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Harford Schools Will Not Broadcast Obama’s Live Address To Students

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The White House issued an advisory Wednesday that President Barack Obama will be speaking live to the nation’s school children at noon on Tuesday, September 8th in an address that can be streamed directly into the schools. The President’s speech about the importance of education was reportedly planned for weeks, but in recent days a national backlash has erupted that includes a call to boycott the schools that decide to air the speech by keeping students home on the day of the broadcast.

Locally, opponents are urging parents to keep their children home or otherwise ensure that they will not be required to see the speech or participate in the accompanying classroom activities created by the U. S. Department of Education.

A message posted on the federal department’s website and reportedly sent to principals nationwide, offers links to the suggested classroom activities for students in Pre-K through grade 12, to be used following the airing of the President’s 15-20 minute speech. Some of the activities were recently amended in reaction to the backlash. Of the speech itself, the website says the President will “speak directly to the nation’s children and youth about persisting and succeeding in school. The president will challenge students to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for their learning.”

Bill Reinhard, spokesman for the Maryland State Department of Education, told The Dagger that the classroom lessons came entirely from the federal government and that the state was “not involved”, leaving local school districts scrambling to make decisions over whether and how students will participate in the event. Teri Kranefeld, Manager of Communications for Harford County Public Schools said school officials were meeting later today (Thursday) to discuss a response.

Tony Passaro, of the Bel Air Tea Party Coalition, sent out a strongly worded email early Thursday to his contact list, calling for a nationwide boycott of schools unless they agreed not to air the broadcast. Passaro’s email calls the speech and related activities “an invasion of our school systems for the sole purpose of propaganda for Obama” adding:

THIS IS A TEST BY THE ADMINISTRATION AND THE NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION, AND ALL THOSE THAT WANT TO SEE AMERICA FUNDAMENTALLY CHANGED. IF WE DO NOT STAND OUR GROUND AND LET THEM KNOW WE ABSOLUTELY WILL NOT ALLOW THIS, HOW DO WE KNOW THAT THE NEXT TIME OBAMA DECIDES TO INVADE THE SCHOOL SYSTEM, HE WON’T BE ASKING OUR CHILDREN TO SPY ON US, THEIR PARENTS? WE DON’T! HE HAS ALREADY ASKED FELLOW AMERICANS TO SPY ON EACH OTHER AND THERE IS NOTHING BENEATH HIM AND HIS THUGS.

But Passaro told The Dagger in a phone interview that he is not personally making the decision for parents to boycott local schools, rather he is leaving it up to parents to spread the word about the speech and to reach consensus about what would constitute acceptable school policies regarding student participation.

Here is the full text of Passaro’s letter:

BE ADVISED AMERICA, ONCE AGAIN WE ARE BEING ASSAULTED.

TIME TO FIGHT BACK.

MY THOUGHTS ON OBAMA’S INTENTIONS TO USE OUR SCHOOLS TO PUSH HIS POLITICAL AGENDA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SCHOOLS ARE FUNDED IN THESE UNITED STYATES ON THE NUMBER OF STUDENTS WHO ARE IN ATTENDANCE ON ANY GIVEN DAY. HAVING SAID THAT, MONEY SEEMS TO TALK LOUDER THAN PRINCIPLE.

AS A PATRIOTIC CITIZEN OF THIS NATION, NOT AS A MEMBER OF ANY GROUP, EXCEPT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, I CALL FOR A NATIONWIDE BOYCOTT OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEMS ACROSS THIS COUNTRY UNLESS THE STATE BOARDS OF EDUCATION AGREE NOT TO AIR THIS BROADCAST. THEY MUST PUBLICLY ANNOUNCE THAT THEY WILL NOT AIR THIS.

MANY OF OUR SCHOOLS HAVE DECIDED TO MAKE THIS VOLUNTARY AND ALLOW PARENTS THE OPTION OF NOT HAVING THEIR CHILDREN VIEW THIS. I SAY THAT IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH.

WHY SHOULD THOSE THAT SEEK TO DESTROY THIS NATION SUBVERT OUR CHILDREN.

WHY SHOULD OBAMA BE ALLOWED TO FURTHER HIS AGENDA AT TAXPAYER EXPENSE?

SCHOOL IS NOT A PLACE FOR PROPAGANDA, IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE FOR LEARNING. NOT FOR LEARNING THE OBAMA AGENDA OR LEARNING TO PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO OBAMA. THIS IS ABSOLUTELY GOING TOO FAR.

THERE IS NOTHING THIS INSANE MAN AND HIS ANTI-AMERICAN MOVEMENT WON’T DO TO OVERTHROW OUR FORM OF GOVERNMENT. NOR NO LOWS THEY WON’T STOOP TO, TO ACCOMPLISH THEIR GOALS.

WE, AS AMERICANS, CAN NOT ALLOW THIS INVASION OF OUR SCHOOL SYSTEMS FOR THE SOLE PURPOSE OF PROPAGANDA FOR OBAMA.

THIS IS A TEST BY THE ADMINISTRATION AND THE NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION, AND ALL THOSE THAT WANT TO SEE AMERICA FUNDAMENTALLY CHANGED. IF WE DO NOT STAND OUR GROUND AND LET THEM KNOW WE ABSOLUTELY WILL NOT ALLOW THIS, HOW DO WE KNOW THAT THE NEXT TIME OBAMA DECIDES TO INVADE THE SCHOOL SYSTEM, HE WON’T BE ASKING OUR CHILDREN TO SPY ON US, THEIR PARENTS? WE DON’T! HE HAS ALREADY ASKED FELLOW AMERICANS TO SPY ON EACHOTHER AND THERE IS NOTHING BENEATH HIM AND HIS THUGS.

THIS IS THE STRONGEST NON-VIOLENT MESSAGE THAT WE CAN SEND AND I THINK THAT SINCE THE ALMIGHTY DOLLAR SEEMS TO BE SO WORSHIPPED IN OUR CORRUPT GOVERNMENTAL SYSTEM, TAKING A FEW DOLLARS AWAY MIGHT MAKE A FEW HAVE A CHANGE OF MIND. (NOT HEART AS NOONE WHO WORKS TO DESTROY THIS COUNTRY HAS ONE OF THOSE).

Tony Passaro

Bel Air Tea Party Coalition

Passaro also offered this sample note to a school principal, for parents interested “in protecting your children from Obama’s socialist mass indoctrination” by excusing students from viewing the speech or participating in related activities:

For those of you that need it, ‘

Here is a sample letter that you may find of interest in protecting your children from Obama’s socialist mass indoctrination attempt that is scheduled to occur on September 8th, and a link to the site is provided below:

Dear Principal ____________ :

Please excuse _____Child’s Name__________ from class Tuesday, September 8, 2009 at 12:00 noon eastern standard time for the duration of the speech that will be broadcast live on the White House website www.whitehouse.gov.

Furthermore ____Child’s Name___________ does NOT have my permission to participate in any efforts “to help engage students and stimulate discussion on the importance of education in their lives” or any “student video contest on education” activities. (Quotes are from Secretary Arne Duncan’s letter to School Principals).

Challenging my child to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for my child’s learning is MY RESPONSIBILITY as a parent. I DO NOT CEDE this responsibility to President Obama, or anyone else – now or ever.

Signed,

A Responsible Parent

Here is the website with MUCH MORE INFORMATION on what is happening behind the scenes in regards to this insidious attempt to undermine parental authority:

http://networkedblogs.com/p10655209

Tony Passaro
Bel Air Tea Party Coalition

Delegate Rick Impallaria sent out an email of his own saying he is trying to get answers from local school systems about their plans involving the speech, telling parents he would support their decision to keep their children home from school next Tuesday “100%”. Citing the short notice about the impending speech and the lack of information about its content, Impallaria says “parents have the right to boycott what we fear as the start of the indoctrination of our children without the opportunity to review the material.”

Here is Impallaria’s email:

Pres. Obama’s Address to School Children on Sept. 8, 2009

With the news having broken yesterday about Pres. Obama’s address to school children, I am attempting to get several questions answered by the Baltimore and the Harford County Public Schools. Are they using the address? Will parents have the right to keep their children out of school for it, if they desire? Will their children have the right to a non-absence in this instance? Has this addition to the curriculum been approved by the School Board and the PTA? Has a curriculum outline been sent home to parents?

I am particularly concerned because of the short notice and the very little time for gathering information about the address, and for allowing for public reaction to this plan, especially since Monday is the Labor Day holiday, and the address is the following day.

According to the office of the Baltimore County Superintendent of Schools, if you do not want your child to participate, you need only notify the school principal, and your child will have an alternate activity available during the address. However, rather than stigmatize my child by having him pulled out of class, I would just keep him home that day (I do have two children in public school).

The Harford County Public Schools are meeting this afternoon at 4:15 pm (Sept. 3) to discuss this event, and no information is available yet.

If you, as a parent, choose not to send your child to school for Pres. Obama’s address, I want you to know I support you 100%.

If teachers have the right to strike, parents have the right to boycott what we fear as the start of the indoctrination of our children without the opportunity to review the material.

You can look at the White House’s concept of this address by going to http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/My-Education-My-Future/
It includes a link to the U. S. Dept. of Education lesson plans.

Nationwide, some parents don’t want their kids participating in the Obama presentation:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/09/03/parents-object-obamas-national-address-students/

Please feel free to forward this information to anyone you know is interested.

Rick Impallaria
Delegate, District 7
rick.impallaria@house.state.md.us

UPDATE:

Harford County Public Schools sent a mass Alert Now phone call out to parents on Thursday evening with a message saying the speech would not be broadcast live in school on Tuesday, but leaving open the possibility that the speech might be used in the classroom at a later date. Here is the text of the accompanying News Flash posted on the school system’s website:

We have received many inquiries from parents, students, staff and community as to whether Harford County Public Schools (HCPS) will provide access to view President Barack Obama’s national address to students, which will be broadcast live on the White House website, as well as C-SPAN, at noon, Tuesday, September 8.

HCPS instructional guidelines prevent us from streaming the live broadcast of the presidential address in schools. The guidelines establish that all videos and broadcasts must be previewed for instructional and curricular value. In addition, the viewing must include pre-viewing, during viewing, and post-viewing activities. Due to the live nature of this address, there is insufficient time for instructional preparation.

