To Listen or Not to Listen to the President?
Posted: September 6th, 2009 by Chick Moorman & Thomas Haller
That is the Question.
There has been a lot of flack recently about President Obama’s plan to address the nation’s school children on Tuesday. Many people oppose the idea. Others see no problem with it and even welcome it. But is this really a good idea?
Let’s start with the basics. The President wants to make a national address to the students of America. He will tell them to persist by staying and succeeding in school. He will challenge them to work hard. He wants them to set educational goals. He expects them to take responsibility for their learning. The speech will take from 15 to 20 minutes.
Criticism of this idea has come fast and furious during the past few days. Honest concern with the President addressing students has been ridiculed in recent days as frivolous and politically motivated. Interesting. But couldn’t it be that there are real and important reasons to boycott this speech? Maybe so. Let’s take a closer look.
- President Obama wants to tell our children to stay in school and study hard. Just who does he think he is . . . . . the Pres . . . . . oops. Well, you know what we mean. The next thing you know any-old-body will be wanting to tell our children to stay in school and study hard. We can’t have that.
- How do we know he won’t use the last five minutes of his speech to indoctrinate our children with socialistic ideas like universal health care? If we would have had time in the last ten years, we would have spent the decade helping our children learn and live our family values. But something came up and we didn’t have time to do that. He might be able to undo all that we didn’t do during that time. We can’t have that.
- We agree with Todd Gray, Superintendent of Waukeshaw Schools in WI. His plan is full speed ahead with the current curriculum, “It’s not that we don’t want people to see the President live,” he said, “but we’ve got a full day of curriculum.” Let’s do the math. One hundred eighty days of school at six hours a day. That is 1,080 hours or 64,800 minutes of instructional time during the year. Twenty minutes to hear the President would amount to 1/3200th of the school year. That’s a lot of time to waste on inspiring children to stay in school. We can’t have that.
- Now we hear President Obama plans on having the teachers use a suggested lesson plan following his speech. Are you aware that lesson plan includes asking our children questions? “What resonated with you from the President Obama’s speech?” and “What is President Obama inspiring you to do?” are two of the suggested questions. Those sound to us suspiciously like questions that require higher level thinking skills. You got it! He is asking our children to think. We can’t have that.
- The President is speaking to our children without our permission. We give our permission on everything else the teachers do during the day. Remember, we even got to sign a paper on that sex education thing they tried to do a couple of years ago? And we ask our kids every once-in-a-while, “What did you learn in school today?” They’re not sneaking anything by us. We can’t have that?
- We heard some well-meaning educator suggest that we even watch the speech ourselves and debrief it with our children later that night. Hey, we work hard during the day. When we get home we like to relax. Besides, Desperate Housewives is on TV and we already missed one episode. We can’t have that.
- You can’t fool us. The President is planning on promoting his political agenda to impressionable young minds. It is brainwashing. He is overstepping his bounds. It is our job to protect our children from radical ideas. We stopped getting the newspaper for that very reason. Brainwashing by others in not good. We can’t have that.
- Now we have just learned that the President will be asking children to make two-minute videos describing the steps they will take to improve their education. He actually wants them to do something with what they have learned. Doing something with the learning will actually reinforce it, won’t it? We can’t have that.
- In 1991, President Bush addressed students from an American history classroom in Deal Junior High in Washington, DC. Remember the uproar that created at the time? We don’t actually recall all the details of the negative effects that had on the children of America, but it must have been substantial. We can’t have that.
- Just in case you are not convinced to opt your child out of listening to President Obama on Tuesday, we have saved the best reason for last. He is going to tell students to take responsibility for their own learning and education. Now, that is a radical idea. If we and our children believed that the responsibility for learning was on their shoulders, we wouldn’t be able to blame the teachers!
And think about this . . . . . once the responsibility for learning is transferred from the teachers to the students, how long will it be before some of the responsibility is placed on the parents shoulders? We can’t have that.
Chick Moorman and Thomas Haller
Chick & Thomas – I would love to share this with others, however I feel the typos (President Bush in 1971, misspelling responsibility in the last paragraph, etc.) may leave you and I open to criticism. I would prefer and welcome a discourse on the ideas … but, sadly, envision a “why would we listen to this guy if he can’t proofread?” Could you update and re-post? Thanks!
Megan
7 Sep 09 at 8:29 am
Thanks Megan. We have fixed both typos. If you see any others, please let us know as the march toward excellence moves steadily ahead.
Chick
Chick
7 Sep 09 at 9:21 am
I can have all of it. My kids will be watching and we will talk about it.
Jennifer
7 Sep 09 at 6:48 pm
Editorial corrections:
Point #1 oops not opps
Point #6 Desperate HOusewives is on tv not DH in on tv.
Terrific thoughts!
Ann
7 Sep 09 at 7:00 pm
Editorial comments:
Point #1 oops not opps
Point #6 DH is on tv not DH in on tv
Terrific thoughts!
Ann
7 Sep 09 at 7:01 pm
Thanks for this; although, it makes too much sense and is NOT politically motivated..and we can’t have that!
