2009/09/02
Dear Leader to address his children
On September 8th, Barack Obama will deliver a broadcast to every public school in the country. Supposedly, his speech will be about the importance of staying in school and getting good grades, etc. I don’t think anybody would be opposed to those ideas. What has people riled up is the prefunk messaging that the Department of Education has delivered to school administrators.
First off, the email was apparently sent directly to school principles, while superintendents and school boards were kept out of the loop. The people who are supposed to set standards and goals for the districts were subverted.
Secondly, the email contained creepy language, such as:
Before the Speech:
- Teachers can build background knowledge about the President of the United States and his speech by reading books about presidents and Barack Obama.
During the Speech:
- 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?
After the Speech:
- 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?
Extension of the Speech: Teachers can extend learning by having students:
- Write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president. These would be collected and redistributed at an appropriate later date by the teacher to make students accountable to their goals.
What the fuck? Is this just a “stay in school” message, or is it something else? What “new ideas” is Hopey McChangerson going to try to “challenge” these kids to think about? And this crap about writing letters to themselves about how they can “help the president?” This is North Korea stuff. Many glories to His Greatness Dear Leader Barack Obama, or something.
These kids are there to learn history, geography, science, to read and write, do math, and think critically. They’re not there to get out their crayons and butcher paper and compose promises to the Lightbringer. If the speech is any more than, “you are our future, work hard, take your vitamins, stay in school,” then there’s gonna be a shitstorm like you wouldn’t believe.
Barack Obama’s friend, terrorist Bill Ayers, has summed up the radical philosophy that Obama believes in. In a speech to Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, he said, “education is the motor-force of revolution.” This is a progressive doctrine, and Obama has not and will not separate himself from these people. Given the opportunity to have his Big Brother head beamed into the mushy skulls of millions of kids, what will he say?
He wants to be their symbol of authority. He wants to be their father figure. He wants them to think of him as the voice or reason and responsibility in their lives. He wants to extend his cult of personality. He’s directly politicized the Department of Education. And he’s taking the unprecedented step of broadcasting directly to the kids, while providing teachers (whose union overwhelmingly supported him in the election) with curricula to present to these kids before, during and after his speech.
Now there’s a movement afoot to make September 8th an unofficial skip day:
Added conservative talk show host Tammy Bruce, in a Twitter feed: "Make September 8 Parentally Approved Skip Day. You are your child’s moral tutor, not that shady lawyer from Chicago." And conservative author Michelle Malkin said the lesson plans have a "heavy activist bent."
Whatever. I just hope he keeps it clean and level-headed. He apparently doesn’t understand that he’s an unpopular guy right now, and a lot of people are growing more and more skeptical of his bullcrap.
Filed under Barack Obama, Education, Politics by kodewords
Comments on Dear Leader to address his children »
Just wanted to point out – the idea that the students have some responsibility in this whole thing seems to be lost on a few people, including the students themselves. It now seems normal for a student to blame the teacher or school for their failures, when in I’m sure many cases the students are too busy playing video games or socializing to give a crap about school. It wasn’t like that 20-30 years ago, when the people currently making decisions were in school, so they remove the blame from the students which then falls on the faculty and the system, when the system hasn’t changed much (probably for the worse since conservative parents want everything to be pristine and safe – it wasn’t like that when I went to school). The problem isn’t the school, or the system, it’s the generation has now out-matured and out-smarted it. We now have to trick and reward our children to do well, rather than a simple “do well and you’ll be well” like it used to be. Now we need incentives and excuses. Motivating and challenging students to take up part of the responsibility is not a bad thing. It is not political, its essential. I would recommend that my child would write something that would help spread the message Obama is trying to get across – “how can we help school and students become synced and work well together?” Its not “how can I turn other people into liberals” or “how can I gather more future democrats”, its the leader of the country speaking and attempting to motivate and stimulate those students that need it. What he wants is for every student to be the best they can be.
If you don’t mind me spinning that quote of Bill Ayers this way – under corruption and the shroud of communism, education is the only way people can overcome oppression. Many eastern nations do not provide many liberties that we enjoy, like free education. They restrict access to the wealth of knowledge provided by the internet, and spread propaganda. Educating yourself of the world and the truths that lie beyond the wall of oppression frees your mind from the virus that holds millions of people captive. Education is the truest form of revolution.
And another thing – He IS sort of a symbol of authority, no?
First of all, the speech as it was delivered was a fine speech, full of conservative ideas about self-reliance and personal responsibility (which contradicts every actual policy opinion he holds, but we’ll let that slide for now). The problem that people had with it came before we knew what he was going to say. The government’s suggested curriculum that teachers present to go along with the speech was all we knew about, and it was a little bit…off. For people who question Obama’s agenda, motivations and personality cult, the content of that messaging and the surreptitious way that the DOE apparently tried to bypass schoolboards was concerning. If the goal was to simply deliver a pep-rally speech, the administration bungled it.
Your “spin” on the Ayers comment is interesting. Of course an educated, literate, civically-aware population is important in a free society. But that’s as far as the parallel goes. Bill Ayers is a radical who violently attacked OUR government and institutions, not our Communist enemies of the time. Furthermore, he delivered that line in a supportive speech to Hugo Chavez, a Marxist dictator who fancies himself a revolutionary FOR Socialism/Communism AGAINST liberal western governments. For Ayers, education and revolution means “educating” kids in such a way that they tear down the institutions and traditions of their parents in a way that furthers the ends of the statist leaders. I don’t think Ayers was intending to further the cause of liberty in Venezuela.
Yes, the president is a symbol of authority to the extent that he’s been elected to represent and operate the federal government. He’s also extremely divisive, unworthy of trust, and as a politician doesn’t represent anything I believe in. So if he wants to say something to my kid, he can say it to me first, and I’ll let him know if he can say it to her. The leadership of this country under this administration has called people like me un-American and Nazi-like, they’ve dismissed my ideas as silly, crazy, marginal, paid-for, insincere, and fake. He then comes back and declares that he has some important words for my child that he’d like to “challenge” her to think about, and suggests that she write a letter to herself that asks what she can do to help him. I think it’s completely reasonable at that point to be skeptical, especially if I don’t know what those words are.