Obama’s speech to schoolchildren – Education or propaganda?
September 3rd, 2009 . by Tony
Should President Barack Obama address your kids in school?
President Barack Obama has created quite a furor in choosing to deliver an address to the nation’s school children. Scheduled to take place on Tuesday, September 8th at 10:00am MDT, “the president will speak directly to the nation’s children and youth about persisting and succeeding in school. The president will challenge students to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for their learning.”
That is certainly a noble idea and in normal times, a speech from the President of the United States would be something worth noting and encouraging our children to watch. I for one encourage my kids to watch presidential speeches and addresses when they are on television – no matter who the president is.
- Related: How is Adams 12 Five Star School District addressing President Obama’s speech?
- Perspective: Dems slammed George H.W. Bush for address to schools
However, these are not normal times nor is this president and the agenda he and Congress pursues normal. In many ways the actions taken by the executive and legislative branches of our government in the last seven months are disconcerting at best and downright frightening at worst.
There are of course concerns about the president’s speech being an attempt to ‘indoctrinate’ children into the far left thinking of the president and that it would be nothing more than propaganda for the same. Adding fuel to the fire was the original list of suggested classroom activities and lesson plans the Department of Education released.
The items in the documents do not even attempt to fulfill the goals of the speech issued by the DoE and the White House as quoted in the first paragraph of this posting. The lesson plans to do not inspire students about the government, the country or even the office of the president. Rather they come across as more of a push for President Barack Obama himself and his agenda.
Among their suggestions:
- Encourage kids to gain background knowledge “by reading books about presidents and Barack Obama.” Notice it is not about history or the office of the president but about Barack Obama specifically.
- “Write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president.” Help the president?
- Asks how kids can “create a supportive community.” We must remember we are not individuals anymore.
- Discuss what “the president wants us to do.”
- “How will he inspire us?” Another show of the ego of this president. Inspire?
- “What other historic moments do you remember when the President spoke to the nation?” Historic? Before the speech is even given? Why is the speech historic? I don’t expect a speech to schoolchildren will rate up there with the greatest presidential speeches of all time and to think it does again shows a pretty big ego.
Again, keeping in mind the opening statement about the purpose of this speech, how do these suggested lesson plans meet those goals? Quite simply they do not. Perhaps that is why the DoE has already revised them.
What we have here is a president who started campaigning for his next term the day after he won the first. The White House has been in constant campaign mode when it should be doing the business of the country and trying to fix our broken economy. Of course considering their efforts thus far to fix it, maybe it is better if they stop trying.
I ask myself if I would have objected if President George W. Bush was giving an address to the nation’s children and I probably would not. Is that because he is a Republican? Not at all. President Bush never pushed a socialist agenda and certainly never ran a PR machine like Obama.
When you look at the totality of what President Barack Obama has done since taking office and what he is trying to do, I quite frankly do not want his message beamed directly to my kids – least of all in the left-leaning bastions that public schools are.
We must remember that this president has undertaken a virtually unprecedented assumption of powers unto himself and the executive branch. He has virtually nationalized banks and the automobile industry and he is attempting to do the same with the healthcare system. The President has appointed dozens of ‘czars’ to oversee various aspects of the federal government and to counsel him. These czars were not vetted by anyone, least of all the American people, and many have highly questionable backgrounds and yet they are the ones that advise the leader of this nation.
Now the Superintendent-in-Chief of government schools would like to directly address our children and call them into his service; not the service of this nation but rather HIS service. No thank you, Mr. President, you may not speak with my children.
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How do you feel about the issue? Leave a message in the comment section and let us know!
So what is next on the Republican agenda – book burning? Studies in government are part of education and the president wanting to encourage students should be welcomed. Dumb.
Pamela, no one can have an intelligent conversation with a hot head. Slinging assumptions and accusations around is not only counterproductive, but completely unnecessary.
But, for the record – I believe you are talking about EXTREMIST and those are on the left as well as the right.
Having said that, I think the agenda for EVERY American should be defending and fighting for our rights in this country, before we have nothing left to fight for. As a parent I have the responsibility and right to decide what kind of material is taught in the schools and the manner in which it is taught.
