Brandywine School District Will Show The President’s Speech
Breaking now on the intertubes, Brandywine School District says it will show the president’s speech.
Interim Superintendent Dr. Dane Brandenberger said there was a mixed message sent about Brandywine not airing the speech that was incorrect. Last week, parents said they’d heard that the speech would not be shown in the Brandywine School District.
“Somehow people thought we were against Obama. Nothing could be further from the truth,” Brandenberger said today.
Brandenberger said what the school district has asked teachers to prepare lesson plans or activities based on the president’s speech.
He said some teachers might air the speech live and others, especially those teaching younger students, will create activities or plans for students the next day or later in the week.
BSD makes it sound like it was all some innocent mix-up. I suspect that BSD got some angry feedback from parents after they decided not to show the speech. The decision is supposedly being left up to the individual teacher’s discretion.
Thank you to all the BSD parents who called and wrote the school district about showing the speech.
Woot!
I doubt there was a mix up! Thankfully they did a 180 and are trying to make it sound like we just misunderstood, IMHO, after there was a counter-backlash
Who needs math when you can teach the kids to talk back to their parents about how good the president is?
This isn’t a wise use of tax paid school hours. If the president wants to talk to the kids, do it on their own time. Teachers have a hard enough time as it is without getting dictated their lesson plans some more from above with innocuous narcissistic bullshit.
PR stunt. Move along, nothing to see here.
Who needs math when you can teach the kids to talk back to their parents about how good the president is?
Which again, is not what is on offer here. And if you have evidence otherwise, you need to deliver on that.
Perhaps you, Brian, can tell me why a message to kids to work hard and stay in school can be such a horrible thing.
i have no comment – just a question – is it possible to get a list of all previous topics ordered by creation date?
It’s not.
Why does it have to be in school, during school hours? Why can’t it be at night, when parents can be with their kids? Solves 90% of the issues surrounding it.
That is seriously my only issue with it. Time waste. Our schools and teachers have a hard enough time teaching without burning half a day on a PR stunt. Doesn’t the White House have bigger fish to fry than wasting time on this pointless bull? You know, economy in the crapper, health care reform in the crapper, agenda in the crapper, Afghanistan and Iraq in the crapper, favorability in the crapper…
Saying hi to a bunch of school kids seems low on the priority list.
And if you have evidence otherwise, you need to deliver on that.
Histrionics. Fluff. No evidence.
Who needs math when you can teach the kids to talk back to their parents about how good the president is?
I’m going to take a different angle on this, Cassandra, but you’re right that this is the money quote. If Brian’s feelings match those of many of the opponents, then he just proved correct what I said here and at my place the other day. The problem they have is that if their kids get a chance to hear Obama speak to them without the parents putting their little hate bugs in the kids’ ears, they might actually like him.
This has nothing to do with what he will say, which is (hopefully) the same kind of things they tell their own kids all the time. Pretty boring stuff. However, these parents have a lot invested in hating Obama as a person, and they have probably spewed a lot of de-humanizing rhetoric about him to their kids. Now, the thought that their kids might see him as a nice guy and an inspiring personality scares the hell out of them. Then, if their kids see him as a sympathetic person, they’ll actually have to explain why they oppose him, which most can’t do in a rational, fact-based way.
Why can’t it be at night, when parents can be with their kids?
My point proven again. Can they explain what they are afraid of?
I agree with you, Scott. Why do the children have to be “protected” from a speech by the president? It’s a fairly standard speech about staying in school and studying. It’s not controversial. People shouldn’t have to “opt out” or spend a lot of time “explaining” things. This rightwing freakout is totally unnecessary and makes them look foolish.
rj,
The posts are in order that they are created, from the newest at top to the oldest at bottom. At the bottom you can click the link “older entries” to keep going back in time.
You can also click on the contributor’s name, or “related” or “filed under” to search by subject. Are you assembling a dossier?
nope, no dossier. i just find them interesting. thx for the info.
one other item – if i use my actual email address when i post, who gets to see that? and, can it be used to send p.m.?
After the President of the United States speaks to school children about the value of education, Republicans will make opposing comments extolling ignorance.
