He’s bustin’ out after a week of wound-licking at Camp David, Congress is back in session after one of the most feather-ruffling “recesses” in history, so BE PREPARED for a publicity blitz and DON’T BE FOOLED:
We are entering the Obfuscation Zone
Tomorrow: The President will speak to Congress tomorrow night…supposedly to make his health care bill understandable and good-tasting to everyone. There will be plenty of assurances that “this won’t happen”, “that’s NOT in the bill!”, “we’ve addressed that in amendments” , “not doing anything is the worst thing that could happen”. The idea will be to appear to be addressing and answering the concerns of the millions who hate his bill. Will we get enough time to review whatever changes are made? Will Nancy Pelosi succeed in strong-arming a quick vote?
The fact is, there can’t be any changes drastic enough to make a huge new budget-busting bureaucracy a good idea. DON’T BE FOOLED by the “Obamapalooza” talking heads tour.
Republicans are stepping up with at least 3 counter-proposals on health care, focus on those.
Today: The much bally-pooed presidential “indoctrination” speech to the nation’s school kids has been written, re-written, watered down,and plucked, but the classroom materials prepared for the “event” still contain suggestions for teachers to ask their students “Write down which things President Obama said which inspired you.”
It appears some school districts are allowing teachers to “opt out” of the video feed, some schools and classrooms apparently don’t have facilities to show the speech and if blogger comment sections are any indication, substantial thousands of kids will be kept home from school today. (see below for official statement from San Ramon Valley Schools Superintendent Steven Enoch, emailed yesterday to district parents)
Since President Obama is so insistent that we leave HIS children alone, no pictures unless approved, no asking questions of them, no unflattering stories because after all, (in his words) why is it he feels entitled to ingratiate himself to our children, without asking our permission first?
Letter emailed yesterday from Superintendent of San Ramon Valley, California schools:
Dear Parents and Guardians,
I hope all of you are enjoying the Labor Day holiday. As you enjoy the day you might find it interesting to review, along with your children, the history of the holiday, which can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_Day. I find holidays to be great teachable moments as children learn about the real reason they have the day off from school.
Speaking of “teachable moments,” it seems that tomorrow’s brief talk from the President to students has become the focus of quite a bit of attention and even debate. When we learned about the speech I never imagined it would stir the discussion that it apparently has. Upon receiving the information about the speech we simply shared the information with our principals as we normally would with such a communication from the Department of Education, and really didn’t give it too much thought.
My assumption was, and still is, that some teachers will decide to incorporate the talk into their daily plans and others will not. To dictate that all classes watch would be inconsistent with how we deal with such unplanned events that periodically occur. Teachers are the ones who decide how to structure their instructional day. (I’m not even sure every classroom is technologically equipped to watch the speech even if they were directed to do so.) Likewise, the notion of banning this 15-20 minute talk from the President of the United States is inconceivable to me and I am disappointed that apparently a few school districts across the country have taken such action.
Other presidents have addressed the school children of America, which is why this speech did not really surprise me. The stated purpose of the talk according to the White House is to “focus on the importance of education, the importance of staying in school, and why improving the education system is so critical for the country.” I find it very positive when a President, any President, talks about the importance of education directly to students. Students everywhere, including those in our community, need to be motivated to excel at a level that allows them to compete and succeed in the challenging global and competitive environment that awaits them.
I was not concerned about the President’s talk when I heard about it, and I encourage anyone who might have a concern to read it, as it is now available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/MediaResources/PreparedSchoolRemarks/.
The modified support materials that the Dept. of Education created appear appropriate as they utilize many of the same instructional strategies that teachers everywhere use to engage students in reflection and expanded writing activities. In reality, some teachers may use the materials, while others may modify them or create their own lesson, and still others may simply choose to watch the speech with their class and then continue with their regular activities.
With this said, we respect a parent’s right to remove their child from school for a part of the day if they are concerned about the speech (scheduled for 9:00 a.m.), although again I would encourage anyone with concerns to first read the text of the speech before making this decision.
I am a strong believer in the value of civics lessons that are associated with political discourse and debate. This is part of the democratic process that makes our country great. I am hopeful however, that as adults we will model respectful behavior, even with those we disagree with, as this is what we work hard in our schools to teach to our students.
Thank you for reading and thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Steven Enoch
Superintendent
