Great speech. It could have been delivered by Ronald Reagan in his day. I wish he actually believed the stuff about personal accountability. It does not appear much in his policies.
many schools chose not to show it under the guise that "they will review it and decide if they want to show it at a later date." Or schools, like Leander, said logistically they didn't have the technology to make it happen. Yeah, right. Leander schools didn't have the technology? It will be interesting if these school districts will ever really show it in the coming days, because i cant imagine for the life of me that they would not show it due to it's content! It's a stay in school message. School districts want kids to stay in school, right?
My district left it up to the teacher. I didnt show it because I teach pre-k and it would have been pointless for most (if not all) the kids. If I taught one of the upper grades I probably would have shown it. I would not have used their lesson plan though.
Having paid for my own education through work and loans, I take exception to the word worked. I believe he was given scholarships and free rides.
I have a 6th grade boy. At his mothers house, he has a 1st grade brother. His mother asked both of them if they watched the President and what did the President say. The first grader said "He said to wash your hands a lot". An hour later, the 6th grader answered "He said to do your best and to always wash your hands". I told this to another mother of a middle schooler and she said she got the hand washing answer as well. I am curious what most kids took away from the speech. If your kids watched it, ask them what the President said and post their answer.
Carter was a Naval Lieutenant and served 7 years Naval career - Carter served on surface ships and on diesel-electric submarines in the Atlantic and Pacific fleets. As a junior officer, he completed qualification for command of a diesel-electric submarine. He applied for the US Navy's fledgling nuclear submarine program run by then Captain Hyman G. Rickover. Rickover's demands on his men and machines were legendary, and Carter later said that, next to his parents, Rickover had the greatest influence on him. Carter has said that he loved the Navy, and had planned to make it his career. His ultimate goal was to become Chief of Naval Operations. Carter felt the best route for promotion was with submarine duty since he felt that nuclear power would be increasingly used in submarines. During service on the diesel-electric submarine USS Pomfret, Carter was almost washed overboard.[8] After six years of military service, Carter trained for the position of engineering officer in submarine USS Seawolf, then under construction.[9] Carter completed a non-credit introductory course in nuclear reactor power at Union College starting in March 1953. This followed Carter's first-hand experience as part of a group of American and Canadian servicemen who took part in cleaning up after a partial nuclear meltdown at Canada's Chalk River Laboratories reactor in 1952.[10][11] Upon the death of his father, James Earl Carter, Sr., in July 1953, Lieutenant Carter immediately resigned his commission, and he was discharged from the Navy on October 9, 1953.[12][13] This cut short his nuclear powerplant operator training, and he was never able to serve on a nuclear submarine, since the first boat of that fleet, the USS Nautilus (SSN-571), was launched on January 17, 1955, over a year after his discharge from the Navy.[14]
My kindergarten boys watched it. The washing the hands part has been a ritual in their schools since they were two, so they didn't mention that part. I asked what the favorite parts of their day were - one (the math kid) said seeing the President speak on a big screen with the 1st Graders. The other one said going to the library and getting a book on drag racing (he wants to be a car designer right now). We talked about responsibility and jobs. We then played "write a message and deliver it" with one of them responsible for getting the materials and the other one making sure the written message (To:, [message]; From:, date . . .) gets sorted and delivered. They are both studying coins (value, math, design, date, . . .), so we played "storekeeper" and "cashier" using their toys. We then talked about the meaning of "Liberty" on the coins. We're lucky; we have great teachers in Denver Public Schools. We have an involved group of parents that value learning. The speech, which we will share with them again at the end of the year as a memory marker for what the boys experienced during the year, provides a jumping off point for us as parents - one of hundreds we will loop back into their learning stack as they develop more and more nuanced perspectives on their world. I am looking forward to seeing their journals for the day to see what they took away from this brief break from what is already a routine. My guess is one will describe the setting, with a breakdown of the technology (the screen showing the President). The other will note the date, how many days of school we have had this year, what time the speech happened and a brief description of his current career goal. But come to think of it - one of them did grab the hand sanitizer bottle and bring it into the study telling me to use it - so maybe the President was effective in raising their awareness of keeping their hands clean.
If Obama truly believed in personal accountability he would not want the government to control every aspect of peoples' lives. On a side note, the teleprompter should ease up on the use of the word "I" just a tad.
washpark: So you're telling me that when your kids get home you continue their education with enrichment activities and engage with them about their development? Surely not. There is TV to watch and shopping to do. Things to buy and sell. Gossip to engage in. I am sure this happens, but I often feel like the majority of parents have a Ronco "set it and forget it" mindset about education, with the schoolhouse being the rotisserie oven and the only needed checkups are "What did you do today?" when they pick the kid up. Or perhaps the fire just dies when the kids hit the teenage years. ******* bravo, my friend, keep it up.
You know, I can't help but feel that Republicans lost some street cred among independents and moderate Republicans with this whole fiasco. I was speaking to a friend of mine who is pretty apolitical but who usually votes Republican and who voted for McCain. She isn't what I would call a deep political thinker. She said "A lot of people were really unnecessarily mean to the President and I really can't understand why." "Much ado about nothing," I asked? She said "more like much viciousness about nothing." Then she mentioned that she'd seen Laura Bush on TV saying that there was nothing at all wrong with the President's speech. I think my friend is pretty typical of many women and men who aren't as tuned in as some of the posters on this BBS and that, politically, this whole thing was a loser for a lot of people who came off looking as both paranoid and shrill.
Agreed BI. This sharp reaction probably shocked the President, and as an intelligent man I think he reveled in the fact that he knew his speech had absolutely nothing with partisan politics. This issue is quickly being dropped by Rush/Beck etc. If he lost the support of a few, lesser educated types- I don't think those people ever voted for him in the first place.
You should probably master the keyboard and the English language before making a claim like that. I'm just saying...
IMHO, the vast majority of those complaining did not ever even read the material. The complaints were all about who was delivering the message. There is a huge crossover between those complaining and those questioning whether Obama was born in the US. And yes, the idiots who complained about President Bush doing the same thing in the early 90's were just as bad as the the idiots complaining about Obama doing it. My son is in high school. We have had a few conversations about the controversy, and his opinion was that it was silly to intentionally skip the talk. Lo and behold, yesterday he woke up sick and had to stay home. So I have had a lot of fun telling him that everyone is going to think he was one of those who stayed home to avoid being indoctrinated. There is nothing is quite as fun as tormenting your children.
