1. Speeches not pertaining to academic instruction should be made outside of instructional time. Instructional time is already limited by numerous distractions in the classroom, whether they be justified or unjustified. Between safety drills, assemblies, fund raising, holidays, teacher institutes, parties, picture day, pep rallies, testing, and just kids being kids, instructional time is at a premium. Knowing how precious little time there is to impart knowledge to students, any parent who wants their child to view the speech could do so on their own time. I don't care about President Obama's or any president's political affiliation. The fact is, using instructional time in this manner is inappropriate for any president. Regrettably, this concept is lost on many in the public school bureaucracy, and once again students are cheated out of academic instruction and taxpayers are cheated out of their hard earned tax dollars.
2. Education is a local matter and the federal government is prohibited from dictating educational curriculum to the states. Parents reserve the right to guide their children's education; not President Obama, or the Dept. of Education. No president, regardless of political party, has the right to co opt academic instructional time to tell students to stay in school. The only students President Obama had the right to give that speech to during instructional time are his daughters. Any parent who wished their children to view it could have easily done so on their own time via the internet. The suggested lesson plans accompanying the speech are all about promoting President Obama. Suggested activities originally included students writing letters to themselves about how they could help the president which was quickly changed to students writing letters to themselves about how they could achieve their educational goals. The mere fact that there are suggested lesson plans is unconstitutional. It's bad enough that public schools already bombard students with anti-American, anti-family, anti-God, pro-homosexual, and environmental alarmist agendas at the expense of academic instruction.
3. No student should be encouraged to weigh so heavily on a speech from someone so far removed from their lives. Inspiration is the job of parents and other adults who are closest to children, not the president. The only two students the president is responsible for inspiring with stay in school messages are his daughters. My husband and I, like millions of parents across the country, are the primary inspiration to our children through our words and most importantly our actions. President Obama's job is to uphold and defend the Constitution as the chief law enforcement officer of our nation. Unfortunately, his intrusion into the public school classroom shows that he has no respect for the Constitution or the Americans he serves.
4. A presidential pep talk is not civics education. Civics education is about the rights and responsibilities of citizens as it pertains to their government, not speeches about staying in school. If a presidential pep talk passes for civics education in public school, it's no wonder so many people have no understanding about our system of government, the founding documents, their rights, their responsibilities, and how to actively engage in their government.
5. Real education reform is about policies, not speeches. If President Obama was truly concerned about decreasing dropout rates he would support school choice policies which empower parents and allow students to escape failing schools. The DC Opportunity Scholarship Program did just that by providing vouchers to poor inner city students in Washington DC, but President Obama terminated the program because he's more interested in campaign contributions from the teacher's unions than he is in helping students trapped in failing public schools. At-risk students need school choice, not speeches. If all it took were speeches to motivate at-risk students, they would already be motivated because President Obama has made numerous speeches since taking office starting with his inaugural address. His speeches are widely accessible on the internet for anyone to see.
6. It's counterproductive to encourage students to feel good about someone else's superficiality. The great irony of this event is that while many American educators are caught up in the aura of President Obama, our global counterparts are busy teaching their students at a level that many of our college students can't even handle. Whether it's swooning over President Obama for being African-American, or being "cool", feeling good about these superficialies is no replacement for the hard work and discipline necessary for students to achieve academically. When the students come down off their President Obama high, then what?
7. Students who don't view the speech live will still have access to it outside of school. The speech is available on-line for anyone who wishes to view it or read it.
8. The controversy surrounding this speech is a symptom of President Obama's non-stop attempts to pit one group of Americans against another. In spite of his claims of being a uniter, President Obama is the most polarizing president in modern times. In the short time since he's been in office, he has demonized CEO's, insurance companies, oil companies, pharmaceutical companies, police officers, doctors, white people, tea partiers, Republicans, talk radio, Fox News, and anyone who opposes him in general. President Obama and his surrogates refer to those opposing his policies as “stupid”, "silly", “greedy”, "liars", removing limbs and other body parts for money, “mobsters”, “Nazis”, “terrorists”, "teabaggers", “astroturf”, and “racists”. Is it any wonder that some parents don't want their children subjected to a speech from him during instructional time? There is hardly anyone left in America for President Obama to alienate.
9. More and more people are listening to President Obama and watching his actions, and they are not pleased with what they hear and see. Though President Obama campaigned as a moderate, his actions and policies in the few months he's been in office show that he is a hard left Marxist, surrounding himself with some of the most radical, anti-American advisors, a.k.a. Czars. Hence, many Independents, and even some Democrats are abandoning President Obama and his policies.
10. President Obama is a liar. To a politician like President Obama, schooled in the Saul Alinsky Rules for Radicals style of community organizing, words are tools used to further an end. His administration is systematically tearing down the foundations of liberty at the heart of our country, using his speech and suggested lesson plans as just one more step in the direction of statism. President Obama was most recently called out on a lie by Rep. Joe Wilson during his health care speech to a joint session of Congress. Within days, Senate Democrats were rushing to insert citizenship requirements into the health care bill, because Rep. Joe Wilson was correct.
