ALERT - Obama planning a national address to SCHOOLCHILDREN

[Mr. T]

So, Obama wont say the pledge of allegiance.

But he wants everyone even school kids to say a pledge to him.

This is distubing.

In his eyes everyone is below his paygrade.

[Chicopee John]

@mr.-t said:

So, Obama wont say the pledge of allegiance.

But he wants everyone even school kids to say a pledge to him.

This is distubing.

In his eyes everyone is below his paygrade.

Probably due to criticizm, Obama will forgo this plea. From what I've been told, any way.

T: in all honesty, does Obama refuse to recite the Pledge of Allegiance? If true, what does he do when in the company of those who do recite it.

[Mr. T]

[Mr. T]

After being harassed during the primaries, he started reciting the pledge.

you would have to go back to late last summer and pull articles.

Lets not worry about if and when he recited the pledge, we all know he is a man out for himself. This topic is about Obama endoctrination into the school children.

[smalls1129]

As others have said , in and of itself this is not a problem. In fact, I wonder why it hasn't been done before. But, for the Department of Education to be passing out 'voluntary suggestions' as to how to conduct class before/after the address, and these suggestions include questions like "How Can I help the President"? That is borderline dangerous. Even questions asking about helping the Country are too direct in my opinion, but at least there is no obvious political tone to them. But by specifically asking questions of helping the President there is an obvious political component. The question in and of itself, predisposes that you agree with the President and would want to help him. I don't think it is necessarily healthy to have 1st and 2nd graders tacking such complex questions that many adults cannot even over come.

[smalls1129]

The thing about tacking engineering projects, 6 and 7 years older, is that they are tangible. The problem when talking about any philosophical view point (religion, politics, philosophy in general and even to a degree economics) is that it is all theory. It is all based on a 'network' of ideas within ones self. I'm just not comfortable with 5-7 year olds tackling issues like how can I help the President, when helping the President would necessarily depend on a good understanding of an individuals network of ideas.

[Kosar_For_President]

I say we leave them alone until they are old enough to go to jail and in the meantime have them sell crack for me.

[ballpeen]

We don't need no education

We dont need no thought control

No dark sarcasm in the classroom

Obama, leave them kids alone

Hey! Obama! Leave them kids alone!

All in all it's just another brick in the wall.

All in all you're just another brick in the wall.

[Kosar_For_President]

@ballpeen said:

We don't need no education

We dont need no thought control

No dark sarcasm in the classroom

Obama, leave them kids alone

Hey! Obama! Leave them kids alone!

All in all it's just another brick in the wall.

All in all you're just another brick in the wall.

Gayest post of 09.

[osusev]

I am confused BOTH Reagon and Bush Sr did speeches directed toward kids and education broadcast in schools? What exactly is the difference?

Wait let me guess.... its a democrat.... nevermind

http://www.nytimes.com/1989/09/13/us/bush-...s-on-drugs.html

http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/spee...1986/51386d.htm

Imagine that our President who is our leader wants to speak to our kids about the importance of education and maybe do the pledge of allegiance TO OUR COUNTRY with our kids.....

what a crazy line of attack.

[Mr. T]

To many people want to have their romance with the american story, some sit around and quiver with the thought of a rags to riches story. And that is what the Obama machine wants to portray to the yougins.

It is a sad day in america when men started watching lifetime and the soap network.

I think instead of handing out sticky notes to the children to write their questions on, we should give them crayons and make them draw a picture of Barry Soetoro

Chris Matthews talks about Obama’s rough childhood, quite frequently……while doing so, he seems to leave out the part that his PhD mother, who previously had been married to a Harvard PhD (Barry sr.), remarried a wealthy oil executive, named Lolo Soetoro.

When Barack and his mother lived in Indonesia, with Oil exec Lolo, he went by the name Barry Soetoro.

just the truth…….Obama never seems to mention this……..wonder why?

[Kosar_For_President]

@osusev said:

I am confused BOTH Reagon and Bush Sr did speeches directed toward kids and education broadcast in schools? What exactly is the difference?

Wait let me guess.... its a democrat.... nevermind

http://www.nytimes.com/1989/09/13/us/bush-...s-on-drugs.html

http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/spee...1986/51386d.htm

Imagine that our President who is our leader wants to speak to our kids about the importance of education and maybe do the pledge of allegiance TO OUR COUNTRY with our kids.....

what a crazy line of attack.

