BREAKING: Schools issue policy on Obama speech

He is our president what is wrong with our country ,it is ok if it is a religious groop or church that wants to talk to our children or the beliefs of science or God created the earth

If you have read the news about this address to the children, you would see the reasons for our concerns. At first, the president was going to ask our kids to draft a letter to themselves on what they can do to help our president. This letter was going to be collected by the teachers and then a lesson plan that the president developed was going to be followed throughout the year. Then at a later date, the letters were going to be returned to the students. This was to help teach the students about being held accountable for your actions.

The president received so much critisism for the planned address and lesson plan that he changed the wording, saying that maybe it wasn't "artfully" worded. Now the letter that they are goingbto draft is going to be about how they can achieve their long-term and short-term educational goals.

It doesn't sound right to me. The young minds of our students are very impressionable and I fear that our president and his administration have a hidden agenda.

This will only disrupt classes and their current lessons.

This was univited as well.

I thank the school board officials for taking their stand on this.

Mr. Gray says that he is not allowing the speech to be shown due to the danger of "politicizing the classroom." But isn't that exactly what he has done? Has anyone actually seen the totality of the speech. And these people that don't want their children to watch, what are they afraid of? That there are two sides to everything?

The very idea of Obama's sppech to our impressionable young minds sounds like indoctrination to me, much like other third world nations have done. I think Mr.Gray is correct in not showing it.

Reagan and Bush gave speeches to our students, too. I was in school then and remember them. How is it any different?

Mr. Gray, If John McCain were president, what would your position be? Your action is UNAMERICAN

I agree with what someone said earlier. Read EXACTLY what Obama wants children to gain from this. He has a hidden agenda, there's no doubt. If something weren't going terribly wrong, there wouldn't be numerous rallies and protests to have him impeached around the country right now. If anything, I believe he is making an attempt at destroying democracy and creating a dictatorship and a socialistic economy. HE is going against and destroying what this country was founded on. Just saying.

I may be looking at this wrong here schs_senior but isn't what the School Board is doing just as socialist and dictatorship as what you feel Obama is doing? Isn't the School Board denying the children the rights of freedom of expression and now they are denying the same children the right to listen and form their own opinions of Obama's speech? It doesn't matter which dictator you listen to a dictatorship is still a dictatorship in the end.

Please don't get me wrong I am not saying I agree with Obama's speech because I have no idea what is in it.. all I am saying is every socialistic idea ever, contains the words "For your own good".

When "any" government body starts out by saying we are doing this "for your own good" we are leaning towards socialism. We have been headed down that road for quite some time but I do agree the road seems to be getting wider but we have stood by and let it get wider.

No matter what you think about Obama, he isn't stupid. He isn't going to try to brainwash little kids to go home to their parents to tout socialistic ideals. It just isn't going to happen that way. He's going to tell them to stay in school, ask them to set goals for themselves and ask them to find ways to help out this country. There is nothing, not one thing, wrong with that.

Every president has an agenda. I will not disagree with that, but that's not the point of this address. I am sick of the mass hysteria over this president. He hasn't done anything worse than any other president has. In fact, many have done even worse than he has, and yet, he's been called the anti-Christ, anti-American, socialist, the next Hitler, etc.

People should be ashamed of themselves, and I'm not just talking about the people around here. Anyone who is disrespectful of this president but got up in arms when someone wasn't respectful of Bush is a hypocrit, pure and simple. I didn't agree with Bush on anything at all, but we still watched him give speeches in this house. He was our president and deserved that respect, even if I didn't like him or what he stood for. If you feel like Bush deserved respect just because he was president, then Obama deserves the same.

Mass hysteria is never a good thing, and this is looking more and more like that.

The lesson plan of the speech that is online at the Whitehouse website smacks of indoctrination.

I will copy and paste it for you here. Or if you like you may go to the Whitehouse site at the following url. Its listed as a link under Classroom Engagement Resources

http://www.whitehouse.gov/mediaresources...

From a historical content it is very similar to what the Nazis did with their Hitler Youth. That is my opinion at this time.

The speech itself is supposed to be available online on Labor day for parents to review.

