EdVANTAGE Blog

Late last week, we received phone calls from superintendents across the state seeking advice on how to handle calls from parents about the Obama Administration’s plans to offer a webcast speech tomorrow (Tuesday, September 8th) by the President to schoolchildren.  Some parents threatened to keep their children out of school if the speech is to be shown.

As the administration promised, the text of the speech was posted on the White House website a day early.  You can read it here.

More on on the speech and the controversy…

The conservative Fox News noted,

The debate over Obama’s speech Tuesday has dominated cable television and talk radio for several days, signaling again the stark divisions in the country both over politics and social issues.

But Obama avoids any partisan shots in his prepared remarks and instead encourages students to set goals for their education and to maintain focus in the face of life’s challenges.

For example, Mr. Obama says,

At the end of the day, the circumstances of your life — what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home — that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying.

Appearing on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday, Mr. Obama’s Education SecretaryArne Duncan noted that proposed lesson plans to accompany the speech had been revised to address criticisms.  But he rejected claims that the speech is an attempt to “indoctrinate” students in a political agenda.  He said,”That’s just silly. They can go to school. They can not watch. It’s just, you know, going an 18-minute speech.  He added that Mr. Obama would stress, “personal responsibility and challenging students to take their education very, very seriously.”

Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tennessee), Education Secretary under President George H.W. Bush, said he understood some of the concern, then added

But of course the president of the United States should be able to address students. And of course, parents and teachers should decide in what context.  If I were a teacher, I’d take advantage of it, and I’d put up Lincoln and Eisenhower and Reagan and teach about the presidency, and then I’d put up the head of North Korea and say, In that country, you go to jail if you criticize the president. In our country, you have a constitutional right to do it.

The first President Bush delivered a nationwide address to schoolchildren, as did President Reagan.