcing himself on America’s children,” Staver said in a statement today. “Obama’s political agenda on healthcare and his expansive vision for government is being rejected by the American people. Now Obama is after our children, who, like some socialist members of Congress, have not read the healthcare bill. Americans do not appreciate the president’s attempt to use our children as political pawns in his game of chess. Mr. President, you must abide by the rule of law and stop this illegal activity. Our children do not belong to you.”
Staver’s critique cited 20 U.S.C. § 3403, which regards the Department of Education and states, “No provision of a program administered by the Secretary or by any other officer of the Department shall be construed to authorize the Secretary or any such officer to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum, program of instruction, administration
, or personnel of any educational institution, school, or school system.”
Staver’s concerns were echoed by others as well, including Liberty Legal Alliance spokesman Matt Barber, who said, “Not only is this a violation of federal law, it’s just plain creepy. It’s surreal. Obama’s actions here are right out of the playbooks of Saul Alinsky and Chairman Mao. Soviet Russia? Sure. America? No way. I’m furious. Hands of my children, Mr. President!”
WND also reported when the Texas Justice Foundation warned the “classroom activities” suggested by the president’s administration connected to the speech possibly were illegal.
“The questions, comments, evaluations and analysis that occurs before, during, and after the president’s speech will clearly ‘reveal information concerning political affiliations’ and probably, ‘critical appraisals of other individuals with whom the child(ren) has/have close family relationships’ (such as parents),” the foundation said in an analysis of the situation.
“This is perhaps one of the greatest invasions of personal privacy and injecting political affiliation into the public school system in the history of the United States,” the Texas Justice Foundation said.
The group cited the Pupil Rights Amendment:
“It also violates 34 Code of Federal Regulations Section 98.4[c] [1] and [2] that defines psychological testing as:
(1) Psychiatric or psychological examination or test means a method of obtaining information, including a group activity, that is not directly related to academic instruction and that is designed to elicit information about attitudes, habits, traits, opinions, beliefs or feelings;
(2) Psychiatric or psychological treatment means an activity involving the planned, systematic use of methods or techniques that are not directly related to academic instruction and that is designed to affect behavioral, emotional, or attitudinal characteristics of an individual or group.
Texas Justice Foundation officials said the group activities suggested by the Department of Education “are not directly related to academic instruction and that are designed to elicit information about attitudes, habits, traits, opinions, beliefs, or feelings.”
“At this time of intense controversy over the president’s far-reaching plans to transform America, it is incredible that he would consider using children to advance his political agenda,” Justice Foundation President Allan Parker said. “It violates the constitutional right of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children, federal law and is perhaps the greatest intrusion of a president into the education process in the history of the United States. In the opinion of the Texas Justice Foundation lawyers, it is both morally and legally wrong.”
Liberty Counsel described Obama’s actions as “an unprecedented and an illegal political move.”
WND telephone calls and e-mails to the White House press office did not generate a response.
But Liberty Counsel’s analysis of the event condemned Obama plans to “bypass parents and directly target their children in an effort to implement his political agenda. Millions of parents are justifiably outraged.
“Federal law expressly forbids the Secretary of Education or any officer from exercising ‘any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum, program of instruction, administration, or personnel of any educational institution, school, or school system,'” the analysis said.
The law is:
20 U.S.C. § 3403. (Pub.L. 96-88, Title I, § 103, Oct. 17, 1979, 93 Stat. 670) United States Code Title 20. Education Chapter 48. Department of Education Subchapter I. General Provisions § 3403. Relationship with States (a) Rights of local governments and educational institutions It is the intention of the Congress in the establishment of the Department to protect the rights of State and local governments and public and private educational institutions in the areas of educational policies and administration of programs and to strengthen and improve the control of such governments and institutions over their own educational programs and policies. The establishment of the Department of Education shall not increase the authority of the Federal Government over education or diminish the responsibility for education which is reserved to the States and the local school systems and other instrumentalities of the States. (b) Curriculum, administration, and personnel; library resources No provision of a program administered by the Secretary or by any other officer of the Department shall be construed to authorize the Secretary or any such officer to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum, program of instruction, administration, or personnel of any educational institution, school, or school system, over any accrediting agency or association, or over the selection or content of library resources, textbooks, or other instructional materials by any educational institution or school system, except to the extent authorized by law.
Also targeted for criticism was the letter sent by U.S. Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan to school principals “encouraging them to cease academic instruction and have clsses tune into a live speech Obama will give to children during schools hours.”
“The DOE even provided lesson plans, sample activities and questions that teachers can use to promote the event. The letter encourages teachers to ‘build background knowledge about the president by reading books about Barack Obama,'” the analysis said.