Considering that your child attends a government school that is socialized, you really don’t have a leg to stand on. How dare the President tell your kid to stay in school. Really? Maybe you should reconsider what the REAL reason you don’t like the guy is.
Are you calling her a racist?
Of course she is. That is the easy way out for liberals when they are losing an argument.
I would not have complained about the speech were it not for the lesson plans that went along with it. They read like propaganda for the president and were not a call to serve the nation as much to serve his agenda.
Book burning? Really, Pamela? That is a pretty funny analogy to use considering everything this president has done is scarily reminiscent of what happened in Germany in the 1930’s. Government takeovers of private industry, banks, health care, propaganda as part of school curriculum. That is what happened then and it is happening again today in our own country. People should be scared.
While I think that older school children can learn from watching presidential speeches, I have to question the motives of “addressing school children” directly.
I do not feel it is the president’s job to “urge students to take personal responsibility for their own education.” unless we are talking about his own children. As their parent his has that right and privilege.
Mr. Obama is not the parent of the children of the United States. He should be addressing adults, the parents of children.
If in deed the president’s speech is “about the value of education and the importance of staying in school as part of his effort to dramatically cut the dropout rate”, that should be directed to the parents of children. It is not the president’s job to tell my child what his responsibilities are. That is my responsibility and privilege as a parent.
The so-called suggested activities are quite alarming and show that this is NOT simply a speech to encourage school children. I don’t understand why the president is getting so personally involved in what my child learns in school. I think he should focus his attention on running this country and not concern himself with my child’s education.
We have never had a president that has been in the news every single day. I have to wonder why there is so much attention drawn to this man. He is just another man, just like every other president we have had before him.
In this overcoverage from the media I have seen that the president’s values and morals are quite different than mine. I don’t agree with him pushing them on me or my children. That has been his agenda from the day he became president.
I for one will be opting to not have my child be a party to this speech in the classroom, if his class chooses to show it. We can watch it on the internet later together as a family, and discuss it.
Deb… A president, any president, represents someone who has worked hard to get to where they are. A president addressing a student body should be viewed as someone who has achieved something encouraging those who will someday be set free on the world to achieve something… and the encouraging message is that their working to achieve that goal starts now.
By your reasoning, we should further ban keynote speeches at all graduations. How dare a school bring in someone who has worked hard to try to encourage graduating seniors to do something great with their lives. That is the parents’ responsibility, not the school’s. No more bringing in a successful athlete to speak at athletic banquets. Encouraging your child is your responsibility.
To everyone else… Seriously. Whether you agree with his politics or not, he worked hard to get to where he is. It would be different if you didn’t already have his speech in advance to preview. It’s a great speech. And the lesson plan, which said thing about helping the president, meant to help the president achieve the things that he mentioned in THIS speech, not all of his speeches. When the lesson plan mentioned learning more about other presidents and Obama, it meant learning about ANY or ALL of our presidents, not ONLY Obama. Obama didn’t try to push policy on your school children… he didn’t even mention the policies you all disagree with.
Seriously, you had the speech in advance. If you read it and still kept your kids out of school to avoid it, you are only teaching your kids hate, fear, disrespect and ignorance.
Deb… I do applaud you for at least choosing to watch as a family and discuss, though… I forgot to mention that… If only more people who opposed it would at least be more like you in that respect.
In respect to your thought about how much he is in the news, let me say this. While George Bush was in office, he was in the news quite a bit, as well. Don’t get me wrong, there were a LOT of people who didn’t like him and he got more and more bad press toward the end of his career. I would dare say that MOST Dems were not as vicious – at least in the beginning – as most Republicans have been against Obama since before he was elected. Keep in mind that in both scenarios I say MOST, not all, and I specify that this was in the beginning. The last part of GWB’s last term, he had no respect at all, I admit.
Even in the height of GWB’s disapproval, I (as a Democrat) might get a Bush joke every once in a while in my email, but never did I get all of the hateful, completely false, fear-mongering emails that I have gotten and continue to get from my Republican friends about Obama. There has been a conscious movement to spread this fear of him to every corner of our nation, and beyond. Fear is the best motivator, even above compassion and hate.