We recognize that there are students and families interested in viewing this event. We are providing the links for your convenience in order to allow parents to engage in meaningful dialogue with their children.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/live/

http://www.c-span.org/

With respect to potential future classroom use of the address, a determination regarding the appropriateness and direct instructional value will be made as a result of a collaborative effort among the teacher, the principal, and the Department of Curriculum and Instruction.

Del. Impallaria also issued a new letter this morning with some updated information:

Pres. Obama Address to Schoolchildren – Additional Info

HARFORD COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS

I just received this information from the Harford County Public Schools. At the conclusion of this afternoon’s meeting, they decided that they would not be showing the address live. It is the policy that videos etc. not be shown live. They must be previewed by teachers, principals, and the Dept. of Curriculum and Instruction; material must have instructional value relating to existing curriculum.

HCPS will provide this information on their website www.hcps.org, and they will also provide a link to the C-SPAN website where parents can view the President’s address with their children.

For further information, contact Terri Kranefeld, HCPS Communications Manager, 410-588-5203.

BALTIMORE COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS

The BCPS Superintendent’s Bulletin (vol. X, no. 16) states that, “Viewing the address with students is not mandatory. Teachers may choose to connect this current event to instruction. … Teachers should make the instructional decision that best meets the needs of their students. Meaningful experiences related to President Obama’s address will have the same qualities as meaningful instruction: rigorous, engaging, and purposeful acquisitioin and processing of knowledge.”

Questions should be addressed to the BCPS Coordinator for Social Studies, Mr. Rex Shepard, 410-887-4017.

I hope parents find this information helpful.

Rick Impallaria
Delegate, District 7
rick.impallaria@house.state.md.us

Comments

  1. This whole thing is absolutely ridiculous. I may not agree with everything this administration is pushing, but I still have respect for the office of president, and I teach my kids too as well. The right is quick to throw out claims of socialism and communism, but they are the ones now being quick to censor. Nevermind the fact that this president has a unique opportunity to inspire a class of citizens to achieve educationally for themselves. Maybe that’s what they are really afraid of…

    Look at me, I’m starting to sound like a… 🙂

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    • Steve The right is the only thing that is saving this country right now as you Liberal try to protect the man that calls himself God.I can,t believe that us as Americans have let him get this far.Ha is a smooth talker that is true but if you look at what he has done already and the people he has hired to help him you should even as a Liberal be able to figure it out.Your kids that are in school are the ones that will pay dearly for Obamas actions.He promised change alright well you got it and it is not done yet.Rodney

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  2. Good for Harford County. Our kids watch enough TV. Use this time (knowing Obama, the speech will last an hour or longer) to teach them the necessary basic skills in order to survive in the real world. Reading, writing and how to balance a check book. 10+ trillion dollars of national debt is going to hit them very, very soon.

    1+

    • “Knowing Obama”? How do you know Obama? Ever met him? Ever talked to him? And the speech won’t take longer than the required time, the most important item in ANY president’s term is his TIME. If they said 20 minutes, chances are, they are prepping for something else later to do so no more than 20 minutes. I have never seen a presidential broadcast go even 5 minutes longer than the time they said it would take.

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  3. Please, Jesus in heaven, tell me that I didn’t just read a piece wherein One Teabagging Captain Asshole, and another Known Legislative Thug had an effect on decision makers at the board of education. Politicians will always seek exposure, but they also represent us, the people. They are symbbols of our system of government. In parades, and in benign welcome-back messages to school children. The only people politicizing this (the parades, the classrooms, keeping enough people on staff to run the county gov’t) are frustrated wingnuts. May they crawl back into their holes.

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    • Gee, Matt who’s sounding frustrated here?

      A “benign welcome-back message” doesn’t require a lesson plan from the Department of Education asking the children to write a letter about how they can help the president achieve his political goals. A “benign welcome-back message” can be planned with the same forethought and consideration exercised by previous presidents and not force-fed by the White House. A “benign welcome-back message” doesn’t bypass the local boards of education and go directly to the teachers.

      I can certainly see why parents would be alarmed by these tactics regardless of what the message actually might be.

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    • Matt you also need to understand that it is against the Law to have any political program without the prior consent of the parents. READ BELOW. Would you be screaming if it was Sarah Palin giving the video?

      SEC. 1017. PROTECTION OF PUPILS.
      Section 439 of the General Education Provisions Act (20 U.S.C. 1232g) is amended to read as follows:
      “PROTECTION OF PUPIL RIGHTS
      (a) All instructional materials, including teacher’s manuals, films, tapes, or other supplementary material which will be used in connection with any survey, analysis, or evaluation as part of any applicable program shall be available for inspection by the parents or guardians of the children.
      “(b) No student shall be required, as part of any applicable program, to submit to a survey, analysis, or evaluation that reveals information concerning–
      “(1) political affiliations;
      “(2) mental and psychological problems potentially embarrassing to the student or his family;
      “(3) sex behavior and attitudes;
      “(4) illegal, anti-social, self-incriminating and demeaning behavior;
      “(5) critical appraisals of other individuals with whom respondents have close family relationships;
      “(6) legally recognized privileged or analogous relationships, such as those of lawyers, physicians, and ministers; or
      “(7) income (other than that required by law to determine eligibility for participation in a program or for receiving financial assistance under such program),

      without the prior consent of the student (if the student is an adult or emancipated minor), or in the case of an unemancipated minor, without the prior written consent of the parent.

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      • Telling kids to stay in school, work hard and don’t do drugs is not political! Further more you omitted sections of that code between 7 and the bottom and section b talks of a survey. This is no survey.

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        • I would be screaming if it was Sarah Palin because she is NOT our President. Obama is. We need to accept that. The President of the United States talking to our children is not a bad thing, is not a political thing. It is unpatriotic to ban the President from speaking in our schools. How does this look to our children? We should be setting a patriotic example for them and this is not it. How do you think this looks to other countries – that we refuse to show our President speaking to our children? We need to set our political agendas aside here and be realistic for a change. Open your ears and listen for yourself. Stop nodding your head to all these lies.

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          • I respect that he is the President….I can’t respect him as person because he offends my Christian beliefs.
            I don’t believe he is an honest person. I think we will be lucky to survive his term without a major division in this country.

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  4. Matt –

    You should be ashamed! You anonymous coward have violated the terms of service on this site by calling a real person vile and vulgar names impugning their character.

    The administrator should enforce the site’s policy and remove your post.

    Joe

    P.S. People are so brave cloaked in their anonymity!

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  5. Joe, go fag-bait someone else. Seriously. Bite it, man. Just b/c you’re 80-yrs-old and are slightly confused by the Interweb, don’t get all holy with me.

    Kind of funny, too, that Captain Pissarro throws out “spying” as the worst offense of the Obama administration. Hmmm. I seem to remember another recent president who had a major problem with Americans spying on Americans. Something to do with wiretapping..

    Also, I kind of wonder whether a man who scream-types in ALL CAPS with lots of EXCLAMATION POINTS!!! should really be dispensing advice on “boycotting” the school system.

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  7. This is utterly ridiculous. You might as well pull your kids out of school for good and home-school them. “Government intrusion into our schools! Teachers are government employees…those darn socialists! God help us! Obama wants our children to work hard and learn…he’s indoctrinating them!!!”

    I feel sorry for anyone following this Passaro clown.

    They must have changed the curriculum, because we watched live events political (inaugurations, etc.) on tv while I was in the school system. That excuse is a cop-out by the HCPS administration.

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    • Good Point did teacher’s show the inauguration of Obama live? was that approved? I think the rules changed because of a vocal group who doesn’t like either the polotics of the president.

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      • Cdev –

        There you go again with your disingenuous comparisons.

        The inauguration was a non-political news event and the President’s address is political promotion and propagandizing content. Even the President’s address directed to students when made compulsory in public schools must be vetted in accordance with curriculum protocol and procedures with parents given a choice regarding their children’s participation.

        This is just another federal government overreach in local affairs.

        Joe

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    • Yes teachers are (State)govt. employees, but it’s not their job to push political agenda on the students and I don’t know that anyone even made such an accusation. Furthermore, Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constriction states the roles that the federal govt. is to be limited to. There is no provision in Art. 1, Sec. for the federal govt. have any involvement in education. (So this makes you correct (and you didn’t even know it!); this is govt. intrusion)
      At least nine bus loads of people who are smart enough to see through B.O’s lies and hidden agenda are following Mr. Passaro to DC Sat. Join us, you might actually have a good time and learn something.

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    • What, Joe? Taking your flack ball and going home? Where was yr protest when socialist Bill Clinton told kids to “eat more fruit” back in ’96? Who was vetting that one? Oh, wait, he was a white guy with a communist agenda, not a black guy with a socialist one. Do I have that right? Or should I check with Glen Beck?

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        • Nicely done, Steve. There’s still a difference between the claim that it’s free political advertising and the claim that it’s insidiously, intentionally poisoning the minds of schoolchildren with black-pinky-rhetoric.

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          • Matt, I was just putting that in there for reference, not really directing it towards you. I posted my feelings on all this. I’m comfortable enough knowing that if my kids watched something and had questions, they would ask me for my opinion. They are also entitled to their own, like how they can’t understand why McCain lost because “he was old like George Washington”.

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      • Matt –

        You are a “race baiter” I wasn’t sure at first, but now it is clear for all to see you are all about racism.

        You gotta get out of the basement more often and maybe get some professional help dealing with your rage. Your mom has my sympathy and heartfelt concern.

        All the best to you and your mom,

        Joe

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        • Joe,

          I’m not speaking up for Matt here, but as someone who’s also had you do this to them, what is your obsession with bringing people’s mothers into the conversation?

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          • Dave –

            You are precious. You found time to not object to Matt’s “race baiting”, but to my comments, absolutely brilliant!

            Joe

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          • I made it clear that I don’t speak for Matt. I’m not a fan of how/what he’s writing and I’m not in a conversation with him. You frequently are in a conversation with me, however.

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          • Dave –

            But you did speak for Matt and were silent on his “race baiting” and vulgar insults. It says a great deal about you and what you think is important.

            Joe

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          • Joe,

            I don’t think anyone will read what Matt has written and take him seriously. Race baiting ain’t cool. Happy? I’m not interested in having a conversation with Matt.

            While I disagree with you quite often, at least you write your opinions without “vulgarity,” and I would rather have a conversation/debate with you (minus the “your mom” stuff).

