American School Boards Did Not Handle President Obama’s Speech Well
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On Sept 8, 2009, President Obama delivered an address to the students of America. The Department of Education did not require school districts to air the address. However, they did invite teachers, school districts, and communities to air the address with the goal of challenging students to set goals, work hard, and stay in school.
Immediately, some parents and school districts had objection. Some parents viewed the address as a form of indoctrination, questioned if the address would have political context, or simply did not want their children to be subjected…period. Some parents threatened to keep their children out of the first day of school if the address was aired in the classroom. Others just wanted an alternative activity for their child to do while the speech was aired. School districts were concerned about airing the speech live without prior knowledge of what the exact content would be.
The White House tried to cool the fires by announcing that the address was educational… not political and that the address contents would be released to school districts the day before the live airing. However, Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, calling parents that are considering keeping their children out of school to miss the speech “silly” did not help the White House cause.
Across the country school districts varied in how they approached the upcoming address. Some sent out parental approval slips. Some opted to make the viewing mandatory. Some opted to not show the address at all. None the less, the speech came and went.
It seemed that few, if any, were satisfied with what their school district decided to do. Parents that wanted the address shown in areas that decided not to show the address were calling the school districts racially and politically charged. Likewise for the parents opposed to the viewing in areas that made it mandatory.
Weeks after the address, my local newspaper is still filled with opinion about the address, school handling, and parental reactions. Opinion pieces are calling the school districts racially, politically, social economically, etc.. biased. One writer stated that children without internet or T.V only had the school as a source to see the address.
In my opinion, every school district in America had a responsibility to send out a parental approval slip. If the parent wanted the child to see an educational address by President, it should have been offered. Alternative activities should have been available for those that did not have parental permission to see the address. School districts that did not offer such misused their authority and failed as educators.
14 Comments
I can see your point here. Very good reporting, Jo.
Good article. The question is did these same school boards pass out parental permission slips when other presidents made school addresses and there have been other presidents that did so.
Truthfully, I think everyone involved made a mountain out of a mole hill. I read the entire speech and there was nothing in it that anyone should have objected too.
As a person who doesn’t live in the US I feel saddened to know that parents didn’t want their children to see an address by their head of state.
If this took place in many other countries parents, teachers and students would be honoured to have a head of state give a speech to their students.
It is sometimes difficult to draw the line between indoctrination and education. This is perhaps something that parents should have had control of.
Good perspective on the subject. The whole controversy started with the so called lesson plan that the white house administration had intially planned for the students after the speech. Once that was dropped, then, like most extra curricular activities, a parental permission slip would have sufficed and that would have ended the controversy. By the way I thought the speech was inspiring for the kids.
I think it’s well overblown. I agree that the youth of this country should take great pride in having the ability to hear what the man has to say. It’s amazing really, considering is anyone still objected to the pledge in school? Is that not more controversial? Nice to see you Jo, missed you
Well, it all depends on the opinion one takes.
But the secretary of education should be more
guarded while dropping comments. Call no
parent silly or anything near that.
nice point of view, I agree with Jack
Good review.
I don’t know why any parent would object to their children listening to a speech by the president. Beats me.
by the way, Glad you’re back, Jo.
I wonder what the reaction of the parents would have been if they had been offered the option of listening to the speech first and then deciding if they should support their children listening to it.
good article
Good article. I heard part of the address on the news and didn’t really see what the big deal was. All Obama did was tell children to stay in school. Younger children don’t really understand politics, and generally see the president simply as someone to look up to, no matter what their political views (depending on how vocal the parents are about the subject in front of their children). I think it’s a good thing for any public figure that children look up to to inspire and encourage them to stay in school.