Duncan: Obama to 'Challenge' Students

When kids all across the country return to school Tuesday, some will see a welcoming message from President Barack Obama. Education Secretary Arne Duncan says Obama will talk about the need to work hard and stay in school. (Sept. 5)

Presidents, Students & Controversy: Hardly New - Political Hotsheet - CBS News

Presidents, Students & Controversy: Hardly New - Political Hotsheet - CBS News:

"Conservative pundits have been raising objections over President Barack Obama's planned speech to the nation's students on Tuesday in which he will encourage children to stay and excel in school.

Critics believe the president will use that speech to promote his political agenda, rather than simply inspire them to excel in class, and some school officials have said they will not let students watch it."

Quote of the Day: On Obama’s Speech To Schoolkids | The Moderate Voice

Quote of the Day: On Obama’s Speech To Schoolkids The Moderate Voice:

"Our political Quote of the Day comes from White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on the furor over President Barack Obama’s upcoming speech to school kids, as conservatives around the country are calling districts and demanding that their kids not be forced to sit through what some of them are calling socialistic political indoctrination:

“I think we’ve reached a little bit of the silly season when the president of the United States can’t tell kids in school to study hard and stay in school. I think both political parties agree that the dropout rate is something that threatens our long-term economic success.”"

Politics of fear are still with us - Salt Lake Tribune

Politics of fear are still with us - Salt Lake Tribune:

"So President Obama wants to talk to kids about education. The political right is horrified. It's not only a socialist plot, they say, it's illegal. Even worse, the president is trying to steal the children's minds in some scenario in which a live video of Obama's speech will turn the little ones into leftist automatons.

It's all about fear, and we as a nation seem to be drowning in it.

We are gripped by recession and a 9.7 percent unemployment rate, the cost of living and health care are soaring and our military is fighting two increasingly intractable wars.
Right or wrong, the Obama administration is responsible for doing what it can to ease our burdens and, it should be hoped, our minds.

But the opposition, which is anything but loyal, seems to have decided that scaring the socks off its followers is the best way to battle the president's 'socialist' agenda."

Listen to teachers on school reform | DesMoinesRegister.com | The Des Moines Register

Listen to teachers on school reform DesMoinesRegister.com The Des Moines Register:

"Some say people have no idea what they're up against. The most common obstacles they mention: Children coming to school tired, hungry or just not motivated to learn. Parents lacking the time - or interest - to make homework a priority. Administrators who pressure teachers not to raise academic expectations too high."

Others say we have been too critical of teachers, particularly by calling for a great teacher in every classroom. Our observation that there is a mix of strong, average and mediocre teachers in many schools does not sit very well with these teachers.Then there are those who say teachers have not had enough of a voice in this project, and they have a point.It's time to pay more attention to what reforms teachers think would help them give students a globally competitive education.

Yes, teachers took part in two Register roundtable discussions, and they have been interviewed for many parts of the project. The Register also surveyed teachers statewide in May and this summer began to report their views, starting with beginning minimum pay and whether they have enough time to help students.

Watch for us to publish more survey results this fall.But teachers' voices should be heard on a more consistent basis. So we invited three teachers to blog for us on the Register's Web site this school year: Frank Beard, a Southeast Polk High School and Drake University graduate who is with Teach for America in Kansas City, Mo.; Amy Prime, a second-grade teacher in Newton; and Melissa Spencer, a North High School science teacher in Des Moines. You can find them under the heading "Class Matters" on our Opinion and World-Class Schools pages online.

The plan is to ask them all the same question every week; this week it's about class size and what they'd like to change.

No children but all teachers left behind

No children but all teachers left behind

With the onslaught of current educational rhetoric, rocky reform, and recent education regulations (dictates of No Child Left Behind legislation), teachers have increasingly been forced to focus on personal reality. On January 8, 2002, President Bush signed into Law the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Basically, this law dictates a deadline of 2014 for all public schools to assure that all students be proficient in math and reading with no, not even one child to be left behind. 2010 is fast approaching and things are intensifying as schools struggle to get their own no child left behind acts together before the 2014 deadline. Meanwhile public officials, school administrators, and the press have continually woven intricate, though often difficult to understand, webs of wordy discussions concerning NCLB effectually binding our schools and, more so, our classroom teachers within dark cocoons that have a chaotic educational metamorphosis going on inside. Important but seemingly forgotten is the fact that at the center of this changeling, beats the ever weakening, strangled and often broken heart of a struggling teacher.

No President Left Behind

No! Obama Stay Behind!

Reagan did it in 1989. Bush did it in 1991.

So, why is there such great controversy over Obama doing it in 2009?

President Obama is scheduled to address the nation’s school children on what will be the first day of school for a majority of students and families within our nation. Reportedly, the focus of his message, as president of our nation, will be to emphasize the importance of education and encourage our students to stay in school. Obama’s words will most likely echo the impact that education has had within his own life, as he has reached a destiny that only forty-three other Americans within our nation have achieved.

The question that should be posed is why are so many individuals are exhibiting such extreme levels of hostility, opposition, and just downright disrespect for President Obama’s efforts to acknowledge, motivate, and empower our children within the public school system?

PROFESSIONAL TEACHERS OR POLITICAL UNION?

PROFESSIONAL TEACHERS OR POLITICAL UNION?

“It’s in their DNA," Bailey said. “They can’t help themselves.”