The way people don't discuss and compare past presidents on this board is boarder line gay.

[Chicopee John]

@kosar_for_president said:

Gayest post of 09.

Lighten up, Kosar. It was pretty clever if you ask me.

[Westside Steve]

Gal : "How can I help the President?"

Ask not...........................

Ahh you get it.

WSS

[calfoxwc]

Folks, this is serious - Obama is now the most divisive president in United States history.

On racial, economic, political, and now, domestic grounds.

The latter referring to the idea that school children, as young as 4 and 5, would be

instructed on how to idolize Obama, whatever, WITHOUT PARENTS KNOWING ABOUT IT,

.... ???

Anyways, I called the superintendent's office of my neices school system, and a really

great fellow graduate of Stow and I had a great fun conversation. She did graduated 3 years before I did..

She said they certainly have been getting calls, some of them libs who want ALL SCHOOL

CHILDREN to HAVE TO SEE OBAMA's presentation.

And, mostly, parents who are upset at the subterfuge of the idea that indoctrinating

young and older school children without the parent's permission, or awareness.

The information on how to construct the days' agenda on discussions of Obama

reeks of Mao in China.

Anyways, she said they left it up to the individual buildings' supers, to show it or not,

and if it IS shown, all Stow school children can be exempted with a note from their parents,

and teachers WILL honor those notes, as they have been instructed to do so.

The gal I talked to was fun, upbeat, and laughed at a few jokes we shared...

It was a great relatively short conversation, but a very nice one.

Anyways, this Obama worship message is to take place this coming Tuesday for

anyone wanting to get involved.

I am shocked that parents are being left out in the cold. That, to me, sends

an even more ominous signal that we are in for big, big trouble in this country.

*****************************************************************

Sep 4, 7:04 AM (ET)

By LIBBY QUAID and LINDA STEWART BALL

DALLAS (AP) - When kids all across the country return to school Tuesday, some will see a welcoming message from President Barack Obama and some won't.

Obama's planned address to students has touched off yet another confrontation with Republican critics, who have battered the White House over health care and now accuse the president of foisting a political agenda on children.

The president will speak directly to students Tuesday about the need to work hard and stay in school. His address will be shown live on the White House Web site and on C-SPAN at noon EDT, a time when classrooms across the country will be able to tune in.

Schools don't have to show it. But districts across the country have been inundated with phone calls from parents and are struggling to address the controversy that broke out after Education Secretary Arne Duncan sent a letter to principals urging schools to tune in.

Districts in states including Texas, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Virginia and Wisconsin have decided not to show the speech to students. Others are still thinking it over or are letting parents have their kids opt out.

Some conservatives, driven by radio pundits and bloggers, are urging schools and parents to boycott the address. They say Obama is using the opportunity to promote a political agenda and is overstepping the boundaries of federal involvement in schools.

"As far as I am concerned, this is not civics education - it gives the appearance of creating a cult of personality," said Oklahoma Republican state Sen. Steve Russell. "This is something you'd expect to see in North Korea or in Saddam Hussein's Iraq."

Arizona state schools superintendent Tom Horne, a Republican, said lesson plans for teachers created by Obama's Education Department "call for a worshipful rather than critical approach."

The White House plans to release the speech online Monday so parents can read it. The president will deliver the speech at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Va.

"I think it's really unfortunate that politics has been brought into this," White House deputy policy director Heather Higginbottom said in an interview with The Associated Press.

"It's simply a plea to students to really take their learning seriously. Find out what they're good at. Set goals. And take the school year seriously."

She noted that President George H.W. Bush made a similar address to schools in 1991. Like Obama, Bush drew criticism, with Democrats accusing the Republican president of making the event into a campaign commercial.

Critics are particularly upset about lesson plans the administration created to accompany the speech. The lesson plans, available online, originally recommended having students "write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president."

The White House revised the plans Wednesday to say students could "write letters to themselves about how they can achieve their short-term and long-term education goals."

"That was inartfully worded, and we corrected it," Higginbottom said.

In the Dallas suburb of Plano, Texas, the 54,000-student school district is not showing the 15- to 20-minute address but will make the video available later.

PTA council president Cara Mendelsohn said Obama is "cutting out the parent" by speaking to kids during school hours.