Those people… the ones who put out these false emails… they are the ones who are always on tv or behind the ones on tv, scaring you even more. And if people would ever take a few minutes to actually check out some of their claims, you’d see that 95% of them are complete lies or misrepresentations.
I encourage everyone to not let fear rule your life. Take matters into your own hands and look stuff up. Not at blogs or whatever, but on reputable sources such as government sites, factcheck.org, politifact.com, snopes.com, etc… I’m not saying that they will necessarily make you agree with Obama, but at least maybe you can disagree without fearing for your life and the lives of your children.
Nancy,
I know you are joking when you say, “never did I get all of the hateful, completely false, fear-mongering emails.” Ever watch MSNBC, read the Huffington Post, the Daily Kos or MoveOn.org?
Further, as Deb said, it wasn’t nearly as much about the speech as it was the suggested lesson plans that accompanied it. They very much called for allegiance to our “Dear Leader” and certainly rang of what you might expect from non-Democratic regimes.
“Germany in the 1930’s”
You’re using a straw man argument, infused with a little fear-mongering via the Nazi inference.
While you may draw comparisons of certain economic measures taken, the only thing Obama has in common with Hitler is a charismatic peronality, something they both share with people like George W. Bush., Ronald Reagan, John F. Kennedy, and a whooooole lotta others.
Perhaps the Nazi inferences are a bit over the top and are ‘fear mongering’. However, there are a lot of people scared by what this president has done in the past and what he is doing now. Being aware of how his actions might be perceived – like the dumb lesson plans that are downright creepy – would go a long way to assuages people’s concerns.
Obama’s tactics are very Nazi like. Hitler came to power amidst economic upheaval like now, although it could be argued that Obama is creating the chaos for his ends. Hitler took control of everything he could get his hands on. Using his National Socialist Party, which is equal to the Democratic Socialists now running America. So what has Obama done other than (grab control) of the Insurance Ind, the Banking Ind, the Car Industry, and now he is wanting the final straw for a Totalitarian Government. He now wants the Health Care to be completely destroyed on the crazy idea that he cares so much for the 15 million that don’t have insurance. I for one don’t think he’s all that compassionate thank you. Your grand parents will suffer and Obama being a Muslim must take pride in that. This is all wicked and it is not that hard to see. But addressing school children and to put into their heads thoughts of helping him achieve his goals is yet another step toward the (hero worship) he so craves. This all leads to an erosion of your freedoms. Also he is against Israel, now this is not a surprise to me because I know he’s a Muslim.
And let’s not forget his infatuation of Chavez who took control of the media and radio in his country. Just like Obama’s FCC Czar (sic) is a big fan of guess who, Chavez. And do I need to even bother bringing up how all the media seems to just look the other way? Obama has his Propaganda machine running full throttle. Gibbs almost has that Goebbles, the Minister of information in Nazi Germany look about him.
Comparing a President to a Dictator who killed millions just diminishes what the Jews actually went through. I think that if you have ANY kind of respect for their torture and plight, you will refrain from using their misfortune to further your hateful rhetoric. It is downright lazy as a political argument. Nothing and no one compares to the Hollocaust or Hitler.
Well said.
Please read my comment a few lines down about Hitler. I so pray you are right but before we wake up too late, let’s be on the safe side and think about things, not react about things.
Please give me a FACTUAL source for your claim that his is against Israel.
Please also keep in mind that the bank and auto industry bailouts began with George W Bush. Obama just continued some of them.
Bush operated much more like a dictator than Obama ever has. Bush, Cheney, Palin, Rove, Limbaugh, and all of the Republican strategists have brainwashed MOST Republicans I know by installing fear, the most powerful motivator, into your heads and taking away your ability to think for yourselves. You all are just regurgitating the same words over and over… Obama, muslim, against Israel, socialist, Hitler, nazi, euthanize seniors, etc…
At the same time, more and more facts are coming to the forefront about the lies that were told to convince people/congress that attacking Iraq was urgent because they were an imminent threat… that they had wmd’s – we were sure of it… that there was no relationship between Iraq and the Taliban at the time of the 9/11 attacks. And yet, everyone still believes that, by ridding the world of Sadam, we have righted the wrongs of 9/11 – even though we have no idea about the whereabouts of Bin Laden, or if he’s alive or dead…. the one person we KNOW was responsible.