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  9. HCPS policy (“HCPS instructional guidelines prevent us from streaming the live broadcast of the presidential address in schools. The guidelines establish that all videos and broadcasts must be previewed for instructional and curricular value. In addition, the viewing must include pre-viewing, during viewing, and post-viewing activities. Due to the live nature of this address, there is insufficient time for instructional preparation.”) seems eminently sensible.

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    • I suppose they ought to stop all of that other live programming they have in the schools, too: the “D.A.R.E. to Say No to Drugs” presentations, Maryland Science Center presentations, etc.

      Please don’t claim that we shouldn’t show things live but should instead be preparing kids for the real world! The President is real. “Live” is real. Uninspired children are real, and this could be a chance for some of them to become inspired to work harder and treat their schooling as important.

      When Clinton became president, saxophone became the most popular instrument in the band. If the President wants to try to inspire kids to try hard at school, what’s wrong with that?

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      • If the policy reads “The guidelines establish that all videos and broadcasts must be previewed for instructional and curricular value.” then that’s the policy. Seems sensible to me. I wouldn’t want any live unchecked TV broadcast being shown to minors by a school.

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        • My school showed the Inauguration LIVE and there was no outcry and no directive from the county. In fact, the school where I work in Harf Co was required to show it because of its historical importance. HCPS is hiding behind a policy they do not enforce. This is conservative crap!

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          • Both my children watched the inauguration LIVE in Harford County schools where the live speech was not viewed by anyone prior to it’s airing. YES HCPS is hiding behind a policy that someone dug around to see how they could legally come up w/this sensorship. This was never mandatory – how could it be when a large portion of our public schools in this nation don’t have TV’s, internet or satellite access to view it live! The next time any sitting politician attends any event in my kids school you better believe they are going to hear back – if you want politics out of schools they don’t get to come in and give speeches of any kind! All those in protest are hypocrites!

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  10. I do declare, Joe. Please try not to faint.

    I am still recovering from the anal-probing indoctrination I received from Ronald Regean via tellyvizion when I was in school in 1986. God, let us prevent the leader of the free world from ever again speaking to school children about staying in school.

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  11. Matt –

    No worries there bud, you haven’t got the intellectual ability to take me. But you can go ahead and try.

    Cowards like you are weak and easily beaten.

    Joe

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  12. This is the same amount of maturity that so ruins great debate in our country. Wonder why folks resort to yelling over one another in town halls and disrupting dialogue. Regardless party you are or you affiliation, for the petes sake…wake up folks and act like we all were educated past the eighth grade at some point in our lives. If you disagree with something present the facts…strictly facts and not passed down talking points, and then find the problem.

    Next time you see some teenagers tell them to just start yelling over one another to get their point across, because thats how they do it in the real world…thats the type of preparation we should be gearing our kids up for to enter the world. Don’t like what you company plans on doing…just show up the weekly meeting and start yelling rather than presenting a proposal based upon facts and ideas/solutions.

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  13. The school system’s decision to NOT ALLOW schools to see Obama’s message to students Tuesday (to work hard, and set goals) is outrageous and I believe, a smoke screen for the inability/unwillingness to allow teachers to use the internet broadcasts widely available in other school systems. Outsiders have laughed at the state of our technology. To say they have not screened the video is a true and deep slur towards the president…it’s a bad decision and there is time to get it reversed! The lesson preparation argument is a fabrication too- it’s very simple and a child could implement it- 5 minutes prep. The children most desperately in need of hearing the message are the one’s whose parents are not going to share it with them at home! Help…

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    • Until we have the folow up work plan and the revised speech I do not think the HCPS is out of line in not airing the speech live. Hold you ground HCPS!!!!!

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    • Well said… this is a colossal error on the part of the school system. I do not care what party the president is in, the president of the United States SHOULD address students as they head back to school (unless of course the president is incapable of making a coherent speech, which thankfully is no longer a problem). Either way, I would gladly have shown President Bush’s speech in a class of mine, as I would have shown President Obama’s speech if not censored by administrators that have no ability to stand up to intimidation.

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      • What a sad commentary from a public school teacher. No wonder many are considered workers, not professionals these days. I only hope that my child never has to encounter you at CMW.

        By the way, we could know how much dumber that President who can’t speak coherently is than the current one if Obama would actually release his college records (yeah, or any other ones). But we know that it wouldn’t mean a thing, since Bush received better grades than Gore or Kerry, and we both know that he was an idiot compared to those two Einsteins. At least, that’s what the press shoved down our throats.

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        • There is someone named Phil up there who openly insulted a teacher in HCPS, saying he hoped his children would “never encounter her.”

          Please, I would like to see you perform the job of a teacher. And since you can’t, perhaps you should send your children to a private school and leave us all the hell alone. I certainly hope I never encounter you, either, for the sake of my intelligence.

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          • Insulted a teacher? This teacher commented that the previous President (a graduate of an Ivy League school) was “incapable of making a coherent speech, which thankfully is no longer a problem”. Who did the insulting?

            And I did perform the job of a teacher for technical professionals for several years befoer moving up to another position, so I believe the “and since you can’t” portion of your rant is invalid. Nice try.

            Also, my children do attend public schools in Harford County, and there are teachers that I hope my kids do not encounter, just as there were ones that I wish I had never encountered when I attended HCPS schools. Yes, there were good teachers, and more of them than the bad ones, but they were not all Grade A, just like in every other field, and some just should not have been there at all.

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          • Phil the comment about the previous president is not an insult but an opinion shared by a considerable number of Americans. Just like you said about teachers not all presidents are grade A.

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          • Cdev said, “Just like you said about teachers not all presidents are grade A.”

            True, and we also have no idea what grades some of our presidents received since they refuse to release their college transcripts.

            And some presidents don’t even try to speak extemporaneously, but instead read practically all of their speeches from a teleprompter, leaving some of us to wonder just whose words they are reading.

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        • Oh, and PS, Obama graduated from Ivy League Schools. I’d like to see your children get into one without the help of their schoolteachers.
          As a current student in HCPS, I resent your comments.

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      • I agree that the President should be able to arrange an address to students. The problem CMWteacher is that this administration politicized the speech from the beginning.

        Had the White House arranged this well in advance and followed the protocols established by previous administrations, it is doubtful that the outcry would have risen to this level. When Bush 41 spoke to students, there was a good amount of criticism from the left.

        Is it really censorship when you ask the POTUS to obey the rules?

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  14. If Dear Leader would like to ask the children of his nation to help him in his fight against his subjects, he should be given the time to talk directly to them. With an address in school, parents would not be able to get in the way of his one true message, saving us all from the evil health care providers.

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  15. Dave, Nioxon did not have the history of the associations that the current Pres. has. By the way after many of the things that occurred during Nixon’s Administration I would have been aopposed to letting him speak live also.

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  16. Dave –

    Community organizing with a socially progressive message is how progressive movements evolve into socialist/fascist regimes. They are what they are as history has shown. They are to be feared and fought against not outlawed.

    Joe

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    • There is nothing about American politics today that is socialist or fascist. The terms progressive and liberal have been turned “dirty” by right-wing conservatives, but this does make put people who believe in liberal ideas fascists.

      Barack Obama’s three years as a community organizer (info from Wikipedia):
      -he was hired as director of the Developing Communities Project (DCP), a church-based community organization originally comprising eight Catholic parishes in Greater Roseland (Roseland, West Pullman and Riverdale) on Chicago’s far South Side
      -He helped set up a job training program, a college preparatory tutoring program, and a tenants’ rights organization in Altgeld Gardens.

      There’s nothing socialist or fascist about that.

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  17. Good point Ron. And I’m sure there are many eyeballs on The Dagger today for putting this story up while the other local media do not have it yet. Nice work Dagger! It’s a very interesting issue. But as in all debates, we need to ignore the pathetic immature tantrums, and focus on the substantive input.
    Regarding our President, there is not much that I agree with him on; and I do NOT respect his team or his tactics. But his personal achievements in rising to the highest office in the land are a powerful and positive example for all children of this country. And to the extent that his speech provides non-political inspiration and hope to millions of kids who need it…. I am all for it.

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      • PTB,
        Your reasons for admiring Pres. Obama are valid. He did get voted president. I disagree with most of his agenda, goals and the direction he plans to take this country. He is demoralizing and demeaning small business, creating a welfare based country, and encouraging the citizens to depend on a gov’t instead of God, family and themselves. That is wrong.
        His plans for health care will destroy many industries due to the re-arranging of funds for health care. I refer to his cuts to medicare, to funding medical research and his failure to address the tort reform needed to reduce costs are but a few areas that concern me. Mr. Obama ran on transparency, yet his CzarsAdvisors have not be questioned according to his press secretary. Does that make sense to anyone? Pres. Obama says he sat in Rev. Wright’s church for 25 years and didn’t hear any racist comments. Pres. Obama said that he did not know about the tax issues that Rep. Charles Rengel(sp?) was dealing with, or Tom Dashiel or Tim Gietner? Does he listen to any of the advisors with whome he surrounds himself?Thanks,
        Peacenik

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  18. Proud Teacher,
    It is not your job or any other teacher to teach our children about politics or the hearing of the president’s “message”. You can’t get the readin’, writin’ and rithmatic thing right half the time so start worry about teaching and leave politics and social issues to us. We don’t need your agenda propagandized to our children. I can raise my children, I need no help from the “village”.

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    • Then take your children out of school, if you need no help. There is nothing propagandizing about this. It most certainly is our teachers’ job to teach our children about politics. It’s called Social Studies. What planet are you people coming from?

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    • Like hell you don’t… you are clearly a person that does need a village! Allow your kids to be open-minded thinkers, not mindless copies of their parents.

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    • Ms/r Communicator (sarcastically intended, I assume) – where DID you go to school. Of course it is a primary job of the public school system and even my, dare I say it, Catholic School edcuation, to teach about our proud political system that allows jerks like you to benefit from a public school system – whether you personally use it or not – and yet be able to impugn those people that dedicate their lives to future generations. I dare you to go say those things at the next back to school night at a hight school. I was at the Harf Tech back to school night. Those teachers you calim can’t teach reading or math were there for over 14 hours with no additional compensation. They were experts in their field helping students with all backgrounds and levels. Your comments frankly make me sick. Thank you CMWteacher.

      Kim McCarthy

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      • Kim McCarthy –

        It is unfortunate that teachers work tirelessly for hours on end and achieve such dismal and unacceptable results here in Maryland and across the nation. You’d think educational outcomes would improve over time as teachers get better at their craft and are aided by the great improvements in technology?

        People in glass houses…well you know the rest.