Mark
8 Sep 09 at 6:41 am
This was really funny and amusing, at least I think it was supposed to be funny and amusing; but I will have to let my congressman read it and let me know for sure if it was funny and amusing. Is that OK?
Denise Lee
8 Sep 09 at 11:27 am
I wish this kind of response would go national. It’s unbelievable how we as a people have become so polarized. Both my kids saw President Obama’s speech today. I feel so fortunate that they had the opportunity to do so.
Kim R.
8 Sep 09 at 6:52 pm
Dear Megan and Ann,
Typos is an abbreviation, and re-post is not a word.
Sorry, but I think you missed the point, (and I don\’t mean period)
By the way, I hope you don\’t live in a glass house.
Rhonda
8 Sep 09 at 8:24 pm
Well done.. Thank you! Will share with all of the teachers at our school.
Tammy Spangler-Timm
9 Sep 09 at 1:13 am
Thanks for a different perspective (as usual) on an important matter.
Please let me give you a taste of REAL “school indoctrination” and its effectiveness:
I grew up in a country with no democracy (Argentina of ‘73-’83). When I was 9 (compare to my kid who is 10 now and a Holt district student), we were in a war with the British.
The principal at my elementary school would give a speech on how we were winning the war… ALMOST every morning. Then she would read a message from the president, a rogue, alcoholic general (Gen. Galtieri) who had decided to sit behind the president’s desk for an indefinite amount of time.
One winter morning, we came to school and the principal gave a very long speech. It sounded like we lost the war, but it was so contorted that it was hard for a 4rth grader to tell.
I remember words like enemy, comunists, americans, british, chileans, etc, etc… that sounded like synonyms, I remember hearing words like “our armed forces”, “god’s will”, “sovereignty”, “Fatherland (patria)”, etc… that sounded like good stuff.
I remember very clearly asking the guy behind me in line: “what the h… is this old lady talking about? (de que habla esta vieja?)” and my friend (Agustin?) told me “not sure, but I think we lost the war and the islands” (the falkand islands).
I asked my dad that day and when he started to speak my mom (a teacher at the time) warned about the risk of me repeating his version at school because “that could get us into trouble”…
My dad said, “no problem, these bandits are not ‘gonna be around for long” and he went ahead and told me his vision on the issue. I never repeated what my father told me about the president and the falklands and (in his opinion) “who our real enemy is…”. Surprisingly (to me) the regime came down a year later and there was democracy again.
I am 36 now and every time I am asked about the Falkland issue, I tell my opinion and I say “who the real enemy was back then…”.
I do not completely agree with my dad’s opinions, and sometimes we even argue about it… (this is a sensitive topic in our society).
But you can be sure that all the time Mrs Gorosito (the principal if I rember correctly) and Gen. Galtieri (the “president”) spent on indoctrination was a real waste, at least as far as I am concerned.
Of course, I was lucky enough that the issue was discussed at home and to have a different opinion. I was lucky to hear it from my Dad and see that it was OK to disagree with “the guys with the arms”. That has made a difference, I guess.
When I listen to all the fuss about your President’s speech (your Presidents ~all of them~ deserve the capital letter), I can’t help but remember what it was like 2o something years ago in my country… Then I half smile, half sob. Really.
I apologize for this long post and if you think it is out of topic, but I think it is not.
Peace,
JP
JP
9 Sep 09 at 5:54 am
I think the important issue here is to listen, think, discuss…. whatever is being said, and whoever says it, the important thing is to be analytical about things. why would we want our children to grow up unchallenged by their context?
I think our children hear and consume worse things now-a-days that don’t come in speeches: television-entertaining industry, etc.
Marianne
9 Sep 09 at 9:01 am
I am so glad to see Chick and Thomas’s post. I was so incredibly disappointed about so many of the principal’s “opting out” of listening to the president’s speech. I just couldn’t believe the ignorance and fear that seemed to consume our country over our president urging our kids to stay in school and set goals to enrich their lives.
I think it is about time those of us who are not radically aligned to one party or another start speaking out for sanity.
Susan
Susan
10 Sep 09 at 7:56 am
Loved this! One more error to correct, so I can tell others to read it: in #9 – “children of American”.
Suz
10 Sep 09 at 2:55 pm
AMEN !!!! What a great commentary !
I try to be open minded and listen to both sides of an argument but the controversy over the President\’s speech goes too far.
For the first time in decades I have finally heard a President tell students they have some responsibility for their learning and future. For the first time I haven\’t had to listen to the anti union rantings of the right. (I realize that as a NEA member I am responsible for everything from the fall of the Roman Empire to the assassination of JFK.)
Bravo for your comments ! Shame on the administrators and Boards of Education who didn\’t have the guts to stand up to a vocal off the wall minority and let the kids listen to an inspiring speech.
skip lee
10 Sep 09 at 8:53 pm
By the way, thank you also for a great inservice at the beginning of our school year. It was refreshing to listen to your presentation. It was the best I have attended in 36 years of teaching.
skip lee
10 Sep 09 at 8:55 pm
I most hvew ben goin wreel fas two have maid so manny tipoes. Butter slw down. Thanks four all You’re help!
chick
Chick
11 Sep 09 at 6:15 am