Menu of Classroom Activities

President Obama�fs Address to Students Across America

(PreK�]6)

Produced by Teaching Ambassador Fellows, U.S. Department of Education

September 8, 2009

Before the Speech

Teachers can build background knowledge about the President of the United States and his speech by reading books about presidents and Barack Obama. Teachers could motivate students by asking the following questions:

Who is the President of the United States?

What do you think it takes to be president?

To whom do you think the president is going to be speaking?

Why do you think he wants to speak to you?

What do you think he will say to you?

Teachers can ask students to imagine that they are delivering a speech to all of the students in the United States.

If you were the president, what would you tell students?

What can students do to help in our schools?

Teachers can chart ideas about what students would say.

Why is it important that we listen to the president and other elected officials, like the mayor, senators, members of congress, or the governor? Why is what they say important?

During the Speech

As the president speaks, teachers can ask students to write down key ideas or phrases that are important or personally meaningful. Students could use a note�]taking graphic organizer such as a �gcluster web;�h or, students could record their thoughts on sticky notes. Younger children could draw pictures and write as appropriate. As students listen to the speech, they could think about the following:

What is the president trying to tell me?

What is the president asking me to do?

What new ideas and actions is the president challenging me to think about?

Students could record important parts of the speech where the president is asking them to do something. Students might think about the following:

What specific job is he asking me to do?

Is he asking anything of anyone else?

Teachers? Principals? Parents? The American people?

Students could record questions they have while he is speaking and then discuss them after the speech. Younger children may need to dictate their questions.

Menu of Classroom Activities (PreK�]6) President Obama�fs Address to Students Across America 2

After the Speech

Teachers could ask students to share the ideas they recorded, exchange sticky notes, or place notes on a butcher�]paper poster in the classroom to discuss main ideas from the speech, such as citizenship, personal responsibility, and civic duty.

Students could discuss their responses to the following questions:

What do you think the president wants us to do?

Does the speech make you want to do anything?

Are we able to do what President Obama is asking of us?

What would you like to tell the president?

Extension of the Speech

Teachers could extend learning by having students:

Create posters of their goals. Posters could be formatted in quadrants, puzzle pieces, or trails marked with the following labels: personal, academic, community, and country. Each area could be labeled with three steps for achieving goals in that area. It might make sense to focus first on personal and academic goals so that community and country goals can be more readily created.

Write letters to themselves about how they can achieve their short�]term and long�]term education goals. Teachers would collect and redistribute these letters at an appropriate later date to enable students to monitor their progress.

Write goals on colored index cards or precut designs to post around the classroom.

Interview one another and share goals with the class to create a supportive community.

Participate in school�]wide incentive programs or contests for those students who achieve their goals.

Write about their goals in a variety of genres, such as poems, songs, and personal essays.

Create artistic projects based on the themes of their goals.

Graph individual progress toward goals.

Looks like questions we've all asked our children, demanding our respect as Parents..i.e. "Who do you think you are talking to?"

Asking children to consider their goals, their community, participation in planning for their future, their individuality...don't shoot the messenger. These are all questions and conversations we have (hopefully) with our children, everyday, even begin with a command of attention from an authoritive figure..(coaches, teachers, principals, officers, the school board)

Asking our children to plan for the future, our interpretation or theirs, is not socialism, it's a conscious.

The school system doesn't mind taking and misusing the Federal funds it receives by the MILLIONS, but it will not allow the man whose signature gave them those millions to speak to it's recipients.

-- Posted by Freedomof Speech

obama borrowed trillions that the children will have to repay and gave them back a small percentage to use in their schools and you believe this gives him the right to speak to them???

Only if he means to apologize for robbing them blind!

Ha Ha....they've received MILLIONS from the Federal Gov't since the public school system began, once again, nice try, Obama did not, do this single handed! It went through House and Senate, so many more ppl were involved.

But you can't make sense of my last post...? Common sense doesn't wear well on some ppl.