        Have a nice day,

        Joe

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        • You are an ignorant and close-minded man. There are bad teachers, bad schools, and yes, bad students… but overall the school systems (especially in MD) do a wonderful job, and teachers work VERY hard for their students. I would bet you are not a teacher; so do not try to criticize what we do without realizing the reality that we are given so little with which to do so much.

          Perhaps if the taxpayers would worry more about fully funding schools then they do throwing tea bags or having a $50 property tax cut, the schools and teachers would have the tools necessary to see even great gains then we have (and we are improving by the way, as is demonstrated by your darling – former – president’s test).

          By the way… are you a pilot?

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          • CMWteacher –

            I think many teachers and administrators are incompetent.

            HCPS budget has grown at an unsustainable rate over the past ten years. I want to starve the HCPS of more taxpayer money and force it to better invest the money it does get. I want value for taxpayer money and I want teachers to do a better job.

            Joe

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          • CMW,
            I am neither ignorant or close-minded. In fact, I have analyzed my thoughts and been quite open-minded. You just do not agree with my conclusion and therefore you resort to name calling. And you wonder why my kids will never be in your classroom? What kind of names do you call your students?

            You have a guilty conscience because you have a cushy job and realize you probably could not make it in the real world. You know, the real world, where there is a bottom line, profits and loss, hiring and firing (no tenure here, baby) and measurable performance standards.

            Why do you always blame funding? There is no correlation between spending and student success.

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          • Mr. CMW,
            Some teacher sent this e-mail out some time ago. It has something to do with the next “Survivor” TV show and how teachers were going to compete with “business” men and women. I thought I would share the e-mail and my response. Enjoy….

            Have you heard about the next planned “Survivor” show?

            Five businessmen and five businesswomen will be dropped into an elementary school classroom for 6 weeks.

            Each businessperson will be provided with a copy of his/her school district’s curriculum, and a class of 32 students.

            Each class will have five learning-disabled children, three with A. D. D., one gifted child, two who speak limited English and three more will be labeled with “severe behavior problems”.

            Each businessperson must complete lesson plans at least 3 days in advance with annotations for curriculum objectives and modify, organize, or create materials accordingly.

            They will be required to teach students, handle misconduct, implement technology, document attendance, write referrals, correct homework, make bulletin boards, compute grades, complete report cards, document benchmarks, communicate with parents, and arrange parent conferences, while maintaining a smile at all times.

            They must also supervise recess and monitor the hallways. In addition, they will complete drills for fire, tornadoes, and shooting attacks.

            They must attend 100 hours of workshops, faculty meetings, union meetings, and curriculum development meetings.

            They must also tutor those students who are behind and strive to get their two non-English speaking children proficient enough to take the mandatory state assessment tests.

            If they are sick or having a bad day, they must not let it show.

            Each day they must incorporate reading, writing, math, science, and social studies into their program.

            They must maintain discipline and provide an educationally stimulating environment at all times.

            The business people will only have access to the golf course on the weekends, but on their new salary, they will not be able to afford it anyway.

            There will be no access to vendors who want to take them out to lunch, and lunch will be limited to 30 minutes. On days when they do not have recess duty, the business people will be permitted to use the staff restroom as long as another survival candidate is supervising their class.

            They will be provided two, 40-minute planning periods per week while their students are at activity classes. If the office copier is operable, they may make copies of necessary materials at this time.

            The business people must continually advance their education on their own time, and pay for this advanced training themselves. This can be accomplished by moonlighting at a second job or marrying someone with money.

            The winner will be allowed to return to his or her job.

            Pass this to your friends who think teaching is easy and to the ones that know it is hard. They will both benefit.

            The Response:

            Wow seems like a tough job….no quotas or goals to meet…guaranteed
            employment (with tenure) regardless of how poorly you perform your job
            (anybody else know of such a job?) YES, BECOME A MEMBER OF CONGRESS!

            Wow! kids are graduating from high school as walking morons….cannot read or write,
            perform basic mathematics, find the United States on a globe, tell you when World War
            II started or even speak basic English.

            In to work at 8 am out at 3 pm…spare me the after hours work speech, yours is not the only profession which requires after hours commitments.

            Vacation for 2 weeks at Christmas…another week or so in the spring…six to seven weeks off in the summer…What would I do with all of that time off?

            Don’t give me crap about meetings…you think teachers are the only people who have meetings? Oh, and the union meetings – Give Me a Break!…probably the most influential problem in today’s education system…GET RID OF THE UNIONS!

            You must have a preconceived notion that lunch in the business community
            runs two hours and consist of 3-4 martinis. I wish! If I eat lunch, I usually work through it.

            Golf…well some of the best meetings I’ve had are on the golf course. You can play all summer long. All jobs have their perks.

            No bitching about your salary….don’t like it, get a different job. You don’t have to be a teacher…with job security there is a cost….just like the stock market, little risk – little reward….
            the greater the risk the higher the reward.

            Planning periods during the workday? I should be so lucky. My planning periods start around 5:30 am and sometimes extend until 1 am.

            We all have to advance our education and training to stay competitive (or is that a bad word in school?) REAL LIFE is hugely competitive. By the way, most school systems I know offer educational financial assistance, most businesses do not.

            Back to competition for a moment: Do you teachers realize how much damage is being done to children by eliminating competition in schools? In the real world we compete in sports, relationships, for jobs and promotions, businesses compete for customers, churches compete for members, actors compete for salaries and box office numbers, students compete for scholarships, siblings compete for attention and affection from their parents, athletes compete to make it to the Olympics and once they arrive they compete for medals. Radio hosts compete for ratings, listeners, affiliates and sponsors. Competition is part of life and it should be taught at school! Isn’t preparing children for the real world the objective of going to school in the first place? Teachers are the ones disabling our children by disallowing competition! Children need
            To know how to handle success and failure. Some schools have eliminated the prestigious HONOR ROLL because it makes the lazy unmotivated students feel stupid. Stop worrying about their feelings, they will get over it. Competition will actually improve a child’s self esteem! For God’s sake bring back dodge ball…. Oops was that another bad word? Not dodge ball…God?

            You may have a difficult job but you also have loads of security, very little risk of losing your job, a great pension, great benefits, more time off than any other profession. Teachers are much better off than they think, and lead others to believe.
            You are a teacher, you chose that road. Do you tolerate poor service at a restaurant? Most people don’t, they either leave or don’t go back. Do you put up with a lying cheating spouse? Most people don’t. When something doesn’t suit you or you’re displeased with it, change it.
            Stop your whining, grumbling, poor me complaining.
            It seems as if society as a whole, so many of you teachers have a “sense of entitlement”.
            Get over it…we live in the greatest country on earth and the opportunities are bountiful.
            It may not be perfect but you can achieve anything you want – just be prepared to work for it.

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          • Asking if Joe is a pilot… once knew somebody of that name who was a pilot, just curious if this is him.

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        • I think that our system has indeed improved. There are less closed minded and stubborn people like you. Be a part of the solution instead of the problem. Get out of your basement and go out into the real world and see how it is these days.

          Have a nice day,

          Joe

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        • Joe, those dismal results are greatly due to the student’s lack of academic efforts and the devaluation of learning. Stop laying blame on educators and look deeply at what they are working with today, and at the public perceptions of education. If a child doesn’t want to learn or doesn’t even try to learn- what magic can a teacher work? When teachers are badmouthed at the dinner table, in the press, etc.- what does a student see when they look at their teacher? “It’s the teacher’s fault I didn’t learn”. Yet, with no reinforcement at home, with more emphasis on sports than homework, with the teacher being at fault when the child misbehaves- it’s a loosing proposition and a wonder there are *any* teachers willing to continue. The job is harder year by year, and it is in direct proportion to the lack of effort made on the student’s part. Think back to your childhood and compare it with the public perception of teachers today. Then- the teacher was right, and respected. Today, the child is right and the teacher isn’t respected.

          Imagine being held accountable for your production, when the materials you work with continue to degrade. Imagine being compared to the company down the road, when the materials given each vastly differ. Imagine being evaluated on your performance when you lack the basic tools to work with (students ready to learn) and the public is “out to get you”.

          I’m not whining-it is what it is, and teachers keep on trying day in and day out. But education has changed dramatically over the last few decades. The students, the parents, the backing / respect of the public- it all matters a great deal. To ignore that, and to rest the blame on the teacher’s shoulder is all too typical.

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          • I think you can blame that on tenure. My kids have had some great teachers that I would defend against anyone. They have also had some terrible teachers. So terrible that at the end of the school year the principal had to go in and re-evaluate everyone’s work and change their grades. If we could weed out the bad teachers, the good teachers would have much more TRUST. And trust is the key work. Until a parent really gets to know a teacher, which doesn’t happen overnight, you just don’t know who to believe. My daughter had a bad asthma attack at school one day. She went to the nurse and used her nebulizer and called me to pick her up. I walked her to her physics room to turn in her labs that were due before we left. I had to argue with this teacher come grade time that I know she turned them in, I was there, he had her marked as not turning them in. This teacher had a line out his door every time he updated edline with kids telling him they did turn in work he said they didn’t turn in. We have had teachers who have the policy of when they raise their hand to say they don’t understand, they are told to get a classmate to explain it to them. Meanwhile, they go on and the child gets farther behind. So, yes, if we could trust that we had good teachers for our children, I would agree with you. Tenure has taken that trust away and parents just can’t be sure.

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      • Kim,
        Why is that teachers always bitch about long hours and working with no additional “compensation”? Welcome to adulthood! My day is often 10-14 hours. If that’s what it takes to be sucessful, then I am willing to work for it. Teachers behave like their day should begin at 7:00 and end at 3:00 and they are martyrs for working overtime or at home. I would love to have Christmas vacation, Spring Break, and all of the other holidays off too. Not to mention eight weeks off in the summer.

        I send my children to private school. Trust me, I would rather save the $15,000 in tuition a year and send them to public school but then they might start thinking like Mr. CMW.

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          • Joe,
            You are right on. It is about promoting an agenda and the NEA maintaining and growing power.

            If the NEA really gave a damn about educating the children, they would get the lazy, unmotivated teachers out of the classroom. Instead they protect them because they have “tenure”. No other job I can speak of protects its colleagues like the NEA. If I don’t do my job, well I won’t have a job. There are many great motivated teachers but there are also many that should not be serving lunch in the cafeteria let alone teaching a class.

            The NEA has done so much damage to public education system.

