Is it any wonder why this election is what it is now and Trump rules.
Remember this stuff from 2009.
Good time man, good times.
Parents ask to excuse kids from Obama speech
Some object to Obama speech to students
By Gary Scharrer and Ericka Mellon Published 5:30 am, Wednesday, September 2, 2009
AUSTIN —
Some Texas parents are asking school principals to excuse their children from listening to a speech that President Obama will make to schools next week on the grounds that it smacks of political indoctrination.
Obama will deliver an address directly to students on the importance of education beginning at 11 a.m. (CST) Tuesday.
“The President will challenge students to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for their learning,” Secretary of Education Arne Duncan wrote in an Aug. 26 letter to school principals.
Critics of the president are using the Internet to build opposition and to encourage parents to request their children not be forced to listen.
“I think it's inappropriate because it smacks of political indoctrination of the worst kind,” said Brett Curtis, a parent of two children attending Pearland Independent School District schools. “It's not just a speech. It's a specific curriculum to go along with the speech directly from the president of the United States without review.”
Schools are getting a menu of classroom activities for students, according to the education secretary, designed by teachers “to help engage students and stimulate discussion on the importance of education in their lives.”
But superintendents and school boards had no role in developing the activities, Curtis said.
“It just seems to me that the federal government should not have that kind of influence on our school districts and the education of our children,” he said.
Curtis said he would instruct his children to boycott the speech as “a general protest. I know that's going on around the country.”
Local school districts will decide whether their students participate.
“It is not uncommon for students to watch a presidential speech that is given during the school day,” said Debbie Ratcliffe, spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency. “This situation is somewhat different in that this speech apparently will be directed to students. But each district can decide how best to handle it for their community.”
State Board of Education member David Bradley, R-Beaumont, defines the dispute as a “turf issue” and objects to the U.S. Department of Education taking classroom time away from local schools. The speech might be innocuous, Bradley said, “but look at the follow-up activities.”
“Under Texas statute, parents have the right to review all instructional materials. They also have the right to opt out their kids from any program they might object to,” Bradley said, citing sex education as an example.
State Board member Barbara Cargill, R-The Woodlands, said parents are complaining to her about the speech taking up valuable and precious instruction time.
One parent told her Obama's speech does not allow for healthy debate. It simply “obligates the youngest children in our public school system to agree with Obama's initiatives or be ostracized by their teachers and classmates.”
Others defend the president's interaction with children.
“It's hard to imagine anything more ridiculous than attacking the president of the United States for talking to students about the importance of getting a good education and being a good citizen,” said Kathy Miller, president of the Texas Freedom Network, which monitors public education in Texas.
“I wish our elected leaders were responsible enough to denounce this kind of wild-eyed paranoia. But the problem is, too many of them are actually feeding this kind of nonsense – like when the governor flirts with secessionists and State Board of Education members say the President sympathizes with terrorists,” Miller said.
Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, also objects to the president's speech to schoolchildren.
“President Bush believed that no child should be left behind. President Obama apparently believes no voter should be left behind, no matter how young,” Patrick said. “This seems more of an extended campaign for himself, as opposed to focusing on the important issue of education.”
Todd Hickman said he already has informed the principal of his seventh-grade son in the Lumberton Independent School District in East Texas to excuse his child from the speech.
“I am the parent of my child. If I want to have a discussion with my child on any political issue or any in regards to what my child needs to do with their life and how people will interact with society and contribute to society, that's something I want to be able to do with my child,” Hickman said.
In 1989, President George H.W. Bush used a nationally televised speech to schoolchildren to push an anti-drug campaign. He urged young people to stop using drugs.
Hickman noted that he did not have children 20 years ago, but would have objected to Bush's speech to school children on the same grounds that he opposes Obama's address.