“Let me know how you’re doing. Write me a letter — and I’m serious about this one — write me a letter about ways you can help us achieve our goals. I think you know the address.†G.H. Bush address to school students, 1991.
Ronald Reagan gave a speech to school kids and took questions in 1988.
This is the text of the speech the US President is going to make to school children tomorrow.
Interestingly a Christian celebrity in the US, minister John Piper, is stunned by people’s behavior and wrote about it at his blog: I hope My Daughter Hears the President’s Speech. Piper is being criticised in his comment section. NASCAR drivers doing a 30 second spot on education are being mocked ( stay in school so you can grow up and … (wait for it) … drive fast?)Comment at World Magazine blog.
People continuing to object are afraid the President won’t stick to script.
Brainwashing, indoctrination, communist, Nazi, socialist, cultish…if some parents are so upset, why can’t they calm down, turn their emotions around and talk to their kids about why they disagree with the Presidential speech?
Here’s an excerpt from the Obama Back to School speech:
Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.
That’s what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.
Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn’t speak English when she first started school. Hardly anyone in her hometown went to college, and neither of her parents had gone either. But she worked hard, earned good grades, got a scholarship to Brown University, and is now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to being Dr. Jazmin Perez.
I’m thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who’s fought brain cancer since he was three. He’s endured all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory, so it took him much longer – hundreds of extra hours – to do his schoolwork. But he never fell behind, and he’s headed to college this fall.
And then there’s Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods, she managed to get a job at a local health center; start a program to keep young people out of gangs; and she’s on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college.
Jazmin, Andoni and Shantell aren’t any different from any of you. They faced challenges in their lives just like you do. But they refused to give up. They chose to take responsibility for their education and set goals for themselves. And I expect all of you to do the same.
That’s why today, I’m calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education – and to do everything you can to meet them. Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending time each day reading a book. Maybe you’ll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in your community. Maybe you’ll decide to stand up for kids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you believe, like I do, that all kids deserve a safe environment to study and learn. Maybe you’ll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn. And along those lines, I hope you’ll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don’t feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.
Well said, Bene, well said. I am disgusted at the garbage, hate and fear and lies, being spread about this speech. Leave it to the Canadians to make sense.
A few minor nit-picks
1)having AIDS as the #2 health priority
2) sloppy theology on one’s destiny.
3)A positive reference to Harry Potter might get some folks hot and bothered, but it was in a paragraph on perseverance.
4) The students were in charge of their goals. At a young age, their goals might not be to study hard (“Mom, the President told me I could set my own goals”) or to focus on a long-shot career they might not have the talent for.
However, those are minor nit-picks. If my niece sees that in school tomorrow, I’d have no problem with it; he’s the president and gets to do things like this as the holder of the office.
Would I show the president’s video if I were a teacher in the United States? I would not show it to primary students (Kindergarten to grade three). They would not understand or appreciate Obama’s message. For older students, I would have no problem airing this message. I would invite the students to discuss the message and the messenger. I do want the students to be critical thinkers. I do want them to ask questions why the president would give a speech to American students. I certainly would not want them to accept everything that Obama or any future president would have to say.
I probably would not show the video to students on their first day of school. I would rather spend the time building a relationship between the teacher and students. The president’s speech can wait until later in the week.
Would I have the students see every speech that Obama targetted at students? Most likely not. It would need to be meaningful for the students and have some relationship to the curriculum.
Do I show videos of the Canadian Prime Minister or Governor-General giving New Years Day speeches? No, I don’t. Would I have students see and hear their speeches if targetted at students? I would need to know what their speeches would be about. Again, I would ask older students to think critically about the speeches. Again, I would not show every single speech targetted at students. Even the Queen doesn’t get unlimited speaking rights with students in the classroom.
True Skinny Dipper, but this isn’t the US.
Mark, fair nit picks. I left out a great deal, including some reasonable points on why the US President giving this talk may not be the best use of his time or the school systems time.
Obama, while quite an orator, and a historical figure as the first black president, doesn’t impress me much which is why I haven’t said much about him, pro or con.
I’d have no problem with nieces and nephews watching the speech(if they were in the US). I agree it would be a terrific way to talk with them about civics, responsibility, and as you said well Skinny Dkipper their understanding of the messenger and the message.
Thanks Joel, that’s kind of you, but I can assure you we Canadians have our silly seasons and we don’t have any kind of corner on common sense.
We citizens and our leaders can be just as bad – this time of year with a minority government and the opposition making election noises, we’re get bombarded with nasty political polorizing.
Good points raised about the speech.
Not sharing it with children and teens who can understand what the messsage is would be censorship.
Good for the president for putting accountability for one’s actions and future right where it belongs – in one’s own lap. No wonder the right/left wingers are upset – they risk losing control…
Losing control? They are in opposition which is one and the same. More like out of control.
I believe many peoples fears are genuine, we all can’t pay attention to every detail. I think the Democrats have messed up on message.
But there is a core group who are going to be afraid and oppositional not matter what.