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      • Thanks Kim- that’s just the kind of parenting that teachers dread- the illogical paranoid type! Social studies 101. I hear it even exists in private schools and those home-schooled!

        And as for not getting the reading/writing/arithmetic “right half the time”- may I suggest it’s little junior that isn’t getting it right, not the teacher- we already passed the grade we’re teaching….

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    • “leave social issues to us” parents – you’re kidding, right? Over the last decade+, we teachers have been forced to teach morals and behaviors to students that come to the classroom with none- we’d like nothing better than to go back to the three R’s- but we CAN’T because an alarming number of parents fail to teach the difference between right and wrong, respect for others, how to solve problems, how to get along socially, the list goes on! How can we get to the teaching part of the day when we have to settle arguments, investigate petty theft and defend ourselves when teachers get blamed for a student’s poor choices?

      Finally, when we get some support from a very influential person (the President of the UNITED (ha…) States) – we get shut out, and are faced with illogical fears such as “political agendas”. I’m stunned…and ashamed of America’s reaction to a very simple speech that encourages learning.

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      • Proud Teacher says –

        And I say your attitude is problematic. The President can’t help students or schools with the rhetoric of social engineering and propaganda. The federal government’s intervention in education is a failure and you want more of it.

        Maybe if President Obama promoted school choice, vouchers and competition then we’d have a construct for improvement?

        Joe

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        • Joe, I so agree with you. Nowhere in the constitution does it give the right to the federal government to be involved in education. It does, however, give all powers not specifically given to the federal government to the states. Just imagine how much better our schools would be if everything were left up to the states. No Dept. of Ed. to deal with would be a wonderful thing.

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          • Sandy –

            We live in a center-right country and the liberal/progressives are in the minority, hence the turmoil within the Democrat Party. The dissolution of the Department of Education would give full responsibilty back to the states.

            We should understand that the liberal/progressive movement is small, albeit powerful, but can be beaten by the silent majority that has found its voice. Realize that liberal/progressives hate individual responsibility/rights and conservatism. Conservatism is value system they abhor, they only value the governmentism/statism. The government is their faith and religion. And in their world view the people are subservient to the government.

            Joe

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          • I know Joe will disagree but the pre-amble of the Constitution indirectly stipulates that the govt. should facilitate education of the masses when it suggests that it “promote the general welfare” Being that a well educated citizenry is required for that.

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          • Cdev –

            You know that the Preamble to the Constitution’s term “promote the general welfare” means nothing of the sort. It is an often co-opted term by liberal/progressives to support government overreaching and intervention.

            Joe

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          • Folks, the whole point of public education is to have an informed people able to partake in a democracy- without that forward thinking on the part of our founding fathers, we’d have no “free” schools. That said, the US Dept. of Ed. does not “run” the schools- the power is in the state- and in reality, the local school boards. Some states have returned all federal dollars in order to not have to comply with federal mandates. The states basically have the power- MSA and HSA are Maryland devices, not federal. Our curriculum is state, modified locally. The feds have little say, except when monies are granted for specific purposes and accountability for its use is required. What gives you the idea we “deal with the (federal) dept. of ed”?

            And as for the “federal’s intervention being a failure” you have no idea how much teaching has improved the moment test scores were investigated by local(mostly), state (some)and federal (little)powers. When you know someone is watching, you do a better job, simply put. The accountability has forced positive change. Now we’re talking about a national curriculum so that no matter where you live, the expectations are high and common.

            My thinking is that localities not wanting to share the message from the president should return all federal dollars (shrinking though they might be.)

            And to anyone that talks about teacher vacations- we have *no such thing*. When we are off school a day, like Labor day or Christmas vacation- we are essentially unemployed- there are ZERO vacation days- if we’re off, we’re unpaid. All summer, every holiday- no pay. We’re contracted for 190 days- that’s it- 180 days children are in school, and prep days before and after school starts. So please, don’t call it vacation!

            As to which school I’m in? Don’t think that the weak parenting I describe exists in just some schools…every single school in- well, America, has a growing percentage of children whose parents don’t understand the need to support and nurture learning.

            School choice, vouchers and competition- pay attention- where it has been tried it hasn’t worked! The dirty little secret about choosing what the public perceives as a “good school” is this: high scores have more to do with who walks through the door as students than who’s in the classroom teaching!

            Sadly, private schools are largely staffed with non-certified teachers, and children whose parents practice an expensive form of prejudice. If you think paying for education promises a better education, think again! The best teachers don’t gravitate to lower pay…in fact, those that don’t cut it in public ed. often turn to teaching in private schools. So, what really, are you paying for?

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      • An example that still makes me laugh. The school’s celebrate “Constitution Day”. An activity my children’s 8th grade social studies teacher made them do was write a letter to the president (Clinton) about why Constitution Day was unconstitutional. What better learning than that!

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  19. P- T & B, very good points!!!! Obama is proof that America is the “LAND OF OPPORTUNITY”. Unfortunately what I have seen of his planned speech was not focusing in on this fact.

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      • That’s why this pre-speech scrutiny is so important. I believe that the white house announced this morning that they would now post the speech prior to its delivery. Because, left to their own devices, he and his teleprompters would turn this into a recruitment speech for the “stop thinking for yourself and let the obama government solve everything” brigade.

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        • Yes, yes. Obama’s message of “work hard and stay in school” (in other words, “learn how to think”) would somehow turn into “stop thinking for yourself and let your socialist overlords have their way with you peons.” Again, what planet are you from?

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        • So you go right to asking what planet I’m from. That certainly moved the debate forward! Pretty pathetic.
          Have a good weekend.

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          • No, I’d like to know where you get off implying that “left to their own devices,” they would turn it into a recruitment speech for an Obama brigade.

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          • I didn’t “imply” it Dave. I stated it rather directly. And if you disagree, that’s fine, but that just means that you haven’t been paying attention or that you don’t understand (I guess that’s MY way of saying: “what planet are YOU from?”). You started it. Again, have a good weekend.

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          • I think it takes quite a twisted imagination to think that Obama, et al, would prefer anyone to stop thinking and let the government do everything. Yes, people have different beliefs about how large government should be, what programs they should run, etc., but it’s quite a leap to think a “work hard, stay in school” message will become “stop thinking and trust your government.”

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          • “Twisted”? “Quite a leap”? You really think so? Wow.
            I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree on this one.

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          • Yes, I really think so. As do most Americans, I believe. The folks spewing the “socialism/fascism” rhetoric are a vocal, but small minority in a party that is already in the minority. That doesn’t make their opinion not matter, of course, but it does call into question the logic, if you ask me.

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          • First you reduce the other side’s argument to a derogatory and exaggerated simplification. Then you make up statistics. All in a few sentences. Impressive.

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          • Kind of difficult to argue with the reality of the electoral situation; DEMs are in clear control of the house and senate, not to mention the oval office, and even if we lose seats in the house this next election, we will not lose control. Therefore, Dave is both correct and justified. The tea-baggers in particular are obnoxiously loud and unwilling to even have a civil discussion about something like taxes, healthcare, and education. They are an embarrassment to our country. This is the death throws of an ideology that does not like getting orders from an African-American president and progressive thinking citizens that are more concerned with what is good for their fellow citizens that simply cutting taxes (an effort by the way that HURTS middle-income Americans and only helps the rich get richer). Altruism is a good thing!

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          • ProudDemocrat –

            Again another vulgar debaser of Tea Party activists using sexual terms to insult and shut down speech. This is shameful behavior by the proponent of altruism.

            Yes the liberal/progressives have the temporal positions of governmental power. This to will pass and while they do have the power they don’t seem to know how to manage it. They don’t need conservative votes, so go forward without them…I dare you. Power is a challenging tool to master absent confidence, knowledge and logic.

            Joe

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          • Joe we agree on something……No party manages power effectivly when they have it and it ultimately swings back. THat is the best arguement for a third party. So the minority parties would have a motive to attempt to work for good instead of simply obstructing anything from happening.

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          • Cdev –

            Actually it is an argument for less federal government that is focused on defense, foreign policy, interstate transportation and constitutional matters.

            Third party development, while I’m not against it, will likely move us toward a European model which arguably is not all that desirable.

            Joe

            P.S. Cdev I have to say you are a considerate debater.

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          • I get the defense part (standing Army and Navy) as that is spelled out in the preamble (and no where else in the actual document). But how do you arrive at that phrase being limited soley to those things and not allowing for a dept whose job is to facilitate educational practices to assist states in providing an education? I do wish MD adopted the Utah attitude on NCLB by the way it would save us a ton of money.

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  20. I will tell you, on the surface, I am not opposed to having my children hear a message from the president. My problem is, I do not trust him or the left to stick to a specific agenda, to stay apolitical or not to try to put their own spin or message into the speech.

    I will give you a specific example; On the Fourth of July, I had my family at The National Archives in D.C. There was a parade, people dressed in character as Jefferson, Adams and Franklin, a reading of the Declaration of Independence, etc. Then a speech was made by someone on behalf of the National Archives. He began speaking about what a great country we live in, our freedoms and how he emigrated to the United States. All of this was in line with the message of the day, freedom, The Declaration of Independence and our great country. Then he went on to say he is fortunate he became a citizen of the United States about five years ago and that he was gled he did not apply for citizenship 20 years ago because he may not have been offered citizenship “given his own personal sexual prefenreces.” His own personal sexual preferences!? Wrong place, wrong time, wrong forum, wrong audience!

    I personally don’t care about him being homosexual. What I took offense to was he took the opportunity to inject this into a speech which should have been about America’s birthday. Now instead of teaching my children about history, I have to switch gears and explain sexual orientation. My point to a long story is, the left, will take every and any opportunity to get their message out and they do not gave a damn who it offends or in what forum they communicate this message.

    P.S. I sent the Director of the National Archives two e-mails and left two phone messages and have not received a reply to either.

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    • I think there would be general outrage if he strayed from his pre-written speech and instead gave a political message. That would be incredibly stupid, politically, and we all know how politically savvy one has to be nowadays to get anywhere in politics.

      What political message do you think he’s going to deliver to elementary school kids? What advantage would this give “the left?”

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      • Dave,
        One example I could see him saying would be something like “there are a lot of children like you that can’t afford to go to a doctor and I am trying to get health insurance for all of them but….”

        You may think I am cynical but I would not put it past him. And it isn’t just elementery students, this is K-12. So will be some older kids in the audience.