As I have not read/heard the entire speech that Obama plans to give, I will not offer an opinion in that regard. However, it is my personal opinion that at this point there is little if any need for Obama to address school children. When I was in school, the only time we ever saw a live Presidential address was when George Bush (the elder one) announced that we had invaded Kuwait. That was a very historically significant address which I am glad to have been able to witness it first-hand. Further, Obama enjoys being on TV just a bit too much. Everytime you turn around he is having some "Presidential Addresss" on primetime. I never have and never will watch any of his scripted song & dances. I agree that the speech should not be aired...there is just no reason for it.

did someone say Mr Gray was UNAMERICAN ? UNAMERICAN IS THE SOCIALIST AGENDA THAT OBAMA IS TRING TO PUSH ON EVERYONE !!

WOW!!!! I consider myself an independent, with views toward the republican conservative side. I am allowing my two boys to watch the President of the United States give his speech. My wife and I are the ones that influence our boys the most and I have no qualm letting them watch a historical speech. Come on people, this is not brain washing. There are some not so good teachers that impact your kids more than this speech from the President. Most kids probably won't remember what he said. "God is great, beer is good, and people are CRAZY!" Billy Currington.

let's not let these students know what could be accomplished by furthering your education. Let's hold them tightly with paranoia and start preparing to support them for the rest of our lives!!

-- Posted by Freedomof Speech on Sat, Sep 5, 2009, at 10:05 AM

I have instilled in my children, pride in accomplishment, in winning and achieving good grades. They know what it feels like to win and loose. I don't need the President's help in getting my job as a parent done. Both of my children are honor students. To this point my wife and I have done it without input from the White House, and I will be damned if I need help from there now. The ones that we are now and will continue to support for the rest of their lives, as you so eloquently put it, are those who have and will continue to be repressed by the liberals as the ones who have not, and need the government to hand them everything they need to become a HAVE. That is not the course that my children will take. I thank you for your concern.

Paranoia.

By George, if we can't have GOD in schools, we damn sure don't need the devil in our schools!!!

I am so surprised I have not heard anyone saying,"You will not show his speech because he is black". I have heard this crap till I am blue in the face.. To all of you on here to scared to talk about this, Shame on you.. I want to say to everyone like this,IT ISN'T A RACE THING!!! It is about taking a stand against a mistake. I personally think Obama is a good man, but he stinks as a leader. I am so glad that I see people speaking out against him. I mean everyone, Democrats, republicans, Wait, AMERICANS!

Why do you right wingers have children in public schools, anyway? Public schools are socialist. Besides, they might learn critical thinking skills and stop believing all the crazy things you believe.

You should homeschool them, so you have more time to teach them how the earth is only 6,000 years old, evolution is a lie, and Obama is the anti-christ.

LMAO, you people are nuttier than squirrel poop.

I don't have a problem with his speech but teachers are constantly reprimanded by the public for allowing anything to be said in the classroom that others disagree with so why should this be any different?

Most kids won't listen anyway and most of what he says appears to be all talk. He is not running this country. He is letting others do it for him and those who elected him received a big shock when he got in the WH and did nothing but spend money.

The problem is when parents don't speak to their children about anything and those kids are left to make uninformed decisions. I discuss everything with my kids(young adults now) and they don't always agree with me but I want them to be independent and make their own decisions. If you interact with your child daily about everything that is happening in the world, then this should not be a big deal.

My problem is with the government dictating so strenuously about what has to be taught and TESTED in the public schools.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but the American Public has not become "sick and tired of the Obama Administration pushing crap down our throats."; that is something only the conservatives believe. If they were, the servers at the White House and Congress would be crashing continually.

Brett, good luck with the Vikings, except when they play the Packers.

We must of forgotten,he was voted in the office of The President of the United States of America!

.

And other Presidents have spoken to our children.

I for one am so sick of being dictated to as my rights as a parent.

These children our our country's future.

And it doesn't matter what color he is. When we bleed, we all bleed the color red. Have we forgotten we are all Gods children???

I feel the Board of Education doesn't mind taking the money from the goverment.And I feel like we need to remember, Obama was voted in.If you don't like him,vote him out next election.

Thats what we need to think about on the next Board of Education elections. As some of them need to remember, "They were voted in and can be voted out just the same."

