…staying home.

Again, it is all about the fact that the starting point where argument begin often sets up who wins (Van Jones is right about this). You have to take a step back from “how much damage can Obama do when talking to kids” to what in the heck is he thinking by doing it in the first place?? Does he believe he has the right? Does he think he can begin the transition from young individual minds to those who will follow “dear leader?” Is his intentions innocent or are we seeing the first of many examples of his deep belief that he is, in fact, the political messiah.

By allowing it without complaint, like many sheep will by taking the position “what harm can be done”, are you giving up too much ground? By giving him the benefit of the doubt, are we allowing him to get too close to our kids? He understands how important your kids are to the future of the nation, do you?

Then there is the whole issue of legality. Can a government run educational institution promote, hold and then indoctrinate children in a closed environment? Where’s the fairness czar demanding equal time?

This is the trouble with being inside a revolution. You can’t always get a good perspective on what the other side is doing. For that fact, I think you should always prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

Obama does not have the right, nor should be given the opportunity to be the “face” of their encouragement and the one they will strive to please. That is the job of their parents. As is the cultivation of the child’s political exposure. Pull your kid for the speech, it is your right as the ones responsible for their upbringing.

http://truthandcommonsense.com/2009/09/02/protest-the-speech-pull-your-student/

http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2009/08/20/late_start_may_make_mass_school_year_tight/

LA’s starts September 9th for single-track.
http://notebook.lausd.net/pls/ptl/docs/PAGE/CA_LAUSD/LAUSDNET/ABOUT_US/INFORMATION/DISTRICT_CALENDARS/09-10%2520SCHOOL%2520CALENDAR.PDF

This is funny.

You have most probably had experiences with teachers – especially History Teachers – who are world-class blowhards on everything.

As a teacher with over 3 decades in the public and Catholic schools, I have met quite a few, and they tend to be left-wing.

NObama’s speech can be bland, and if he is smart, it will be bland.

But he knows that his supporters in the classrooms will turn it into a conversion therapy session to make students into future liberal Democrats.

Especially the juniors and seniors who will be able to vote next year! That I believe is the hidden agenda here. Although it is possible that somebody in the White House thought this could be another weapon to help win the Hell-th Care debate, I suspect they are looking at gaining as many votes as possible for 2010.

even if schools are in session. I know many people who take advantage of the long weekend by taking Friday and Tuesday off for one last beach trip. We do it every year. We always get excused absences from the school because my Chinese wife plays the “Cultural Experience of the Chinese Harvest Moon Festival” card, regardless of when the actual festival is. They never check on it. Same deal with Chinese New Year. I love multiculturalism.

It’s Obama’s first public step in his ongoing effort to nationalize the public schools.

Step 1 was when the CCSSI was convened with the backing of the Obama administration and the Governors of 48 states agreed that they’d let the federal government, through the CCSSI, draft at least 85% of their states academic standards for Math and English.

Step 2 will hit in December when the national academic standards for Math and English are released.

Step 3 will be when those standards are implemented as the curriculum in every public classroom in every state which signed onto the CCSSI.

Step 4 will be when the federal government administers it’s first assessment of how well every child in public school in the US has learned the content they dictated.

Step 5 will be after the assessment results are released and the feds step in to intervene in “under-performing” schools (step 5 is just speculation on my part; steps 1-4 aren’t)

Toss Arne Duncan’s stated desire to track students performance after they leave public school and go on to college so that they can tie the students performance back to their high school teachers, and you’ve got a system whereby the federal government defines what the kids learn and when, assesses the kids to see how well they’ve learned that content, sets the standards the teachers must meet to be qualified, and the states merely deliver what the feds tell them to deliver and in the manner the feds dictate.

The speech is just a drop in the bucket.

Yeah, that seems way early to this guy raised in the North, but we have graduation at the end of May, so it evens out.

Which may suggest a reason for the timing of the speech. He needs to get the more conservative South on his side. The kids up north, eh, they’re mostly indoctrinated already.