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        • Right, I understand that it will be K-12, but I was just saying that people will be outraged if he pushes any kind of agenda on kids, especially the youngest ones,who maybe can’t think for themselves as much yet. People like to needle him on his use of teleprompters…what makes you think he will stray from what he is pre-written? Your general disagreement with him on his political beliefs?

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    • Uggg, “Communicator” – I am getting off line, but no, not the wrong place or time. This person was celebrating our country and its opportunties. You do realize that in other countries he could have been put in jail or worse for his sexual orientation.

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      • Kim,
        It was a reading of the Declaration of Independence. My kids did not need to hear a sexual orientation speech. As I said – wrong place, wrong time, wrong audience

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  21. I have a question. Did HCPS show any other presidential speeches without first viewing reviewing them. If so, were these televised and falling under FCC regulations for language/content? I am not suggesting the president will be foul-mouthed, only asking because use of the word “streaming” suggests this policy is for internet based video, which is the format this speech is being broadcast in. Also, is this policy found anyplace predating this week?

    I am only wondering if there is any precedence by HCPS to this mentioned policy.

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    • All HCPS schools have cable access. That means that every second of every day, the classroom TV can be turned on to something that is NOT reviewed, vetted, or approved.

      Teachers regularly, daily, use materials that no one has “approved”. They come from teacher magazines, on line lesson plans and the like. While it’s comforting to think everything gets approved, even departments have figured out ways around the General Curriculum Committee. In practice, it is impossible to monitor every worksheet and every piece of text used in a room. Good thing too, or we could hire robots to teach in the most boring, lockstep manner possible. Teachers infuse creativity to engage students, play off their interests and make the most of every learning opportunity.

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      • Cable access is not the same as a webcast. Does the policy about webcasts exist? If yes, then the policy should be followed regardless of who is saying what. If this is being sent over TV and blocked, your point about cable access would be valid (and I would not have asked the question).

        I am not saying anything about teachers, the speech, or politics. Just asking about the policy regarding webcasts (which means internet and nort cable tv).

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        • It’s available via the whitehouse website, cspan cable and satellite. HCPS have cable access. The policy refers to the event being live in nature, not having time to preview and have ample time for teachers to prepare pre and post lesson plans. All of which are practically null and void at this point and with the school systems Alert phone service every parent could be informed of any potential airing if their teacher opted to include it today and then take whatever action they wanted.

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  22. I just had the same argument with my childrens schools in west Virginia. Only here, they have decided to cave in to the right wing-nuts and they are leaving it up to each individual teacher to decide if it is appropriate. My daughters teacher has decided not to participate and has thanked me in advance for my support, and I have informed them that I will show my support for their policy of censorship by checking my child out so they will have the opportunity to be taught to respect the highest office in the land. I had to put up with it when Bush was in office. You all should put up or shut up and I would keep my kids home if they are censoring at your school as well.

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    • OM –

      It is the height of vulgarity to us crude sexual terms to insult people with which you disagree.

      Have you no shame?

      You have no concept of respect and thoughtfulful debate.

      Joe

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        • First of all, I was quoting. But of course that doesn’t mean I don’t agree with the quote. This is not a matter of disagreement. We can disagree on politics, but this insanity has nothing to do with disagreement and everything to do with Obama as The Other. He was portrayed from the beginning as an outsider (wonder why)–he was a celebrity, then he was born in Africa, and then when that didn’t work, he was a Nazi and a Communist.

          It’s just shades of brown, dude, get over it. Maybe if you let your kids listen to inspirational speeches they won’t grow up racists.

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          • You do know, of course, that the folks who showed up with the Obama-as-Hitler posters at the Town Hall rallies and referred to him as a Nazi in their questions to electd officials were all, in fact, supporters of Lyndon LaRouche, who protest against Obama for not being liberal enough? To restate it, they are on the opposite side of Obama and his followers than the Conservatives are?

            But you already knew that and it just slipped your mind, I’m sure.

            BTW, the namecalling, obscenities, and rationalization for those spouting them are almost exclusively a hallmark of the left-leaning posters, and I thank you for not breaking the mold. I would be disappointed if we stooped to that level.

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  24. Sometimes I feel like I’m in the goddamned Twilight Zone.
    Honestly, is the whole country going crazy?

    It’s pretty obvious that we’re not having an argument anymore about the President being able to talk to school children, or healthcare reform, or economic stimulus. We’re having the same, age-old partisan war between Democrats and Republicans.

    And that’s fine. Until it starts getting in the way.
    And it’s starting to get in the way of reality.

    Like it or not, Barack Obama is the President. The leader of the free world. And he is planning on welcoming students back to school and wishing them a successful year.

    Take a deep breath and look at reality without partisan blinders on, please.

    How do so many of you fail to see that YOU’RE the ones politicizing this appearance, and not the President?

    I was not a supporter of George W. Bush. But if he wanted to give an annual address to the students of America – as the Commander and Chief – I would not only be receptive to the idea, I would laud it and him for having it. This is the leader of the free world.

    I’m nearly too young to know it, but there used to be an unwavering respect in America for the office of the Presidency. If you tell today’s youth that it’s OK to skip school because you don’t need to hear what the President is saying to you, you’re sending a very powerful, very negative, and yes, very unpatriotic message.

    And, finally, if you honestly, deep down believes that the President is an “INSANE MAN AND HIS ANTI-AMERICAN MOVEMENT,” then you need to take a good long look within yourself and question what exactly it is that makes you tick.

    Ask yourself, who is really the insane man with the anti-American movement?

    Really, do that. Please.

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      • what the heck is wrong with these birthers, teabaggers and extreme right wingers? they have lost their minds!!!. Something wrong with the president talking to kids? really, what is he gonna do….take them to the dark side of the moom or turn them into communists?

        you guys just can’t stomach the fact that Obama is a president elected by the people and as such he has the privilege to speak at events, places and times that suit him. We had President Bush pilot a plane and declare “mission accomplished” somehow that was not using the full resources of the Navy to make a political statement.

        You guys are making your selves foolish and inmature, by throwing a temper tamdrum everytime the President speaks on any topic or to any audience.

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          • joe,

            your mind is in the gutter. how come president bush can give speeches from Navy ships and that’s ok and President’s Obama speech is objectionable? You guys can’t stand President Obama and somehow a speech to kids is damaging and you need to pre-screen it prior to kids listening to it. The president in his capacity can give a speech in any setting he wants and to any audience he wants at any time he wants.

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        • The suspicion for me comes from, why is he doing this during school hours? He should be doing it in the evening when parents can watch with their children. And if the argument is that some parents won’t tune in, well, isn’t that their choice as parents? Just by doing this during school hours I see it as taking the choice away from parents. That in itself is a VERY liberal idea and offensive to conservatives who believe we should be the decision makers when it comes to our children. We don’t give that up to the federal government.

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          • That makes sense!!! now that to me makes a debate. And you said it perfect at the end “federal government” We can’t blame this solely on Obama. That is why I laugh @ Tony P. when he calls Obama a thug; his letter is what is thug-ish. most of us didnt vote for Obama and most of us did. Tony P. , in my eyes has been waiting for a day to vent his true feel with hopes of support. if he would of came out like you have written Sandy, then you put the power into parents hands(fight for the parents) and Tony would be doing his job with his feeling aside. saying things like< our kids are spying on us??????well I have nothing to hide from my child. When there problem at HCPS, do we blame it on the president of the board or the school board in general board? by that way, if you are wonder what color I am I will answer; Purple!!! 🙂

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          • Very rational but what if Sandy (keeping in mind it could not happen know because of timing), a permission slip had to be sent home from schools or classes that intended to view it giving you an opt out option (like family life)? Would that have been a reasonable compromise? That option was not given to my parents whenI had to watch Regan or Bush. Not that they would have opted me out either!

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          • Cdev, I never like opt out options. Kids have enough trouble fitting in. I don’t think schools should ever do things that are controversial like this, they should teach kids math, science, reading, writing, in an age appropriate manner. History teachers should be vetted by their ability to teach as well as their ability to be unbiased.

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          • I agree to a certian extent. The problem with vetting for “unbiased” is that History is biased as it is. Your comunity adds to that “bias” for example in Rural Virginia the cause of the civil war is states rights and in PG County, MD it is slavry. Both are correct to an extent but don’t argue with the two respective populations. Their are laws about any teacher and politics being discussed in the classroom the problem usually arises with some who care not to acknowledge the other side of the issue. A BOE in a small ISD in Texas with a large minority Buddist population once wanted to force school prayer. The 9 member board voted 7-2 lead by a conservative christian sect. The next election cycle the Buddahist community put 4 members while keeping the two disenters. They campaigned on issues and such. Instead of removing the prayers from the school; to send the lasting message they kept the prayers but chaanged them to Buddist prayers. This so angered the very parents who campaigned for this that when they sued the school district and it came up in pre hearing conferences that they wanted the prayers in the first place the suit got booted and the rules change. No one in this district has pushed for school prayer since then!

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          • I don’t agree that history is biased. You just give the facts. You can explain that this group of people were fighting for this reason and this group of people were fighting for this reason without telling the kids who was right and who was wrong. You can tell peoples’ thoughts on racism when teaching about Martin Luther King Jr. and let the kids draw their own conclusions. They aren’t stupid, they will get it. Sure, no one is perfect and some bias will slip through, that is human. My daughter has a biology teacher who has the class believing the world is ending because of global warming. She is extreme! My daughter, being my daughter, argues with her over every point and the teacher is happy to debate with her and never holds it against her. I wish the teacher weren’t so biased, but this is an upper level high school class where they can handle it a bit more. And I give her credit for being accepting of my daughter’s thoughts. Still, my daughter is the only one in the class who does not believe that we are causing global warming all by ourselves. That is alarming, as it is a much higher percentage than you would find in the general population. My girl is starting to win some of them over though!

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          • Sandy the Biology teacher is a classic example of why subject matters vary. The “global warming, world is ending crowd” has a plausible theory for which I and others believe the conclusion is flawed. Science by it’s nature encourages and requires intelligent debate. Knowing the previous science coordinator was very much into this type of instruction and so most of the current secondary teachers have this quality.

