Now that his speech has received so much scrutiny (just like Van Jones), rest assured that the speech
will MOST DEFINITELY be watered down vs what is what is WAS going to be about:
Posted on 09/06/2009 8:19:43 PM PDT by Impala64ssa
Most local school districts are not planning to broadcast President Barack Obama's speech to students Tuesday live in their classrooms. The typical approach is that of the Chester School District, which has opted to record the noon broadcast and make the recording available afterward to teachers who want to show it, rather than interrupt classes with a live showing. The Monroe-Woodbury School District is also recording the speech for potential viewing in kindergarten through eighth grade, while giving high school teachers the option of showing the speech live if it's pertinent to their courses. The White House has described the speech as a non-political address to urge students to work hard and take their education seriously as a new school year begins. But Obama critics, fearing an underlying agenda, are fiercely objecting. "If you believe anything this White House says, you need to see a psychiatrist," said James Petro, a New Windsor parent who thinks Obama is trying to bypass parents and plans to keep his two sons home from school Tuesday. "I believe Obama is using the White House strictly as a tool to get his message across to young children," he said. His school system, the Newburgh School District, will let each teacher decide whether to show the speech in class and will arrange alternative activities for students whose parents don't want them to hear the talk. Locally, small numbers of parents have protested the speech. The Chester and Monroe-Woodbury superintendents each said their offices had fielded a handful of complaints, and other Orange County administrators reported a small number of objections when surveyed Friday by Orange-Ulster BOCES. Nonetheless, the topic has become controversial enough that districts posted their plans for the speech on their Web sites. Washingtonville went even further with automated calls informing parents the speech would be made available on its Web site but not shown live. "The districts are taking a completely apolitical position here," said Terrence Olivo, chief operating officer for Orange-Ulster BOCES. Most districts his office surveyed were opting out of live viewings, but less out of political trepidation than because of the late notice and inconvenience of disrupting class so early in the semester, he said. Instead, many were recording the speech and posting links on their Web sites. Still, some saw the schools' hesitance as capitulation. "I find it outrageous that the district caved in to ignorance and nasty partisanship," Steven Clark, a father of two, wrote to the Times Herald-Record after getting the Washingtonville phone call. "Refusing to show a nonpartisan presidential speech to schoolchildren is unprecedented. Such speeches have been given by other presidents with no controversy." Reporter Doyle Murphy contributed to this report.
Love the formatting /sarc
Obozo has got to be absolutely dumbfounded that his glorious speech is being met with so much opposition.
*snicker*
Starting to sink in is it?
Oh my eyes. Did you remformat it and post it further down?
I’ll look.
My internet shield wouldn’t let me see the site. Hmmmm.
I’m reminded of an old movie where the villain turns to the camera, fiddles with the end of his elaborate handlebar mustache and mutters “Curses, foiled again!”
The BamsTer to a “T”
Most local school districts are not planning to broadcast President Barack Obama's speech to students Tuesday live in their classrooms.
The typical approach is that of the Chester School District, which has opted to record the noon broadcast and make the recording available afterward to teachers who want to show it, rather than interrupt classes with a live showing.
The Monroe-Woodbury School District is also recording the speech for potential viewing in kindergarten through eighth grade, while giving high school teachers the option of showing the speech live if it's pertinent to their courses.
The White House has described the speech as a non-political address to urge students to work hard and take their education seriously as a new school year begins. But Obama critics, fearing an underlying agenda, are fiercely objecting.
"If you believe anything this White House says, you need to see a psychiatrist," said James Petro, a New Windsor parent who thinks Obama is trying to bypass parents and plans to keep his two sons home from school Tuesday.
"I believe Obama is using the White House strictly as a tool to get his message across to young children," he said.
His school system, the Newburgh School District, will let each teacher decide whether to show the speech in class and will arrange alternative activities for students whose parents don't want them to hear the talk.
Locally, small numbers of parents have protested the speech. The Chester and Monroe-Woodbury superintendents each said their offices had fielded a handful of complaints, and other Orange County administrators reported a small number of objections when surveyed Friday by Orange-Ulster BOCES.
Nonetheless, the topic has become controversial enough that districts posted their plans for the speech on their Web sites. Washingtonville went even further with automated calls informing parents the speech would be made available on its Web site but not shown live.
"The districts are taking a completely apolitical position here," said Terrence Olivo, chief operating officer for Orange-Ulster BOCES.
Most districts his office surveyed were opting out of live viewings, but less out of political trepidation than because of the late notice and inconvenience of disrupting class so early in the semester, he said. Instead, many were recording the speech and posting links on their Web sites.
Still, some saw the schools' hesitance as capitulation.
"I find it outrageous that the district caved in to ignorance and nasty partisanship," Steven Clark, a father of two, wrote to the Times Herald-Record after getting the Washingtonville phone call.
"Refusing to show a nonpartisan presidential speech to schoolchildren is unprecedented. Such speeches have been given by other presidents with no controversy."
Reporter Doyle Murphy contributed to this report.
roflol! I totally agree!
As a logistical point, I would expect few school districts to show his speech live because it would mess up the lunch hour schedules. Hold it earlier and the West Coast misses it. Hold it later and the kids on the East Coast are ready to get the hell out of class. So he chooses the middle which means schools with multiple lunch hours can’t do it live.
But since Obama didn’t go to school in the U.S., I suspect he didn’t realize this.
Steve Clark is sports editor of the Herald Times Reporter.
He can be reached at (920) 686-2965 or sclark@htrnews.com.
If Mr. Soetoro wants to encourage students to stay in school, etc., he should just say so on national TV when the parents can watch with their children. Trying to talk to students nation-wide when parents are absent is what’s objectionable to me, no matter what is in the speech. There’s no good reason to leave parents out of the loop, other than reducing their influence more and more with each new little talk he may have planned for the future.
Teachers should not be given the option to show the Obama speech. It should be made available to students who want to see it voluntarily, but there should be no requirement that anyone watch it from school boards, principals or teachers.
What may amaze some FReepers is that many districts in CA, including Sacramento districts, are not running it either. My county is not running it and went out of their way to phone parents and let them know they weren’t running it. I live in one of the reddest counties in CA, Amador, so that is not surprising but what did surprise me were the districts in Sac that weren’t going to show it.
I suggest teachers or schools that want to show this socialist propoganda change careers. The government does not pay the schools bills including salaries. The people do.
It is political — it talks about saving the environment, making America “more free” (only possible by getting rid of all democrats) and other implications that America is all screwed up.
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