"Why can't a parent be watching this with their kid in the evening?" Mendelsohn said. "Because that's what makes a powerful statement, when a parent is sitting there saying, 'This is what I dream for you. This is what I want you to achieve.'"

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, said in an interview with the AP that he's "certainly not going to advise anybody not to send their kids to school that day."

"Hearing the president speak is always a memorable moment," he said.

But he also said he understood where the criticism was coming from.

"Nobody seems to know what he's going to be talking about," Perry said. "Why didn't he spend more time talking to the local districts and superintendents, at least give them a heads-up about it?"

Several other Texas districts have decided not to show the speech, although the district in Houston is leaving the decision up to individual school principals. In suburban Houston, the Cypress-Fairbanks district planned to show the address and has had its social studies teachers assemble a curriculum and activities for students.

In Wisconsin, the Green Bay school district decided not to show the speech live and to let teachers decide individually whether to show it later.

Florida GOP chairman Jim Greer said in a statement he was "absolutely appalled that taxpayer dollars are being used to spread President Obama's socialist ideology." Despite his rhetoric, two of the larger Florida districts, Miami-Dade and Hillsborough, plan to have classes watch the speech. Students whose parents object will not have to watch.

The Minnesota Association of School Administrators is recommending against disrupting the first day of school to show the speech, but Minnesota's biggest teachers' union is urging schools to show it.

Quincy, Ill., schools decided Thursday not to show the speech. Superintendent Lonny Lemon said phone calls "hit like a load of bricks" on Wednesday.

One Idaho school superintendent, Murray Dalgleish of Council, urged people not to rush to judgment.

"Is the president dictating to these kids? I don't think so," Dalgleish said. "He's trying to get out the same message we're trying to get out, which is, 'You are in charge of your education.'"

--- Libby Quaid reported from Washington. Associated Press writers April Castro, Monica Rhor, Zinie Chen Sampson, Christine Armario, Jessie Bonner, Scott Bauer, Tim Talley, Martiga Lohn, Tammy Webber and Alan Zagier contributed to this report.

[WPB Dawg Fan]

I am not concerned by one thing...it is the overall that concerns me:

Direct address to children WITH instructions on how to help the Pres (not the country...which includes people who don't like the Pres and what he stands for)

The conversations about creating a militia

Then you look at the control over the banks...the control over the car industry (yes, I know we were 'helping' them...but control is still the end product)

Then you add in the connections with people and organizations that have more than their share of questionable reputations (ACORN, Apollo, etc).

I don't know what to believe or chalk up to partisan sniping...but where there is smoke there is usually fire...and my eyes are burning.

[WPB Dawg Fan]

Just an FYI...here are the responses to Bush's 1991 broadcast by a couple of high level Dems

The presidential library noted that the president spoke at 12:15 p.m. and that his remarks were "broadcast live by the Cable News Network, the Public Broadcasting System, the Mutual Broadcasting System, and the NBC radio network."

You may have guessed this already, but news reports from the time indicate that Democrats criticized Bush for giving the speech.

"The Department of Education should not be producing paid political advertising for the president, it should be helping us to produce smarter students," said Rep. Richard Gephardt, then the Democratic majority leader in the House of Representatives."And the president should be doing more about education than saying, 'Lights, camera, action.'"

Patricia Schroeder, then a Democratic member of Congress from Colorado, said the speech showed "the arrogance of power," and that the White House should not be "using precious dollars for campaigns" when "we are struggling for every silly dime we can get" for education.

Also, the major sticking point isn't so much the message, but the before and after materials...and the direct call for the kids to ask 'what should you do to help the president'. Talk about ego-maniacal and an 'arrogance of power'.

[calfoxwc]

"Is the president dictating to these kids? I don't think so," Dalgleish said. "He's trying to get out the same message we're trying to get out, which is, 'You are in charge of your education.'"

******************************************************************

To PRE-K, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc grade kids? THEY are in charge of their education?

NOT the PARENTS?

Like WPB said - the collective evidence is very, very troubling.

[osusev]

good grief...... fear mongering again. Holy crap a president meaning our leader asking for children to see themselves as a valuable contributing citizen and recognizing their role and importance in governance.....

get over your politics they are shading your basic reasoning centers.

[Westside Steve]

@hiwaygal said:

Do you suppose that's what Marilyn Monroe asked JFK?

You mean "Please Jack, don't make me take all these pills!!!!"

WSS