In an unprecedented move, President Obama will give a speech to K-6 public school children on September 8th. While this may seem harmless, the accompanying materials given to teachers suggest that there are deeper motives behind this intrusion. Wisely, Valley View 365U initially opted out of the broadcast and directed those who wish to view it to the appropriate websites. However, the district reversed this decision and subsequently decided to broadcast the speech.
In a letter from Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan to school administrators, he invites students, teachers, and administrators to participate in "this historic moment" where the "president will challenge students to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for their learning." But in an accompanying menu of classroom activities to teachers, students could be instructed to write letters to themselves about how they could help the president. Not surprisingly, because of the blatant brainwashing affect of "helping the president", this activity was changed to writing letters to themselves about how they can achieve their goals.
None the less, education is supposed to be a local matter. The Department of Education has no authority to dictate curriculum to the states. This is more than just an address about the value of education, this is sophisticated marketing, a.k.a. indoctrination, courtesy of David Axelrod to promote allegiance to President Obama in the minds of the young.
Whitehouse spokesman Tommy Vietor said the "speech is about the value of education and the importance of staying in school as part of his effort to dramatically cut the dropout rate." But if President Obama really wanted to cut the dropout rate, he would promote school choice which includes vouchers in places with high dropout rates, like in DC. But instead he and Democrats chose to terminate the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program which provided vouchers to inner city kids so they could escape the DC public schools for a decent education. Real education reformers know that it takes more than speeches to reform education and that's why this propaganda stunt has produced so much criticism.