Liberty Counsel noted that because of backlash that already has developed, “some of the most offensive language has been softened.”
However, “Students as young as kindergarten will, nonetheless, be asked: ‘Why is it important that we listen to the president?’ and then, initially, were to be asked to write about ‘what they can do to help the president.’ Their writings would later be used ‘to make students accountable to their goals,'” Liberty Counsel said.
“We are a nation of laws,” said Barber, “not a federal cult of personality. Obama and the DOE had better pull the plug on this or outraged parents across the country may just insist that members of Congress dust of their ‘high crimes and misdemeanors’ cheat sheets from the 1990s.”
Obama will give the speech at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Va. The speech is scheduled to be broadcast live at 12 noon EST on C-SPAN and at whitehouse.gov.
As WND reported, worksheets provided by the U.S. Department of Education encouraged teachers to ask pre-K through 6th-grade students the following questions:
* What is the president trying to tell me to do?
* What is the president asking me to do?
* What new ideas and actions is the president challenging me to think about?
Students may be asked to write down “key ideas or phrases that are important or personally meaningful, make posters of their goals, create a “supportive community” by sharing those goals with one another.
Junior-high and high-school students may be asked to brainstorm answers to the following questions before the speech:
* Why does President Obama want to speak with us today?
* How will he inspire us?
* How will he challenge us?
* What might he say?
They are encouraged to take notes while Obama speaks about personal responsibility, goals or persistence. As part of a “guided discussion,” they may talk about what Obama has inspired or challenged them to do.
Officials with the Thomas More Law Center said they were suggesting to concerned parents that students go to school, wearing black arm bands.
Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel for the center, said, “Many Americans view the president’s speech and the distributed lesson plan as an attempt to foster the cult of personality. It provides a pretext for liberal teachers to engage in political indoctrination. Students should not have to miss school because of the president, but can teach him a lesson in constitutional protesting by wearing the black arm bands.”
This type of protest, the law firm notes, was the same type of student protest of the Vietnam War that was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.
20 U.S.C. § 3403 – Federal law expressly forbids the Secretary of Education or any officer from exercising “any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum, program of instruction – http://uscode.house.gov/uscode-cgi/fastweb.exe?getdoc+uscview+t17t20+4319+0++%28%29%20%20AND%20%28%2820%29%20ADJ%20USC%29%3ACITE%20AND%20%28USC%20w%2F10%20%283403%29%29%3ACITE
These activities in particular are way off base!!!…liberals just can’t leave people alone…they always have to be trying to control people as if their way is the only way…
Teachers may engage students in short readings. Teachers may post in large print around the classroom notable quotes excerpted from President Obama’s speeches on education. Teachers might ask students to think alone, compare ideas with a partner, or share their thoughts with the class. Teachers could ask students to think about the following:
What are our interpretations of these excerpts?
Based on these excerpts, what can we infer that the president believes is important in order to be educationally successful?
Create a “concept web.” Teachers may ask students to think of the following:
Why does President Obama want to speak with us today? How will he inspire us?
How will he challenge us?
What might he say?
I truly hope that the Rochester School District does not plan on using any of this material as part of any activity…allowing students to opt out does not go far enough to live up to the law…
speech is well done…it’s the activities that people should worry about…
http://www.whitehouse.gov/MediaResources/PreparedSchoolRemarks/
The speech seems a bit self-serving to me, Fred, but what else should we expect from a narcissist. It is truly amazing how frequently the word “I” shows up in the first half of Obama’s proposed speech.
He makes reference to his young years at school in Indonesia and how his mother woke him up early in the morning for some extra lessons. That’s because he went to an Islamic school where the primary focus was memorizing the Koran, even though he claimed during the campaign that he was never a Muslim. My problem isn’t with his religion but his lack of honesty with the American people both before and after the election.
Then there’s “the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago”. His proposed speech makes it sound as if the school where he will be speaking tomorrow was constructed back in the mid 1750’s … I don’t think so … and our schools back then taught school children lessons from the Bible because they believed that was the best way for the children to learn moral values and virtues.
He’s “working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment, and computers youneed to learn”. Where in the Constitution does the president have the authority to use our tax dollars for such things? He doesn’t … education is a states’ rights issue … but we are talking about a man who views the Constitution as a “living” document of consisting of “negative rights” rather than Natural rights that are granted us by our Creator.
The White House website still has the links up for those lesson plans that are at the heart of the controversy. Why haven’t they been taken down if the White House doesn’t want them used in classrooms across the country?
My son will either not attend school at all tomorrow or he’ll be dismissed shortly before noon.
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