            Social Studies is more then dates and facts and that leads to the biased. The quote “History is written by the victor’s” is a good reason. Take Dr. Mudd for example. in 1875 he is an evil traitor and we know for sure he is guilty and a conspiritor. A good review today shows this is most likely not the case as his only association with the Booth and Surratt family is the fact that he was a parishiner at St. Peter’s Church in Waldorf and Booth had attended mass there along with Mary Surratt on 2 occasions in the last year. Booth days Dr. Mudd was not in attendance at the same mass. However clearly here we can have a difference of opinion soley on the facts alone and depending on the time who has allowed those facts to come to light and the current political climate. I have a US history book from 1902 my Great Grandmother used when she was a school mamr. The actual word’s in print and conclusions drawn in some of it are conclusions that seeth with hate, political and incorrectness etc. by today’s standards yet for it’s time it was par for the course! My dad was a military brat who attended school in South Carolina and Virginia until my grandfather came to the DC area in the early 60’s. Magically my dad noticed the same US history changed and who and what was important as well as reasons for things.

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          • Yes, but didn’t it change because of bias? At least for the most part? I’m sure different facts come out later but with the political bias today I wonder if your grandmother’s text book was more correct, at least about things that happened a few years before.

            Maybe I feel this way because my kids have had some horribly biased teachers, one even teaching that no one should ever be able to tell a woman she can’t have an abortion. This in an HCPS school. Surely we can do much better at hiring teachers who can stick to the facts and keep their OWN biases to themselves. Maybe that is how I should have said it in the first place, their OWN biases.

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          • That we agree. Since we all have our own biases they should be kept out as much as possible and only expressed if directly asked by a kid if they are appropriate to furthering intelligent debate germain to the topic and ONLY if the kid brought it up. When I taught in a HS I never answered the question who I voted for if asked I would answer specific issues if appropriate. The pro-life/pro-choice was not appropriate. I would simply say I was a Roman Catholic!
            An example of this was in 2001 I had a kid who informed me in science class while discussing HIV on AIDS awareness day that “AIDS was invented by the republicans to exterminate the Blacks and Gays. They [govt.] even had a cure and Bill Clinton, the first black president was going to release it but the republicans took over the Senate. Al gore would have done it but Bush bought the election with the help of his brother.” A very illogical and off based opinion but it was not my role as a teacher to tell her she was wrong but simply to educate her about facts about AIDS and HIV so that hopefully (knock on wood) she would develop independent thought and realize her mom who filled her head with this was just crazy. To this day I do not know if she ever did.

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          • Wow, too bad my kids didn’t have you as a teacher. What a question to handle! And I’m quite sure that wasn’t the only one. I don’t have a problem if the teacher gives his/her opinion in a debate format, debate is good! I just don’t like it when they teach their opinion as fact, as in the global warming extreme bio teacher. She was willing to debate when called out, but not until then. She was teaching it as fact. My daughter’s history teacher this year was good about giving his side and making the kids come up with the other side. The problem was it was an AP class and they never got past the Civil War so she didn’t do so great on that AP test.

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          • The AP US teacher I had was very much like that he made up for the time issue by having after school 1 day a week and 2 as we got closer to cover from 1910-present. This was strictly optional for those taking the US history exam.

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    • Ahem not Amen.

      With all due respect the President can have a prime time television address to the youth of America any day he wants. Sunlight and parental discretion are what we want and rightfully and legitimately deserve.

      Joe

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    • Brian, your bias always seems to seep through even when you attempt to be even-handed and ask us to “look at reality without partisan blinders on”. Perhaps with age will come wisdom.

      And, concerning matt, OM, rocco, and lori, isn’t it obvious that the left once again has to resort to namecalling and obscenities since they don’t have truth, facts, or logic on their side. Sad, isn’t it? Remind me again which side is supposed to be mean spirited.

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      • both sides have shown a lack of decorum, manners, and civility at different times. These attemps only have the goal of obscuring from discussing the facts and possible solutions. Calling the President a racist, nazi, or a communist does not change the facts.

        1-our health care system is becoming a product only the rich can and will continue to access.
        2-health care premiums are increasing a over 10% per year and will double in 5 years.
        3-the rich are undertaxed and pay less than the rich did 40 years ago.
        4-we spend a greater percentage of your gdp on defense than any other country in the world, this is not including our present war committments.
        5-Iraq-Afganistan wars are on pace to cost over $1 trillion and that’s assuming an exit in the next 2 years which likely for Iraq, not so for Afganistan.
        6-the federal govt spends a neglible amount on education.
        7-there is no safety net for the unemployed and the ininsured.

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        • I thought we were talking about Obama speech to the kids on Tuesday? I am thinking all these issues peed you off so much, that even if he had something good to say the kids on Tuesday, it really doesn’t matter. I doubt he will be talking to the kids about any of the issues you just stated. So if that is what we are all worried about, I think we can get some sleep tonight…I am sure there is another message board you can join where they talk about the issues you just stated. 🙂

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        • Since education is the only thing we are talking about I won’t address the others. The Federal Government shouldn’t be spending ANY money on education. Google the US Constitution and find where it says any power not specifically given to the Fed. Govt. stays with the states. Then, see if you can find where it says the Fed Govt has any power over education. It’s not there. Education should be a state’s concern. The Fed. Govt. has no jurisdiction legally.

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          • I feel you on the Sandy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOHOO!!! THAT IS THE PROBLEM You it the nail on the head!!!!!!! the fed gov has too much responsibility in state matter!!!!! keep it up Sandy VENT GIRL VENT!!! I like the way you type :-)!!!

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          • Sandy is absolutely right. Read the Constitution. Article I, Section 8. It outlines the responsibilities of the Federal governemt, everything else is the individual state’s responsibility.

            Cdev – Ronald Reagan forced the state’s hand, truely twisted their arm to raise the drinking age by threatening to withhold federal highway dollars. I am a Reagan supporter but this was wrong. No different than if California wants to allow marijuana to be legalized and the feds step in and overstep their lawful authority.

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          • Good communicator as long as we acknowledge that presidents form both parties and congressman too have done it equally. Education reform which started with LBJ expanded by Carter, Expanded by Regan and more so Under W. Bush is not partisan. NCLB has caused the Dept of Ed to ballon and added the increased federal involvement to more then lunch and records protection and FAPE and IDEA!

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        • Rocco

          I call the President a liberal/progressive.

          His policies and programs are anti-business, anti-energy, focus on wealth redistribution schemes, pro-government control of large parts of the US economy and enlargement of the government workforce.

          These policies are designed to make more and more of the population dependent on the government for their needs.

          Joe

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          • And why would he want to make more and more of the population dependent on the government for their needs? I don’t think this is true in the least. This is probably one of the opinions some conservatives hold about Obama that I have the hardest time understanding. I really don’t understand why it would make any sense for him to want that. Does he have something to gain if that were to come true? Does he believe in some sort of ideal where everyone is totally dependent on the government? Why would he believe in that? I don’t think this is true.

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          • Dave, of course that is what he wants. Look at Bank take overs, look at HEALTHCARE. He wants us to be dependant on the government for our healthcare. That is the biggest thing conservatives are fighting against liberals. We want government to stay out of our lives. Liberals want gun control, against the constitution, they started social security, a forced insurance program. Now they are trying to control healthcare. What they hope to gain from this is power. The are turning the US into a socialist state little by little. I don’t want that, I want to live in a free republic. The more money they take from us, the more they control us.

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          • Nope, won’t believe it, and neither will most reasonable people. It’s just not true that the Democrats are socialists. It’s not true that they are trying to control health care. Richard Nixon hand grander plans for universal health care than the Democrats currently do. Please step out of the fantasy world for a minute…

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          • Dave, I’m not old enough to know anything about Nixon’s plan and oddly, I’ve never heard anything about it. I’ll have to do some research. I don’t think all democrats are trying to control us through healthcare, only the ones who are fighting for a public option. That’s the government controlling your healthcare, and that is scary to me! Liberals are generally for more government control, handouts, wealfare, entitlements. Conservatives are for smaller government, less handouts, less wealfare, less entitlements, less spending, less departments of (fill in the blank). Conservatives believe in letting us keep most of our own money instead of turning it over to the government to soend for us.

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    • Cdev –

      I don’t recall a Reagan, Bush I or II special national in-school address via cable or the internet to children.

      Maybe you can provide a link to these addresses you’ve cited since if it happened it had to have been recorded and documented.

      Joe

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      • You asked on links to past addresses. Go to the Ronald Regans presidential library speech archives and look up the text of his speech on 11/14/88 – he addresses junior high students and takes Q&A and it’s aired on cpan and an instructional learning network (wonder if that’s still around?)His responses to the Q&A are in line with his views and both of his terms but still it was full of his views – it was not bipartisan. However, I have no problem with that and I’m sure all who took part and all who observed learned more that day than a normal school day with a textbook. I’ll also check on Bush – I believe 1991 for the elder Bush and most memorable is on 9/11 where was our President at the very moment he learned of the attacks at the World Trade Center – reading to elementary school children.

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  25. I dare say most of the harried, uninformed, unconcerned parents will send their kids off to school as they do every day, with having nary an idea that the President will even be addressing their kids on 9/8. Therein lies the root of the problem.

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  27. This crap, as you say, is important dialog to me.

    “The more you read,
    The more you know.
    The more you know,
    The smarter you grow.
    the smarter you grow,
    The stronger your voice,
    When speaking your mind,
    Or making a choice”
    — A bookmark

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    • HAHAHAHA!!! Now stick the word “crap” in front of the word “more”. I just can’t wait till Wednesday so we all can move on from this. My kids have perfect attendance, I am not going to let them mess it up for something that most presidents do anyhow. If you don’t want your kids to watch it, fine no body is mad at you, but lets move on. The Obama address on Tuesday is not the only “brain washing crap” happening in America. You can’t hide everything from you children. You can try; but you won’t succeed.

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  29. it is quite embarrassing that Harford County schools, which use to have great teachers (but always had horrible administrators)pulls “policy” to avoid showing a presidential address to students.

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    • I am not taking sides but I am guessing they were not expecting such an out poor of response over the matter. That board has been move around so much, I won’t be surprised if they pull policy for the rest of the school year. The president is not an “elected” official…so do you think he knows what he is doing??? hmmmm, He is already spitting fire about “negative” press.

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  30. So from the board’s policy, we should not show a live moon landing, a live presidential inauguration, a live communication from the space station, a live broadcast from an underwater science station, etc. This has nothing to do with appeasing right-wing-leaning citizens that are so terrified of an African-American president that they decide that Obama must not be a real American citizen, show up to town meetings with loaded guns, and talk about “watering the tree of liberty”. It’s a very dangerous message to tell kids to “take school seriously, do their work, and plan for success.” As a teacher, I can see “no value” to my students in getting such a message. We must protect our students from such propaganda. Of course the fact that our government pays for the education of each child in order to make them more productive citizens of this country is socialism and must be stopped. Only those who can afford private education or to stay home and teach their children should have educated children. We must preserve ignorance at all costs.

