http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu/research/public_papers.php?id=3450&year=1991&month=all

Regarding the Obama speech to schoolchildren, Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush (Bush One) both made speeches to schoolchildren nationwide. Nobody batted an eye. The protests over Obama’s making a speech are insincere; those people don’t genuinely object to a president speaking to schoolchildren.

Now the folks in the tinfoil hats are claiming that Bush One and Reagan spoke to A CLASS or A SCHOOL but not to schoolchildren nationwide, and saying that’s the distinction that is making them angry. But surprise — that’s a lie too. Both Reagan and Bush One spoke to schoolchildren nationwide.

The first sentence of Bush’s speech was:

“Thank you, Ms. Mostoller, and thanks for allowing me to visit your classroom to talk to you and all these students, and millions more in classrooms all across the country.”

And Reagan began his speech by offering “a special hello to those of you who are watching on C-SPAN or the Instructional Television Network.”

On the other hand, as a teacher or a parent with kids in school when W or George HW were Pres, I’d have been pretty outraged by the idea that such people were being, in effect, endorsed by the schools–given a day focused on their speech or their ideas. Of course I don’t feel that way with Obama because I agree with Obama’s politics, for the most part, but I can see how some conservative folks might say, wait a sec, is the school saying my kids *should* listen to this guy whose politics I find so wrong?

But what I take issue with in this is that Obama supports NCLB–in fact Arne wants to ‘give it more teeth.’ And NCLB is all about scripted, every-minute-of-the-school-day teaching-to-the-test. In a traditional public school in an urban school district which serves children of color and the poor (the people whom this address is presumably supposed to motivate) there is not time for such extracurricular activities as watching the Pres give a speech.

I feel disrespected as a teacher because every minute of my day is decided by someone else; now I’m supposed to revise my lesson plans (which aren’t even mine) to squeeze this in? It shows a lack of understanding of the constraints which his own ed policy is only worsening. I think that’s arrogant.

Why couldn’t this address to the nation have occurred outside of school time? If school is really so important (as this speech will claim it is, presumably) then shouldn’t Obama respect school curricula and give the speech when kids are outside of school and can watch it with their families, who can then make their own comments, positive or negative?

Please, folks, get a grip.

Obambi will become a case study in hubris.

It’s interesting to compare Obama & Wife with Colin Powell & Wife. Schoolchildren should do so.

This is the most appalling event I’ve ever heard of.
After 22 years of being a Democrat, I’m quitting this party that has become one of slavish despotism.

In traditional Hitler-like fascism, schoolchildren around the nation will be required to watch Obama and then participate in daylong activities. Look at the Grade7-12 program for next week:
http://www.ed.gov/teachers/how/lessons/7-12.pdf

Here is a short excerpt of the multipage orders:
Grades 7‐12 Menu of Classroom Activities: President Obama’s Address to
Students Across America
Produced by Teaching Ambassador Fellows, U.S. Department of Education
September 8, 2009
Before the Speech:
• Short readings. Notable quotes excerpted (and posted in large print on board) from
President Obama’s speeches about education.
• Brainstorm or Concept Web: Why does President Obama want to speak with us today?
How will he inspire us? How will he challenge us? What might he say?
During the Speech:
• Listening with a purpose: personal responsibility, goals, persistence. Teachers might
ask pairs of students to create a word bank from the web of any one of the terms
(personal responsibility, goals, or persistence) at the top of a double‐column style notes
page. On the right‐hand side, students could take notes while President Obama talks
about personal responsibility, or goals, or persistence, trying to capture direct
quotations. At the end of the speech, students could then write the corresponding
terms from the word bank in the left hand column, to increase retention and deepen
their understanding of an important aspect of the speech.
• Listening with a purpose: Inspiration and Challenges. Using a similar double‐column
style notes page as the one above, the teacher could focus students on quotations that
either propose a specific challenge to them or inspire them in some meaningful way.
Students could do this individually, in pairs or groups.
Transition/Quick Review: Teachers could ask students to look over the notes and collaborate in
pairs or small groups. What more could we add to our notes? Teachers might circulate and ask
students questions such as: What are the most important words in the speech? What title
would you give it? What’s the thesis?
After the Speech:
Guided Discussion:
• What resonated with you from President Obama’s speech? What lines/phrases do you
remember?
• Who is President Obama addressing? How do you know? Describe his audience.
• We heard President Obama mention the importance of personal responsibility. In your
life, who exemplifies this kind of personal responsibility? How? Give examples.
• How are we as individuals and as a class similar? Different?
• Suppose President Obama were to give another speech about being educationally
successful. Who could he speak to next? Who should be his next audience? Why?
What would he say?
• What are the three most important words in the speech? Rank them.

Imagine if George W. Bush had done this. What would you have said for a day for students dedicated to figuring out how they could “help George W. Bush to be successful”?