Tracey Bailey and I were discussing teacher unions and their seeming drive to politicize education with partisan endorsements and controversial social issues. He is Director of Educational Policy for the Association of American Educators and was National Teacher of the Year in 1993; is extraordinarily articulate, and his command of his subject has enabled him to testify for the AAE before Congressional committees. We talked while he drove south on Interstate 95 and I hunched over my keyboard in Phoenix balancing a portable phone on my shoulder. I was trying to understand the differences between the NEA and AFT on the one hand and the regional teacher associations on the other for which the AAE is a national umbrella.

"The big turning point was in the early seventies," Bailey said. Before that time, the NEA had been more loosely organized, and a teacher could belong to a local organization not affiliated with the national. When the American Federation of Teachers suddenly began drawing members away from the NEA, it took a more assertive approach to organizing.

“The trigger really was what happened to the dues a teacher paid, changing to what was called unified dues. This meant that like it or not, a large portion of your local dues would go to the national teacher union.

Editorial - Respect Your Children - NYTimes.com

Editorial - Respect Your Children - NYTimes.com:


"The American right has directed many silly and offensive attacks at President Obama. But so far nothing compares with the news that right-wing demagogues on talk radio and the Web, along with Republican Party officials, are trying to stop children from hearing the president urge them to stay in school — because, they say, that is socialist propaganda.

Perhaps this shouldn’t come as a surprise after a summer in which town hall meetings on health care have been turned into mindless shouting matches, where protesters parade guns and are cheered on by elected officials. Not only Sarah Palin, but people who know better — like Senator Charles Grassley — have been tossing around the fiction that Mr. Obama is planning to institute “death panels” to speed the infirm elderly to their ends"

Still, it was startling to read in Friday’s Times about the overheated and bizarre response to Mr. Obama’s plan to give a speech in a Virginia school next week that schools around the country also can show.

The White House says Mr. Obama will talk about the importance of education — hardly, we hope, a controversial topic. But the article said that in a growing number of school districts, especially in Texas, parents, talk-show hosts and some Republican officials are demanding that schools either refuse to show it or allow parents to keep their children home. The common refrain is that Mr. Obama will offer a socialist message — although nobody said what they meant by that.

There is, of course, nothing socialist in any of Mr. Obama’s policies, as anyone with a passing knowledge of socialism and its evil history knows. But in this country, unlike actual socialist countries, nobody can be compelled to listen to the president. What is most disturbing about all this is what it says about the parents — and the fact that they have such little regard for their children’s intelligence and ability to think.

Stir created by Obama's speech to students is 'a sad time for America' - NJ.com

Stir created by Obama's speech to students is 'a sad time for America' - NJ.com:

"Here we go again.

One side takes what should be a simple presidential pep talk and aggrandizes it into a 'historic moment,' and sends out a 'menu of classroom' activities so teachers across America can bring home the president's message. The other side wraps itself in the flag and accuses the president of trying to brainwash American kids and create a 'cult personality,' as un-American as Mao or Saddam."

How can something so simple get so stupid.

The bigger question is, when will the great masses in the middle say enough is enough.

President Obama will go on TV Tuesday at noon and speak to the nation's school kids. It's what every American president should do, and many have done. His job. As a role model. As national cheerleader. As an example of accomplishment and beacon of optimism.

"Hey, kids! Be like me. Stay in school, work hard and someday you, too, could grow to be president."

Obama's speech leads to a parental panic attack; but what do kids think? - St. Petersburg Times

Obama's speech leads to a parental panic attack; but what do kids think? - St. Petersburg Times:

"Parents can be so exhausting.

They don't want kids to do drugs. Or stay up late. Or skip school.

And they certainly don't want them to watch a speech about staying in school.

Barack Obama is webcasting to classrooms across the country Tuesday with advice to students. It has turned into a collective parental panic attack. Politicians released official statements. Blogs are afire with commentary on both sides."

Maine expands its laptop drive to equip each high schooler - The Boston Globe

Maine expands its laptop drive to equip each high schooler - The Boston Globe:


"FARMINGDALE, Maine - The state that was the first to provide laptops to every seventh- and eighth-grader in its public schools is moving on to its high schools, with Maine’s top education official vowing yesterday that every high school student will have a laptop computer within two years.

The state is currently distributing 67,000 computers to more than half of its high schools. These will give students the skills they will need to compete in the workplace, said Don Siviski, superintendent of Regional School Unit 2.

“The competitive world that these students are going to be engaged in - it isn’t only the United States, the Northeast, or Maine. Their competitors are going to be all over the world. They need to be savvy,’’ he said. “Schools need to join the 21st century to prepare these kids for that world.’’"

Local News | Revealing support for ailing schools | Seattle Times Newspaper

Local News Revealing support for ailing schools Seattle Times Newspaper:

"An unusual fundraising effort is keeping education front and center in the minds of Vashon Island residents.

Twelve husbands and fathers revealed more than their support for the ailing local school system in the 2010 Vashon Island DreamBoats Wall Calendar.
Each strikes a whole-lotta-skin-showing beefcake pose with nothing between the camera and his privates but a well-placed prop. Not quite starkers, but close."

Sacramento-area students can ditch Obama TV talk - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Sacramento-area students can ditch Obama TV talk - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News Sacramento Bee:

"Maria Lopez, spokeswoman for the Sacramento City Unified School District, said the district didn't order opt-out letters.
'But we did ask principals that if they were going to show the Obama address, they please provide an option for students whose parents did not want them to view it,' Lopez said."