All you K-12 teachers on DU: have you heard from any RW parents about Obama's speech on 9/8?

Have you been badgered by birther/teabaagger/Freeper parents squawking about the president's speech on September 8? What will you do if they pull their kids out of school? Mark them as an unexcused absence? Truant?

You may want to remind them that the previous President Bush (the one who was actually elected legitimately) gave a similar address in 1989 to schoolchildren about drug use.

Apparently to provide them with an opt-out so right wing parents can prevent their children from seeing our black President of the United States.

Right wingers know no bounds. They make me sick.


-----Original Message-----
From:
To:
Sent: Wed, Sep 2, 2009 12:48 pm
Subject: National Address by President Obama



PLEASE DO NOT RESPOND TO THIS MESSAGE

President Obama has announced the he will deliver a national address directly to students on the importance of education. This address will be broadcast live at 1:00 PM on Tuesday, September 8, on www.whitehouse.gov . If your family chooses not to participate in this activity, please let your child's teacher know. An alternate activity will be assigned.

A really snarky teacher could have some real fun with that one.

MY PET GOAT

Upside down of course.

and each parent has to sign a permission slip for their child to watch.

:)

Unreal.

This is the first I ever heard about GW ~ my, my the M$M is slipping/
That should have been all over the news " Drunk President talks to School Children."

I spent 10 hours in my classroom today. I rushed down the hall to the restroom a couple of times, and ate a sandwich while I typed.

I'm getting ready for the start of school next week, and putting in long hours so that I can get the room ready and some lesson planning done before and after all the meetings this week.

I talked to a couple of parents today. Nobody mentioned the speech.

I'm sure I'll find something about it when I check the headlines tomorrow morning.

September 8th is my first day of school. We've got a full schedule planned already. As a matter of fact, that's what we were doing today; a planning meeting with my teaching team, principal, counselor, a couple of parents, and the student leadership team.

A MESSAGE FROM THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION



President Barack Obama to Make Historic Speech to America’s Students

C-SPAN and White House Web Site to Broadcast Speech Live
From: U.S. Department of Education

Speech Scheduled One Hour Earlier to Noon Eastern Time

On September 8, 2009, history will be made. Will you be a part of it?

At 12:00 p.m., Eastern Time (ET), President Barack Obama will deliver a national address to the students of America. (Please note that this is a change from the originally scheduled time.) During this special address, the president will speak directly to the nation’s children and youth about persisting and succeeding in school. The president will challenge students to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for their learning.

The U.S. Department of Education encourages students of all ages, teachers, and administrators to participate in this historic moment by watching the president deliver the address, which will be broadcast live on the White House Web site (http://www.whitehouse.gov/live/) and on C-SPAN at 12:00 p.m., ET. We also encourage educators to use this moment to help students get focused and inspired to begin the new academic year. The Department of Education offers educators a menu of classroom activities—created by its teachers-in-residence, the Teaching Ambassador Fellows—to help engage students in the address and stimulate classroom discussions about the importance of education.

To learn more, please see the following:

Frequently Asked Questions (http://www.ed.gov/admins/lead/academic/bts.html#faqs)

Classroom Activities (Pre-K – 6) (http://www.ed.gov/teachers/how/lessons/prek-6.pdf)

Classroom Activities (7 – 12) (http://www.ed.gov/teachers/how/lessons/7-12.pdf)

To further encourage student engagement, the U.S. Department of Education is launching the “I Am What I Learn” video contest. On September 8, we will ask students to respond to the president’s challenge by creating videos, up to two minutes in length, describing the steps they will take to improve their education and the role education will play in fulfilling their dreams.

Please encourage all students age 13 and older to create and upload their videos to YouTube by October 8. Submissions can be in the form of video blogs, public service announcements (PSAs), music videos, or documentaries. Students are encouraged to have fun and be creative with this project! The general public will then vote on their favorites to determine the top 20 finalists. These 20 videos will be reviewed by a panel of judges including U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. The panel will choose three winners, each of whom will receive a $1,000 cash prize.

Starting this Friday, you can visit www.ed.gov/iamwhatilearn to find out more.

to encourage kids to work hard in school. :think:

Seriously, how can people be opposed to THAT? I think parents are afraid their kids may actually watch the message and develop a positive opinion of Obama all on their own. The horror, the horror. It will take at least 20 straight hours of FOX News to re-indoctrinate them.

We did get some info from our district today. They sent out an email to principals, who then forwarded it on to us with their additions.

It basically said that the district was getting a lot of calls from parents asking if their child would be made to watch the speech, and threatening to keep them home, if so. The district response to parents is that the choice to participate in viewing this speech, and other political events, would be made at the site level by building administrators and individual classroom teachers. They encouraged people who did not want their child to participate to let the teacher know, so that they could be excused for that 20 minutes.

Our admin reassured us that our school had only received one parent call about the speech. We had an hour "open house" to "meet the teacher" today; none of my new, or old, parents brought it up. Our principal asked us to watch the down loadable version later in the day or week, rather than trying to watch it live.

The speech starts 15 minutes before our school does here on the west coast, and would be over before we finished taking attendance.

That, and it's the first day of school. Teachers and kids don't even know each other yet, in most cases. Getting organized, getting procedures and expectations established, etc. is going to take precedence.

Since I open the year with a unit on civics for my students, I expect it will fit in well at some point during the first couple of weeks; I'll show it then.

That, and if there is a direct correlation to state standards that we are currently focused on, I've got stronger legs to stand on.

we can see it on the parent portal if we want. Seems it would be a waste of time or some shit. The letter closes with an admonishment to respect the President!

Don't have the letter in front of me for exact wording, but I did respond to the school district letting them know my feelings about their decision.

This is from San Antonio, North East I.S.D.

here is the email we received from the asst. superintendent yesterday: "The central office has received several parent calls in regard to a letter for all school principals from Arne Duncan (Secretary of Education) which announces that on September 8th President Obama will provide a national address directly to all students across America. The letter encourages principals to allow the broadcast to be live in their buildings. This has not been confirmed through DESE and will not be something ***** Schools will be participating in. We have no background information or guidelines to follow within our curriculum to try to provide a setting for this format." Cause you know, evidently its too hard to turn on the tv or look up the accompanying lesson plans online. Jesus.

However, that was yesterday. Today it has been decided that the high school shall tape the speech, and a "panel" of teachers will deem its appropriateness. If they give it the ok, then it could possibly be shown to high school social studies classes. No word on middle or elem. buildings.

He sent the info out to teachers two weeks ago and said we were encouraged to participate! No uprising here :D