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Saying No to Obama: Schools Dragged Into Political Battle
September 4, 2009 | 1 Comment
Barack Obama is not the first U.S. president to address school students. George Bush did it in 1991. However, it is the first time that the Department of Education has attempted to turn a presidential speech into the centerpiece of a nationwide lesson plan.
The speech is scheduled for Tuesday at noon Eastern time. A live broadcast will be aired on C-SPAN and via the Internet at the White House web site.
The way the Department of Education has presented the speech to educators is raising eyebrows. Rather than simply inform schools that the speech is being offered, the department has published a proposed lesson at its web site. Among the proposed points of discussion for teachers are the suggestions that students discuss “how will he inspire us” and “how will he challenge us.”
Predictably, there is now a political uproar; Republican politicians are calling for boycotts. The Republican party chairman in Florida claims it is an attempt to “spread President Obama’s socialist ideology.”
There is nothing political in the lesson plan and the speech is supposed to be only an inspirational talk encouraging students to work hard and develop their potential. However, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is a political appointee and by encouraging the nation’s teachers to turn the president’s speech into a lesson plan, he has changed the event into something controversial.
Duncan should know that especially in the first few days of the school year, teachers have plenty of plans already in place. And putting schools in the center of the current over-heated political climate is not helping anyone other than the president’s political opponents. Unfortunately, schools too often become the center of political debates where students’ needs are ignored.
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I’m an elementary school teacher and my class watched the President of the United States give his address to students. It was inspiring even for these young children. They could recall what he said, knew what he meant and thought it was cool that they had a chance to see President Obama, especially on the first day of school. My students are 7 and 8 years old. Seems some adults could learn from them.