source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20090903/pl_ynews/ynews_pl888_1summary:
president obama invites students across the country to view a webcast speech "about the
importance of education;
about the importance of staying in school; how we want to improve our
education system and why it’s so important for the country." (president's words). here are a few of the discussion questions the president urges (NOT requires) classes to go over after the speech:
-- What is the President trying to tell me?
-- What is the President asking me to do?
-- What resonated with you from
President Obama's speech?
-- What is President Obama inspiring you to do?
of course, the republican contingent is up in arms over this. Jim Greer, the chairman of the
Republican Party of Florida: "The address scheduled for September 8, 2009, does not allow for
healthy debate on the President's agenda, but rather obligates the
youngest children in our public school system to agree with our
President's initiatives or be ostracized by their teachers and
classmates." [think back to school. were you ever "ostracized" for not agreeing with your classwork, or even for not paying attention to it? as i recall, that's what all the cool kids did.]
republican thinktank (the cato institute) describes these questions as
"detailed "classroom activities" ... with all sorts of troubling buzzwords and guidance." [did you notice any "buzzwords" in those questions? me neither. they look like typical reading-comprehension questions to me.]
WTF, republican party? now the (democratic) president has no place in educating our kids? what about BUSH II's "no child left behind"? worth noting is that BUSH I and Reagan both made an address to school children nationwide, and nobody was crying about propaganda then.
before we jump to partisanship on this one, let's just remember that there is
nothing required or mandatory about this webcast--the president is simply inviting school districts to participate. for that matter, i'm sure all you gun-carrying sons of small government had already pulled your kids out of the public schools after the last election anyway, so this probably won't affect you in the least.