I for one am so sick of being dictated to as my rights as a parent.

-- Posted by Wheelbillie on Sun, Sep 6, 2009, at 5:53 PM

You're not having your rights dictated, quite the contrary. They are leaving the decision in your hands. You can decide to let your kids watch it (it will be on youtube within minutes) or you can decide not to let them.

Forcing kids to watch the speech would be infringement on your rights as a parent.

For those of you who are parents of honors students and are very supportive and influential in your children's lives, I commend you. However, your children should be mature and responsible enough to understand what is being said and make their own informed decisions about how to interpret it. They aren't the students that truly "need" to hear this speech. Think about the less privileged children in this county, in the inner cities, and all over America, that do not have supportive parents at home. These are the kids that are dropping out of school and ending up on welfare as a burden to the rest of the taxpayers. Many children don't have anyone else encouraging them to stay in school and to set goals for themselves. If the President can encourage just one child to graduate high school or go to college, then his speech will have been worthwhile. The man is trying to be proactive in reaching out to our next generation as a positive influence. It is baffling to me that some people are so opposed to our President using his power and influence to help and encourage our children in need when education and unemployment is such a problem in our own community.

This is just ridiculous. The President just wants to encourage children to stay in school and set educational goals. The letter the President wanted written was how students can help him. The gist of the letter was to be suggestions as to how the President can better serve the people and not how people can better serve the President. I have no problem with my children listening to the President as long as he is not articulating political ideology. If the President is only talking about goals and the importance of staying in school, I have no problem with my children listening to him regardless of which party is his affiliation.

Thank God, I wish the rest of the country would do the same. He should be ashamed of him selfe pushing his views on there little minds. Yes he altered his speech but still there in school to learn not be brain washed by his hidden agendas! My 7 and 4 yr old's dont need to worry about what we have to worry about

Really, are you kidding me? You people want to fuss and cuss because the president of the united states would like to speak to the kids of this nation? I am for the president being able to speak to our kids, this is the PRESIDENT of the United States. It is people like you that have ruined this country. No Prayer in schools, god forbid we say the pledge of allegiance in school. And we have time to tell our kids what to wear at school. I for one think we need to get rid of a dress code. But If our president wants to talk to the kids of the united states, you people get fussy. I don't get it. Our president wants to talk to the kids, This takes an hour out of the school day. I remember when I was in school, we watched the space shuttle launch. That was pointless.

Remember this is the revised version of the speech, where obama's handlers edited out the controversial stuff.

Forcing kids to watch the speech would be infringement on your rights as a parent.

-- Posted by quietmike on Sun, Sep 6, 2009, at 7:30 PM

That is no different than forcing kids to study History from any one particular publisher. Do we see a big drama over that?

Well in afew days this will be all over with. And life will go on.

I just wonder if the Presdent was Mc Cain, if Mr Gray would of made the same choice??

I personally think Mr Gray has better things to do with his time.And other issues that he seems to be ignoring.

If this is really about the demands of the instructional schedule, I applaud what must be the next logical decision- that Bedford County Schools will no longer be closed for the Celebration and that entertainment movies (DVDs and videos) with no curricular value will no longer be tolerated.

As this is clearly not the case, I am saddened by this obvious political decision.

By not allowing students to see President Obama's speech, the school system HAS politicized the issue. The only people who are opposed to it are those rabidly opposed to President Obama. I know many people who disagree with some of the President's policies but who understand we should should support children in learning to respect our system of government. President Obama is the duly elected leader of our country. Does anyone really believe that if this exact speech were given by someone with whom the opponents agreed, they would demand it not be shown? Many people who adamantly disagreed with the policies of our last administration did not teach hatred and intolerance to their children and if they had, it would have been wrong, as well.

This is not about President Obama's speech, it is about intolerance. Intolerance for anything with which you disagree. I do not think it is a danger to my children to hear things with which I disagree. I am active in their lives and have raised them to evaluate all sides and make decisions based on facts not raging anger or to follow the masses. If you are so scared for your child to hear a view different from yours, perhaps you should think about how you are raising your children. The ability to think critically, even at an early age, is important. Otherwise, you are raising your children on dogma, irrational thought and a significant lack of charitable good will. What religion believes you should not treat others with respect whether they agree with you or not? What faith believes simply hearing an opposing view is dangerous? I do not know of any real religions that are narrow minded.

