Common Conservative Sense

President Obama will address the nation’s school children on Tuesday. I guess that would be fine if he were doing it at a time when parents and their children could gather around the television and listen and discuss it together. Or when parents could decide they didn’t want their children to listen to the President at all. But there is something creepy about the President of the United States going live on television into our schools during a normal school day. That sounds like something Chairman Mao might do. What’s next? His face painted on the side of buildings all over town? Why is President Obama taking this time? Is his ego really that bloated? What does he have to say to our kids that is so important, so worthwhile, that the learning process has to be suspended to accommodate it? Why does he want to talk to them without their parents around?

 That will be time that no math will be learned, no science will be taught, no language skills learned. (I would say it would be a time when no history will be taught, but that seems to be the case already.) If he wants to encourage them to stay in school, to study hard and to strive toward good grades – great. But he can do that with a Public Service Announcement.

I don’t intend to allow my children to participate unless I’m allowed to be with them. Obama is not a teacher, so he is not the reason my sons are in school. He will be interfering with the reason they are there. I’m equally concerned about how the teachers will handle the affair. There are some conservative teachers, but academia is clearly a stronghold of liberalism. The idea that the president’s message may be innocuous and benign is not the point. If this precedent is established, that may not always be the case. This is a bad idea, and shouldn’t happen. Our schools should at least try to be propaganda free zones.

I suggest finding out if your kid’s school will be participating. If so, see if you can go with your kids. If that doesn’t work, maybe we should all find some real educational activity for our kids – away from school.

Here is the “study guide” from the White House suggested to be used in conjunction with the speech;

During the Speech:

• As the President speaks, teachers can ask students to write down key ideas or phrases that are important or personally meaningful. Students could use a note-taking graphic organizer such as a Cluster Web, or students could record their thoughts on sticky notes. Younger children can draw pictures and write as appropriate. As students listen to the speech, they could think about the following:

What is the President trying to tell me?

What is the President asking me to do?

What new ideas and actions is the President challenging me to think about?

• Students can record important parts of the speech where the President is asking them to do something. Students might think about: What specific job is he asking me to do? Is he asking anything of anyone else? Teachers? Principals? Parents? The American people?

• Students can record any questions they have while he is speaking and then discuss them after the speech. Younger children may need to dictate their questions.

After the Speech:

• Teachers could ask students to share the ideas they recorded, exchange sticky notes or stick notes on a butcher paper poster in the classroom to discuss main ideas from the speech, i.e. citizenship, personal responsibility, civic duty.
• Students could discuss their responses to the following questions:

What do you think the President wants us to do?

Does the speech make you want to do anything?

Are we able to do what President Obama is asking of us?

In the interest of real learning, I suggest a few additional talking points;

• Can you find which part of the Constitution allows the president to use tax dollars to buy banks, car companies, and insurance companies?
• Where does the federal government get the authority to implement health care policies for the citizenry?
• Where does the President plan to put the war prisoners when he closes the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba?
• Why did the President call the policeman stupid when he arrested the professor in Massachusetts?
• Where is the President going to get all the money he needs to pay for all the stuff he is buying?

That should make for an interesting afternoon discussion time, don’t you think?

Tags:

This entry was posted by Mike from NC on Thursday, September 3rd, 2009 at 10:59 pm and is filed under Current Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.