See:
http://notionscapital.wordpress.com/2009/09/04/obamas-dangerous-message-to-our-children/
I really don’t care one way or another… aside from the big waste of time it is. I would prefer later at night for the time wasting issue, and offered it as a solution to the “OMG my kids will be brainwashed” crowd who don’t realize they are brainwashed themselves.
I don’t believe in the indoctrination bit. They are talking points designed to do exactly what they are doing, rile up the sheeple and create an illusion of reality. Showmanship.
a further study aid has been posted:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-huppIl2_yE
LOL, Mike.
rj,
The administrators can see your email address. It’s not visible to anyone else. To send messages to contributors, you can send to contributorname@delawareliberal.net. You can also hit the “Got a tip” link at the top of the page which will send a message to all the contributors.
ok, thx.
Late again to this….FWIW……Like Nancy Willing, I too remember hauling my chair to the next room for those momentous “national” events, televised to perhaps 4 televisions in the school. Here’s the rub this time…sure I don’t care if my kids see the speech or not–but did folks have to politicize someone’s decision NOT to see the speech, and treat it like some anti-Obama, subversive birther, wingnut conspiracy tactic. Sheesh, we have every sound-byte replayed 24/7 on every network–why 2pm on a Monday? That’s what–8AM in the islands…are they bringing the little kids in early?
And for those of you so concerned about education, and “time on task”–teachers today are on a tight schedule of lesson plans, to “get it in”, and meet the demands of this whole global thing going on, and keep the education critics away. How many lab experiments are now interrupted? Quizzes, tests rescheduled, guest speakers canceled–and on and on w/ a teacher’s prepared journey for curriculum that needs to be delivered for that student. I am happy Pres. Obama has chosen to speak to the children, but to turn this into a mandated district directive, instead of an individual teacher apprisal of “what we were doing, that can be redirected”, has me steaming, that ANYONE is essentially bullied to watch or face the PC consequences, because this country has turned into making “red” decisions, or “blue” decisions, and not just the CORRECT decision. That being said, I do hope Pres. Obama continues with these interruptive chats, so that at our workplaces we can gather, and he will remind parents to save for your child’s college, how to better parent your child, and to stay home and have a family meal together!! If that’s the way we can reach parents these days…then do it!!!
It would be wonderful, very wonderful for a president, any president to visit a school.
Yet to submit kids to an indoctrination that will be reinforced by handouts may be a bit much.
Kids can be quite impressionable and many love the pseudo-empowerment that allows them to ‘teach their parents’ a thing or two.
Certainly a message that advises children to stay in school and forget that getting good grades is ‘acting white’ and venial urban sin would be beneficial. But will Obama merely push for bureaucratic expansion and some costly trendy toys?
Indoctrination? Art, you will now condemn President Reagan and President Bush for doing the exact same thing, if do not want to be called a liar and a hypocrite.
Joanne… I am sorry, but you are wrong. We did not politicize this, the Republican Party did. It was just going to be a speech that no one was going to really notice, a fifth story on the evening news that day. But your party, specifically the head of the Florida Republican Party, decided to politicize this speech. And then all of the right wing swiftly got their marching orders to condemn the speech.
You did this, not us.
“It was just a speech that no one was going to really notice, a fifth story on the evening news that day.”
I guess that’s what the administarion was hoping for.
“Yet to submit kids to an indoctrination that will be reinforced by handouts may be a bit much.”
Art — I hadn’t thought about this until now: my district REQUIRES that middle-schoolers participate in a stock market “game” for 1/2 year sponsored by the local newspaper and some finance firms. They are required to “make money” by researching stocks, placing orders and monitoring progress.
Some would call it math; some would call it life skills. I might call it indoctrination reinforced by handouts. And pizza, for winning classrooms. And a required grade added to my son’s report card to determine if he’s a good enough capitalist.
To paraphrase: Certainly a message that advises children to learn how to play the market and forget that making money is ‘acting white’ and venial urban sin would be beneficial. But will this market game merely make kids push for unlimited free market expansion resulting in some costly world-wide market crash….oh, wait, we just had that……