Of course, hearing that it is important to work hard, study, respect your teachers and parents and care for those around you is not a bad message. If you think that it is subversive, this would be a perfect teachable moment to talk to your child about why you disagree with the President's speech but believe we should to treat all people with respect. By discussing our different ideas with civility, we can find answers to the problems that plague our country.

ED GRAY took away the choice when he censored the speech out of the class room.

How did Ed Gray give us more freedom of choice by removing the choice from us??????

-- Posted by LetsGetRealFolks

Do you know what the word Histrionics means?

All schools have internet access. 90 +% of households have tv. The public library has internet access.

If you're that concerned, post your address so all the poor children who are just waiting for ONE person to tell them hard work is the answer, can come to your house for a screening.

quietmike

ahh yes schools have internet, but do they allow students to use it at will? Would they show them where the speech is or would they do like Ed Gray and use their position to prevent them block them from seeing it?

Would there be time during the day for the student to take off the regular lesson plans to view the speech - heck they wouldn't even allow them as a group to see it what makes you think they'll let them one by one??

Out of the so called 90% of homes with Tv how many actually have access to channels that will show the speech, how many of the parents will actually turn off their shows so the students can watch it if they do have a channel that it is on?

The you mention the library, tell me have you been there lately?? The parents of students that need the encouragement for education the most, are not likely to bother to drive them to the library. It is the children of families that do not have the support at home, that need to hear this message the most.

No I did not vote for Bush but he had my utmost respect and backing until he sold us out for his war. And as long as Obama is working for us the people, and does not stab us in the back the way Bush did I will support him too. I am a christian conservative, but can not back the hate filled republican agenda.

I do agree on one point with you Mr Gray does need to be called out on his actions face to face, and I feel that as a community we need to stand up to way he abused his position to further his political views.

Oh and it wasn't just 1 person - it as the President of our nation, who like many other Presidents before him was doing his job. The only difference is that the right wings are so full of hate now that they will do anything no matter how low to undermine any and everything he does, they don't care what it is , if it comes from Obama they will do everything in their power to destroy it. Hate is a powerful thing and they are using it to the fullest.

I'm not surprise of the many people refusing to let their children listen to Obama's speech. I knew it would be this way because of all the hatred for this paticular man, as well as the democratic party and administration. I myself have no problem with a President addressing my children on the importants of education and finishing school. I know as their parents if their was anything I disagreed with, I would sit my children down and talk to them about it.

However I do feel it would have been better for the Presidents speech to have been given on paper to every student to have and read, rather than children taking the time in school to listen to the president. He still should have his speech aired on TV where all can see, but I do not feel it was neccessary to have children listen to it during school hours. As far as Ed-Gray making a decision as to wether "He" would allow the children to take part in what the President wanted, I feel was unfair to the parents (Again) making choices of (Opting THEIR child) out of it.

Some parents feel their children don't need the President encouraging their kids about getting their education and finishing school, or doing things to improve their future and the future of our country. That may be true for some, not for all children. Their are some children in our country whose parents are not encouraging their children, and some of these kids are just waiting to hit their 17 birthday so they can quit going to school. These kids are having a hard time finding jobs, and end up doing crime to try and survive by any means neccessary. They are having children, and are not encouraging their children to strive for a better future either. And yes as tax-payers we end up paying for their way of living.

This speech isn't just about your child or mines, it is about "ALL" the children especially the ones that do not see a point in getting an education, that do not want to try and learn, that can't wait to quit school, and "Even some Adults" now days that need to go back and get a GED, or career training. This country will not get any better if people refuse to TRY and improve it; If you try something and it don't work out, then try it another way. It is pointless to keep doing the same thing if it doesn't work or has been failing. A mind is a terrible thing to waist.

the racists of shelbyville has come out to play on this topic!!!!!!!!!!!