Obama’s School Speech

I had driven out to my aunt’s house on Sunday to visit and to pack up some things that had never gotten moved from my mobile home on her property to my house that I am purchasing.

It was a beautiful day, as only those transitional days from summer to autumn can be.  A persimmon sprout next to the trailer was sporting some green, hard fruit–guaranteed to create a pucker you’d not forget if you bit into it.  Aunt’s garden was lush with peppers, melons and a bright display of nasturtiums.  I also admired the scarlet runner beans climbing up her porch rail.

We sat, chatted a bit.  “Say,” she remarked, “What do you know about Obama’s school speech?”  I must have looked blank–this was the first I had heard of it.  She went on to explain that a near-by town was not planning to air the speech to school children on Tuesday.

Image via Wikipedia

When I returned home, I did some Internet research.  There was a great deal of (in print) jumping up and down by parents protesting this speech being shown in schools; a few people saying that it would be a good thing to show in schools; and a LOT of education administrators doing their level best to put out the fires by being helpful, unbiased, calm and reasonable.  Some simply said they would not air the speech at school.  Others said they would send a note home with the students containing the URL for the broadcast  so that parents could view the president’s message with their children.  A few said that they would let the social studies teachers decide if they could fit the speech into their curriculum.

By noon today (Monday, September 7, 2009), there were several news articles on the net stating that the text of the presidents speech would be published before the day was out, so that concerned parents would be able to see for themselves the content that would be.

Word from the White House press secretary is that all the hoopla is “silly season stuff”.  While this is probably the case, (humans are frequently silly) how did it all get started?  It seems that the concern arose after the Secretary of Education Arne Duncan sent out lesson plans to accompany the speech.  The plans called for students to write a letter to themselves (?) about how they could help the president, or about setting long-term and short-term goals for themselves.  Somehow, this lesson plan idea got blown up to be President Obama “instilling socialist views” in our school children.

According to several news broadcasters–CNN, KY3, Wide Trends, and others, there was never any suggestion that the speech would be mandatory viewing for schools.  It will be available on the internet for viewing, as desired, thus creating flexible timing.  One of the more sensible concerns over the speech was the timing; schools run on a tight schedule, and assembling the student body as a whole to view anything can be an ordeal.  The probability was that it was hoped that the lesson plans would spark written documents such as have been sent to presidents in prior years.

Purpose aside,as of the time of this writing, the lesson plans have been withdrawn.  As of this time of writing (1:00 pm, CDT), the speech in question is available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/MediaResources/PreparedSchoolRemarks .  As I read it, I see nothing of particular concern. I am sure that there will be parts of it that come under fire, but over-all it is an inspirational address.  While I am unsure of the efficacy of such a speech, neither do I feel that anything threatening or inappropriate is being presented.

Image via Wikipedia