Obama School Brainwash Session: September 8th, 2009

[Dannyboy]

So, it's OK that teachers are getting lesson plans straight from the White House?

[ronnyreagan]

What part of "the message itself doesn't matter" are you not grasping.

I don't care what he's telling them.  I care that he is telling them anything at all.

First of all, the majority of people upset by this do seem to be concerned with the message itself. We probably wouldn't even be discussing this if it weren't for the outcry over this "socialist liberal indoctrination scheme."

I recognize that you seem to have a different problem with this, but the part I'm not grasping is why this is different than any other time a President has given a speech. Do you honestly get this upset every time a President addresses the nation or is he only barred from addressing children?  And I'm still curious as to what president you think has acted in the way you described earlier.

It is?  I was a kid once.  What the President wanted wouldn't have mattered a bit to me.

Yeah, not everything works on every kid. A lot of kids can be motivated to do something if it's portrayed as "helping" whether they're helping their parents by picking up their toys, helping their teachers by sitting quietly, or helping their President by setting educational goals and taking responsibility for their learning. If you can't admit that listening to a motivational speech and tying that into setting personal goals, writing them down, and revisiting them could possibly motivate a kid then I have to assume you're just being antagonistic.

[Gewehr98]

Hell, every time there's one of those myriad evening presidential indoctrination sessions on the major networks, I just go to HBO or ShowTime.

Guess I should just rant a bit, instead. 

[Desertdog]

I hope there is a law suite filed in time to stop his speech.
To me, there would normally be no qualms about the President speaking to the students, but when they make up lesson a lesson plan, that is too much.

Obama's upcoming school address illegal?
Pete Chagnon - OneNewsNow - 9/7/2009 4:00:00 AMA Christian legal society is sending Barack Obama a message concerning his planned school address: "Mr. President, cease and desist."
 

Liberty Counsel founder Matt Staver tells OneNewsNow that the Department of Education [DOE] is engaging in illegal activity in the dispersing of educational material that will accompany President Obama's address to school children. He says it does not matter what Obama talks about because according to U.S. Code 20, Section 3403, the Secretary of Education, or any officer, is forbidden to engage in "any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum, program of instruction, administration, or personnel of any educational institution, school, or school system."
 
"It's illegal because we don't want the President or the federal Department of Education to take over our schools. We don't want them creating curriculum, as the DOE is doing in this case. They're actually creating workbooks, they're setting aside time during the instructional portion of the school," he points out. "They're then beaming the President of the United States into all of these schools across the country. It is essentially a federal takeover of our state educational and locally run school systems."
 
Staver believes the scheduling of the speech is politically motivated because Obama is delivering the speech as Congress comes back in session and at a time when he is trying to refocus the debate on healthcare. Staver contends that there are better ways to encourage kids to stay in school and study, and he adds that Obama has no business intruding upon required classroom time.
 
He is urging Americans to speak out with one voice and ask Obama to "cease and desist."

[taurusowner]

Hell, every time there's one of those myriad evening presidential indoctrination sessions on the major networks, I just go to HBO or ShowTime.

Guess I should just rant a bit, instead. 

Well good thing this isn't about you at all.  It's about other people's children being held accountable to a Whitehouse created lesson plan.  You gonna go to every school and change the channel to HBO for them?

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

Make all the kiddies watch Entourage instead of Barry Obama.

[MicroBalrog]

So wait.

U.S. law explicitly prohibits the Federal Government from setting curricula and being involved in the content of schooling?

Wow.

You guys are lucky to live in such a great country.

[red headed stranger]

I don't think that the publishing of a lesson plan constitutes "direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum, program of instruction, administration, or personnel of any educational institution, school, or school system." As has been shown in districts throughout the country, it is an optional activity.  Moreover, this is not the first time there has been a federal gov't supplied lesson plan. 

I am not particularly fond of the content of the first version of the lesson plan that was disseminated, but I place it in the category of things that bug me, but I am not going to take to the streets and/or sue over. 

[Perd Hapley]

I am not going to take to the streets and/or sue over. 

I think that's a big reason why righties so often lose the argument, in the popular mind.  The left makes a federal case out of everything (sometimes literally).  If you act like something is a supreme violation of basic human rights, people start to agree with you.  Or at least you keep it in the news, with your side as the victim.  When you let things slide, people figure you had nothing to complain about, and the issue goes away. 

[taurusowner]

So wait.

U.S. law explicitly prohibits the Federal Government from setting curricula and being involved in the content of schooling?

Wow.

You guys are lucky to live in such a great country.

Well hurry up and carry your ### over here.  We need more people with a mind for preserving rights.

[red headed stranger]

Here's the speech:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/MediaResources/PreparedSchoolRemarks/

[MicroBalrog]

If you act like something is a supreme violation of basic human rights, people start to agree with you

Why are you complaining again? Are you saying you're being oppressed or something?

[French G.]

From the prepared remarks:

I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn’t have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday – at 4:30 in the morning.   

Translated: So she sent me to that madrassa with the weird terrorist kids. 

That ought to redline the birthers.

And along those lines, I hope you’ll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don’t feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.

"But Mom, the President told me to stay home!"

All in all a pretty safe speech. I chafe at the whole idea that fixing up schools or anything else to do with education is a federal responsibility, but that's just my own little pet hate.

[Perd Hapley]

Why are you complaining again? Are you saying you're being oppressed or something?

I wondered if you might say that.  I'm not saying you can overdo it, with claims that taking care of your little brothers is some kind of child abuse.

Still, the squeaky wheel gets the grease.  It works better with the weak-minded.  Which explains a lot about the left.   

[MicroBalrog]

You know perfectly well that's not what I said.

However, I suggest the dangerous notion that all of us, in modern society, are, in fact, being oppressed.

[Perd Hapley]

Yes, I know that's not what you said.  What you actually said was much funnier. 

[MicroBalrog]

You are welcome to explain to me why. Probably, however, it'd be best if you did it in PM, or in the other thread. This thread was about Obama.

Elsewhere, another plot twist is introduced.

[Desertdog]

All in all a pretty safe speech.

This is not the original speech that he had intended to give.

[MicroBalrog]

This is not the original speech that he had intended to give.

Sadly, you can't prove that and neither can anybody.

[Strings]

>However, it likely has succeeded in taking health care and town hall meetings off the headlines for a few days as Congress heads back into session.<

Which, to my eye, is EXACTLY what this speech was meant to do.

He used a feint, and we all followed it...

[BryanP]

This is not the original speech that he had intended to give.

You know this how?  Please supply us with your copy of the Original Speech ...

[Gewehr98]

Well good thing this isn't about you at all.  It's about other people's children being held accountable to a Whitehouse created lesson plan.  You gonna go to every school and change the channel to HBO for them?

Actually, it was.  Been there, seen the myriad presidential school addresses long before you were a twinkle in your mother's eye, TaurusOwner.  We survived the propoganda ok, all things considered.

I was making fun of the thread, and the whole OMG/WTF premise behind it.

With the innuendo and unfounded "Wolverines" overtones, it probably ran its course after just the first post.

The thread is definitely on the far side of Well Done, closer to to the Shoe Leather stage just prior to Charcoal Briquette.