APP - No Lesson Plans, No Quotes, Just A Talk to Students.

Socrtease said:
Firstly, I apologize but I could not remember the title of the thread that brought this up and I was sufficiently perturbed by the subject so I started a new one. Damo or Grind, if you want you can put this as an attachment to the original thread.

So....

On Friday, my step-daughter brought home a permission slip for the Presidential address that is going to happen in schools all over the country. I was a bit concerned because of the things I had read here. I voted for Obama but if his speech was going to include a lesson plan and quotes for the class room I was not sure I wanted her to be present because I don't want any sort of indoctrination, even if it is coming from the guy I voted for. No, check that, ESPECIALLY if it comes from the guy I voted for. So, my wife called her mom and finally they talked today. Her mother is a teacher in Kalama Washington. She teaches 6th and 7th grade english. She wanted to know what her mom knew, as a teacher, about this. Her mother told her that there was NEVER a lesson plan sent, nor were there quotes or anything else. The ONLY thing they were told was that when the speech was over, there would be a class assignment where the kids would write a short blub on what they thought was the most important thing the president said. When I heard this, I called my brother. He and my sister in law are teachers in Hatch, NM, a small farming community that grows the best green chile in the world. He confirmed this for me. No lesson plans, no talking points, no quotes. Nada, just the same thing; kids write what they think was the most important thing the president said. The teachers, both here and in Washington were also told they were to not comment positively or negatively on what was said, and they were not to bring politics into the discussion at all.

What my mother in law said was the most interesting to me. Her school ALSO required kids to sign a permission slip to be able to sit in class and listen to the PRESIDENT OF THE FUCKING UNITED STATES. When Bush spoke, wasn't required. They just turned on the TV and let him speak. So... what I have deduced from all this is that we have allowed the Obama haters, the people that lost and how, to push this to the point that kids have to have PERMISSION to listen to the leader of the free world speak to them. Conservatives have SOOOOO mired this is their own losing politics, that kids can't just come into the class and listen. Good job right wingers. You all should be proud. This is a crowning moment in your whinning and sobbing over your party screwing things up so badly inside their own movement that parents have to approve of their kids listening to the president of the united states. Job well done!
Click to expand...

So the lesson plans posted on the Dept of Educations web site were simply not distributed to the teachers?

http://www.ed.gov/admins/lead/academic/bts.html

I think for the most part the plans currently on there are decent enough. Though I do have a slight problem with the suggestion that the students read books on Obama.
 
meme said:
We don't need a President beaming his face into our classrooms..let him go talk to his Union goons, but leave our kids alone.
Click to expand...

As long as the President is discussing the importance of education and is not discussing political ideology, I think it is a good thing for the students to be engaged by the President.
 
Socrtease said:
Like I pointed out on the other thread, the lesson plans on the gov website all said "might" meaning that they might want to do those things. That being the case they MIGHT also not want to do ANYTHING. This faux outrage was started by the AM radio morons and carried on into the public by their ever so enlightened listeners. Morons begat morons and too many otherwise clear thinking people got swept up in the stupidity. As I said above, all this has managed is to turn a presidential address to students, who should do nothing more than watch it with a respect that the position is entitled, into a political ploy in which poor loser repugnicans are going to either keep their children home or not allow them to watch the president. This is a great precident your side has created here. As I said earlier, well done.
Click to expand...

yes... and if they HAD it would have crossed the line. Not to mention the almost laughable 'might'. Like the teachers union wasn't going to follow through? Sure some teachers might not have, but I would bet the farm the bulk would have done just as Saint Obama requested.
 
meme said:
We don't need a President beaming his face into our classrooms..let him go talk to his Union goons, but leave our kids alone.
Click to expand...

What's hilarious is your thinking that 95% of the kids who sat through this speech, snoring, whispering or texting, will remember even two consecutive sentences of it by this time tomorrow. :rolleyes:
 
christiefan915 said:
What's hilarious is your thinking that 95% of the kids who sat through this speech, snoring, whispering or texting, will remember even two consecutive sentences of it by this time tomorrow. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

well after I read the thing I'd have to agree with ya on that..
 
It would seem different school districts in different areas treated the issue - well - differently. My son's children brought home announcements of the event, but that ius standard district policy for any guest speaker. (which is what they called the Presidential address). There was a form to opt children out of the event, which is also district policy for guest speakers, as well as quite the opposite of signing a permission form.

However, as for the lesson plans, they were literally taken straight off the government's website. My son and I discussed the matter at length, read the text of the speech in advance, and read through the proposed lesson plans. My son's decision for his children was to allow his oldest son in middle school to participate, but requested the younger elementary children be given alternate activities. He felt, and I agree, that HS and even middle school is OK for such addresses, but pushing it down to grade school is too much.

That being said, I personally strongly disagree with the idea of even suggesting lesson plans to go with a presidential address in the public education system. While the address given was pretty much innocuous, getting used to such activities only begs for abuse. Members of the federal government, to include the president, have no business in the schools - unless specifically invited as guest speaker. And if they are invited, let them limit their remarks to the school(s) that actually invite them.

And leave any proposed, "suggested" or otherwise lesson plans to the teachers.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top