» President Obama's Educational Speech

So I'm sure most of us have seen it/read it/watched it/heard it.


You can read a bit about it here at BBC.

So I'm here to ask the general question...

What's your opinion?
Do you believe the President speaking to people through a method like this is infringing on a parent's right to decide what's best for their children?
Do you think President Obama is trying to undermine the youth of America?

I have nothing against Obama's speech. I do think that parents can decide whether or not their child should listen to it. I'm not sure if the speech would even phase anyone under the age of 10. I also don't agree with one statement of "When people ask, "how can you object to the President urging kids to stay in school," I ask them what they'd think if I stopped by their house one night, uninvited, to tell their kids how to behave".

As one of the suprising amount of Aussie's here, I actually had to read through that link, then follow a few prompts before I felt informed enough to talk about this. Damn, there's goes half my study period. XD

And I do feel that this is fairly ludicrous. The entire 'controversy' would most propably been entirely avoided if the 'teaching aid which suggested students write about "how they could help the president"' had not been created. That is the only thing that gives any sort of minimal credibility to the claims it was an attempt on Obama's part to 'con' kids onto his platform, and he was obviously not involved in the creation of it.

Obama's message is that success is earnt through effort not obtained through chance. It's a good thing for people of any age to hear, and that people would attempt to twist it into a "liberal indoctrination " just annoys me.

Exactly. It wouldn't be a problem at all unless the idiodic teaching aid wasn't included.

I really don't give a care. I think it was an absolute waste of time to spend teaching hours on a mediocre speech, and the teaching aid IS moronic, but at least the speech wasn't political at its heart.

I heard about this, but never really cared to read into it. Now that I have though.

Who the heck would withdraw their child from watching the PRESIDENT speak? WHO? Geez people, it's a fantastic opportunity! I would have loved to see Huckabee speak at my school last semester if I didn't have class at that time! Famous politicians? Chances to ask said politicians questions and to observe them in person? Sounds like a great opportunity to me.

Frankly, I was expecting Obama to talk to elementary school kids, not high schoolers. =p High schoolers are old enough to start forming their own opinions. And Obama wasn't talking about anything controversial, and most politicians would know better than to talk about anything that could be inappropriate or raise tensions.

I also see no problem with the writing topic given to the kids. It was a lame topic, but nothing wrong with it, since he was trying to encourage the kids to do well. Educated people can be advantageous, thus help the president. Or spending money. =p Or just being ethical. I think the teachers wanted to see the kids write, "I will do better in school!" so they could pretend that the speech had a big affect on them. =p

Dole, Obama, McCain, someone, come to my school! I'll happily listen.

People who believe that Obama is the Anti-Christ who was born in Kenya and the reincarnation of Hitler.

Yeah... you can read over that if you like.