Meanwhile, we’ve spent billions/trillions on a war (much of it going to Cheney’s former employer, by the way) which greatly contributed to our economic downfall, we’re weaker, and more vulnerable. I just feel like we played right into their hands… The best way to destroy a country is to get them to destroy themselves.
[...] Obama’s speech to schoolchildren – Education or propaganda? [...]
[...] Obama’s speech to schoolchildren – Education or propaganda? [...]
I totally disagree with your take on why the president talked so much of himself.
I think his message was loud and clear. We all ask why kids these days don’t care as much about politics as in the past. What he did was bring them into the loop at a young age. By setting examples of how they might get involved by helping him,
•Encourage kids to gain background knowledge “by reading books about presidents and Barack Obama.” Notice it is not about history or the office of the president but about Barack Obama specifically.
**Notice that he is engaging children now,…yes, they should learn about him and what he stands for, that is after all how one learns about politics, and whether they grow up to believe what he says is right or if they decide his message is not for them, well, at least they are learning about what they stand for. I think this is the main point of this task.
•“Write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president.” Help the president?
**Sure,…help the president! Let them feel that they are helping him just as one might tell a child to behave as Santa is watching, or how an individual might look up to a spiritual or religious leader for guidance. He is trying to say let’s believe in our country, our leader, our teachers, our parents, in ourselves…it kinda comes down to a great movie quote” Help me help you”. The truth is the president can’t do it on his own, its the most honest thing a president could say.
•Asks how kids can “create a supportive community.” We must remember we are not individuals anymore.
**We all know that as we age we do loose touch with the new generation of children. With technology, and world wide communication, and all the advances we make on a daily basis, why not ask the children what they can do to change they problems in today’s society. We know they come with big imaginations, with some crazy ideas and some too big to fathom, but again, he is getting kids to think for themselves, again getting them engaged, and involved at a young age to start taking some resposibility to making a better change.
•Discuss what “the president wants us to do.”
**As a parent discuss these ideas,…as a child talk to your friends your family your classmates etc,…talk about your nation’s vision and how you can play your part in making this the future, your reality.
•“How will he inspire us?” Another show of the ego of this president. Inspire?
**Use the president as a tool to gets kids excited about learning, achieving, bettering themselves, being kind, cooperating, setting goals, what does the president stand for and how do his standards, morals and expectations match up with mine? How can I use my president as a inpiration to do better in life. He is after all the president,…and I personaly do feel inspired when i hear him speak.
•“What other historic moments do you remember when the President spoke to the nation?” Historic? Before the speech is even given? Why is the speech historic? I don’t expect a speech to schoolchildren will rate up there with the greatest presidential speeches of all time and to think it does again shows a pretty big ego.
** Again, get to know your president. Read al his speaches, watch him on youtube, watch him interact with his daughters, the senate, with other country leaders. Get to know why you believe in this president or don’t. Become informed, research your president and know what he stands for, as this is tyour country’s leader, why wouldn’t you want to know what he stands for???
As a student of German history I would like to say that the majority of the people embraced Hitler from the start. They trusted him and gave him what he wanted all in the hopes of reform of their nation.
Those that opposed him began to be shunned and bullied by “their peers”. It even became punishable by law to openly speak opposition to HIS beliefs.
When America went in and found Concentration Camps, people living as close as 1/2 mile away refused to believe they existed, why? Because they continued to believe they would never be led astray.
Thinking for ourselves should never have a punishment. The thinking process is what keeps us different from robots. Allowing others to think as they wish is what gives you freedom to think as you wish.
Don’t fall into a rut and challenge other people for thinking differently than you do. Freedom means just that . . . freedom to think and freedom to care.
Wouldn’t it be a great world if everyone was allowed to think without opposition, we might even find more Einsteins and Platos.
Well said, Glenda! It is the duty of every American to question its government – whether we like the questions or the answers or not.
[...] And today it seems that Democrats now want to vilify people who are objecting to the president’s speech to children next week? [...]