Well, it looks like the White House has taken enough heat over Obama’s speech to our children and the proposed lesson plan that they’ve changed the wording of the lesson plan. Fox News reports:
The Obama administration is rethinking its course recommendations for students ahead of President Obama’s address to the the nation’s schoolchildren next week, rewriting its suggestions to teachers for student assignments on how to “help the president.”
White House aides said the language was supposed to be an inspirational, pro-education message to America’s youths, but its unintended consequences were evident.
Among the activities initially suggested for pre-K to 6th grade students was to “write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president.”
Another assignment for students after hearing the speech was to discuss what “the president wants us to do.”
The suggestion about writing letters has since been changed to: “Write letters to themselves about how they can achieve their short-term and long-term education goals. These would be collected and redistributed at an appropriate later date by the teacher to make students accountable to their goals.”
White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said the changes to the language are intended to make the lesson plans clearer. He added that the speech is not a policy speech, but is intended to encourage kids to work hard and commit to school.
The speech is “about the value of education and the importance of staying in school as part of his effort to dramatically cut the dropout rate,” Vietor said.
And to all the lefties calling us crazy for not wanting the president to beam messages to our children while they are at school, flash back to 1991 when President George H. W. Bush planned to deliver a speech from a junior high school. I may add, that’s not exactly the same thing as broadcasting a speech to every public school in the nation. Newsbusters found the 1991 story of Dick Gephardt taking issue with President Bush:
In fact, the House Majority leader at the time, Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.), said “The Department of Education should not be producing paid political advertising for the president, it should be helping us to produce smarter students.”
Such was reported by the Washington Post on October 3, 1991 (h/t KY3 Political Notebook via Chuck Todd):
House Democrats criticized President Bush yesterday for using Education Department funds to produce and broadcast a speech that he made Tuesday at a Northwest Washington junior high school.
The Democratic critics accused Bush of turning government money for education to his own political use, namely, an ongoing effort to inoculate himself against their charges of inattention to domestic issues. The speech at Alice Deal Junior High School, broadcast live on radio and television, urged students to study hard, avoid drugs and turn in troublemakers.
“The Department of Education should not be producing paid political advertising for the president, it should be helping us to produce smarter students,” House Majority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) said. “And the president should be doing more about education than saying, ‘Lights, camera, action.’ ”
Two House committees demanded that the department explain the use of its funds for the speech, an explanation that Deputy Secretary David T. Kearns provided late in the day in a letter to Rep. William D. Ford (D-Mich.), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee. Education Secretary Lamar Alexander was out of town. [...] Rep. Patricia Schroeder (D-Colo.), chairwoman of the Select Committee on Children, Youth and Families, said it was outrageous for the White House to “start using precious dollars for campaigns” when “we are struggling for every silly dime we can get” for education programs.
Rep. Martin Frost (D-Tex.) said that if Bush feels obliged to use government funds to hire outside consultants “to make him look good,” then he should fire some of the public relations experts on the White House payroll. “Then the president might be more sympathetic to unemployment benefits,” Frost said, referring to Bush’s threat to veto legislation to extend benefits.
President Bush was spending more than $200,000 from the Department of Education to pay a private company to make a video. President Obama is broadcasting a message via C-Span. And even though President Bush may not have used the best judgment, there were no media outlets encouraging people to keep their children home from school that day, for goodness’ sake! Did you know in 1988, President Reagan televised a talk to students about gun control, the balanced budget, and the line-item veto? I don’t recall anyone flipping out and keeping their kids home then. Relax.
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[...] assignments on how to “help the president.” White House aides said the language was suppo Click for more Published: September 3, 2009 « Previous Post Next Post [...]
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Abnormal-RR wasn’t out to destroy the republic. And how many classrooms had tvs in them in the 80s, let alone internet???
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Hyperbole at its finest. Show me proof that President Obama is “out to destroy the republic.” Some of you on the right need to tone down your rhetoric. You are going to get this man killed.
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Normal: Obama IS out to destroy the republic and we know it. Tone down? You’re kidding,right? We WILL fight to save this country. As for Obama getting killed….who wants to make a martyr out of such an idiot? This is America, he doesn’t have to die, his socialist agenda just has to be neutered by real Americans. As for being on the “right,” I am on the side of the Constitution, you gas bag.
(sorry, LC, he ticked me off)
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Hey Lisa, don’t be sorry! I’m with you here. I’ve just been too busy to respond to “normal”. And I’m tired and going to bed now! Goodnight!
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You must be getting more popular, LC, there’s more libs dropping by to pick fights these days. Good for you!
Normal misses the point that it’s not conservatives biting off fingers, is it? Who needs to tone down what??
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nice blog. keep it coming.
your links to the sites about (1)”administration rethinking its course recommendations for students” & (2)”address to the nation’s schoolchildren” are not functioning properly, and instead link to some job site.
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Thanks, the green underline links are ads. Sorry about that. I’ll be ditching them soon but not until they pay me.
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The republicans are a dying party that will say anything to stop it from going under. The Grand Ole Party with their Grand Ole ideas that we know do not work. We shouldn’t apologize for America, Palin? Maybe thats our problem. Tell George W Bush (who should be in prison for war crimes) to apologize for invading a country that had nothing to do with 9/11. Rush, Hannity, and Beck quit preaching your hate. What kind of American wishes that our leader fails? Thats it, keep telling all of the unthinking minority that health care reform is not good. We should be embracing this idea. What kind of humans stabilize the sick then send them on their way all because of no insurance card.I know you want to keep all of your ivy league friends happy but hopefully when you are down and out and cant pay for required healthcare I hope they throw you out in the street to fend for yourself. Republicans=racists. Dont deny it.
Evangelicals= the stupidest people on this planet. GOD DOESNT EXIST! The bible? The ending sucked. When religion was created back in the days of when the bible supposedly took place, we were a and still are a young species and it was ok to believe in myths. Which clearly God is ( ugh I shouldnt have even given god the respect of capitalizing it) God wont save you from the dirt being thrown over the box when you die.
BUSH CHENNEY PALIN + Republican party = the end of a once great empire. ARREST BUSH AND CHENNEY!
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if bush should be in prison for invading iraq, shouldn’t clinton? how many liberals wanted bush to succeed? if white republicans who don’t support obama are racists,what does that make black democrats who didn’t vote for mccain? talk about hypocrisy. and no one is saying that health care reform is not good, only that the reform being proposed now is no good.
btw who is chenney?
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