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    • fms teacher –

      It is unfortunate that a “race baiting” disingenuous teacher like you is teaching. Based on your post I certainly would not want you teaching or mentoring any children.

      You know that President Obama’s special in-school address to children is unprecedented and not comparable to an inauguration on broadcast television.

      And by the way the government doesn’t pay for public school education taxpayers pay for it and your salary.

      Joe

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      • Yes Joe but his point is well taken that the official reason for denying the brodcast is not the president but “because it is live it can not be previewed” The instances he suggests have been shown and encouraged for years, even here, and never have they needed to be previewed! That is the sickening thing and were the perception of a double standard can be justified, even if not correct.

        Also note in response to your other question!
        Bush I
        http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu/research/public_papers.php?id=3450&year=1991&month=10
        Please note the time and location and networks at the bottom!

        Regan
        http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1986/51386d.htm
        Again note the time at the bottom!

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      • you don’t want anyone teaching that doesn’t agree with your agenda

        by the way, you and I both pay taxes to the government which uses that money to provide services to the community such as law enforcement and education

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        • I don’t want anyone teaching with any agenda. Education should be as unbiased as possible. I’m finding most HCPS teachers have an agenda, and that is really a shame.

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          • Question: Is teaching a student about the reality of biological evolution a biased position for a teacher of science?

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          • No,but I also think they should teach there are some that believe that all things, people included, were put on earth just as they are.

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          • Right, so just as most of the country voted for Obama, and most of the country would like for him to be able to address the students, the teachers could mention that some parents do not believe in anyone ever being allowed to speak to their children unless they are first vetted for their political leanings.

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          • Sandy that thought belongs in a philosophy class not biology. That said When I taught HS I had 4 extremely conservative baptists in a class. When we covered evolution I knew I was going to have them disrupt the class. SO….. I got permission from all the kids in the classes parents to teach evolution via a trial. The conservative christian kids liked it because they got to defend their faith but it forced them to at least evaluate and truely understand evolution within a certian context.

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    • FMS teacher, and I’ll start with my girls got a wonderful education at FMS, the fact that the Federal Government is paying for some of our education system is socialism. It is not socialism if the state and the local (county in our case) pays for the education. I assume you don’t teach social studies.

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      • The federal government regulates education in this country – fyi – no child left behind. We have federal laws about educational privacy, special education, and the education of all children. You may have noticed that one of the cabinet positions is Secretary of Education. So if you think that the government isn’t involved in your child’s education, you’re mistaken.

        That being said, I don’t understand why the president encouraging children to do well in school is so controversial.

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        • The states have the option. They have to follow the rules if they accept the money. They have the option of turning down the money, not that that ever happens.

          The problem with the President’s speech is that we don’t know what he is going to say and we won’t be there with our children to hear it. He could just as easily broadcast it in the evening and leave it up to the parents. When did teachers start having more control of what a child is subjected to than the parents? Do you really think you have more rights over my child than I do?

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          • Sandy –

            Of course teachers know better than parents. It is their job to counteract what values and views you’ve instilled in your children and replace them with ones that they believe are appropriate.

            Joe

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          • Joe, sometimes that does seem to be the case. My husband and I are so careful to look at what our kids are doing in school so we can explain it to them. During our abortion discussion, my oldest daughter said women should always be able to have an abortion, her teacher said it is the woman’s body, etc. I got out her baby book and showed her her sonogram pictures. We explained exactly what happens during a partial birth abortion, and a mid and late term abortion. She was mortified! No one explained any of that to her. Then we had a friend who lost a baby at 24 weeks. She no longer respects that teacher for not telling the class the whole story. There have been other instances like the global warming teacher, etc. We really have to be on top of what they are learning. I have one in college and surprisingly it has been much more fair, not what I expected. She goes to Towson.

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          • It has happened Utah discovered that it cost far less to state fund the money they got from FARMS then to pay one of 3 companies with the psychometricians (who comand 7 figure salaries now) to design and write tests. So they opted out!

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  31. Hey guys better remove all of your children from the Obama Youth program we call public schools in this county. This is ridiculous. Next you’ll start saying that all of the children of average intellegence will be put before a panel and the Obama Admistration will withhold education to them because of their IQ like the Granny Killers in Pulic Health. I wish he had started earlier so that I wouldn’t have read some of the excrement you Right Wing Neo Cons spout. P.S. Didn’t your personal god that average intellect B actor Ronnie Regan and the father of all nitwits George Herbert Walker Bush speak to our poor school aged kids ????

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    • Kathleen, you have it wrong. HCPS strives for average intelligence. Gifted children meet with a gifted mentor most weeks for 45 min. per week. Learning disabled children are mainstreamed and sit in the back of the room with a helper and are ignored. If you are not of average intelligence when you start at HCPS they will do everything in their power to make sure you are by the time you leave!

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      • Sandy have you taught? Been in a C/C classroom often? My wife has 2 C/C classes with 8 kids who have IEP’s/504 plans requiring “preferential” seating usually the front. One is due to limited sight the other’s for a variety of issues. She has an IA who is fully involved in implementing the lessons and accomadations for the kids. Maybe your experience with a C/C classroom is limited and been poor but that is not the norm. I will give you the “gifted: program K-8 is lacking and in HS is often not needed beyond Honors classes and AP.

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        • Cdev, I haven’t taught but I have subbed. Never with a child with sight problems so that makes sense to sit up front. My experience has been in classrooms with mostly autistic children and non verbal children. It broke my heart to see how they weren’t learning. I subbed in one 3rd grade class with 2 autistic boys and no IA’s, it was insane. There is no way that anyone learned anything in that classroom. Even with the IA’s in other classes there was no interaction between the teacher and the child. I don’t think it should be that way.

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          • You are correct it shouldn’t be like that. IA’s should under the direction of the teacher appear to the kid’s every bit as much as a second teacher in the room. An IH is soley for a particular child. On a note depending on the parculiarities of the disorder with the autistic children you may have a normally functioning child when the regular teacher is their but a small change and they can not deal and appear to be unengadged.

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          • Unengaged? You should have seen been there, unengaged doesn’t begin to describe it. One boy liked to get really close to another’s face and the other wanted to lick everyone in the room. Which had the kids running and screaming. It was the only time I had to call the office for help and the last time I subbed. I’m a stay at home mom with no training on how to deal with a situation like that. It was irresponsible for them to have had me sub in a class like that with no help knowing I had no training.

            I can see what you mean though about the behavior changes if the teacher were there. I have a nephew with autistic tendencies among other problems who we just got approved to go to Kennedy Kreiger not long before we lost Dr. Haas. He doesn’t handle changes well. Actually, he doesn’t handle changes at all!

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          • So you understand that kid’s behavior may not have been normal and more a result of the change introduced. He/she acted out and you witnessed the calamity. I agree it is crappy they put you in that situation and are not allowed to tell you. Unfortunately FERPA prohibits it. I wish there was a way around it. I have seen some circumstances where if there is a sub a princiapl will have kids with those particular problems “baby sat” during that class so that the sub is not subjected to that. I once had an aspergers kid who was very normal for the most part but a sub would report him having done things like eating crayons. I used to highlight his name on the seating chart and star them while making no notation. The regulars knew that was my code for “there is something you should know but I can not tell you” the non-regulars usually new enough to ask the regular subs.

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          • They can’t tell subs? Seriously? I had no idea. There was a little boy with a serious peanut allergy and they gave me his epi pen, but they can’t tell me about autism, etc. What a crazy law. How could that possibly be helpful to the child? As subs we weren’t allowed to talk about the children to anyone, not even as volunteers could we do that, so I don’t understand the logic. Then again, I don’t understand the logic behind much of what our school system does.

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          • I suggest you might consider changing your thinking about the feds and their money staying out education if you are going to be using the wonderful services of Kennedy Krieger. Few could benefit from their specialized educational services without the fed funds they receive.

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          • Tami –

            What is your statement supposed to mean? Do you really think you can justify control of energy through Cap & Trade and a government takeover of health care by threatening removal of funds from Kennedy Krieger?

            And remember federal money is taxpayer money.

            Joe

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          • Yup it is part of FERPA. I agree it is stupid enlight of the fact that as a sub you are a defacto educational provider. The catch is you are not salaried emoloyees. It is a stupid catch 22 that harms more people then it protects.

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          • Fed. Funds like in the form of social security benefits should be there to help the disabled. It is ridiculous that it comes out of the education budget. I know that’s the way it is, but it shouldn’t be that way.

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      • One other note. Having previously taught in a county with TAG and special schools etc. they start out great until parents exert pressure to overide standards and professional judgement and suddenly every child born into an upper middle class white suburban family is TAG and the curriculum has to be dumbed down to accomadate them, costs more to run and hurts the real TAG children! Essentially it becomes a glorified label nothing more. So while I would welcome TAG programs It needs to happen in such a manner that clear standards are esstablished with very few exceptions!

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          • FYI Cdev agree with no one :-), I personally think he doesn’t a have a side, he just comes here to agree to disagree :-)…maybe he has his own blog or something, but you can be totally with him on stuff and still disagree with you. so don’t let him pump you up. Stand you ground because he is a tricky one :-).

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          • I admit my thoughts on issues are all over the spectrum. I think that is why I have trouble identifying with a party. I also think that asset makes it easier to think through things logiclly and express an opinion. Naturally we all have our biases but I try to keep them out of it. I might agree with you about gifted education and disagree with you on the merits of a shool board and partially agree with you on illegal immigration. That is normal as we ALL grew up in different enviornments and experienced different things! I never take it personal unless you feel the need to insult me for having an opinion different then yours!

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          • Outsider I am also open to changing my conclusions as the facts evolve and change! Something some people are to closeminded to do or accept.

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          • I know Bro, when I started reading your post back in the day, you did seem to be the type of person that was either indecisive; or just love to debate. it is cool you don’t pick side though, i admire that, i think it just confuses ppl when try to talk to you…it feels like it can go on for days. I just dont want ppl to stress out when talking to you. it is all good though :-). I am not mad at you 🙂

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  32. Kathleen King –

    I’m just a traditional conservative that points out that President Obama’s special in-school address is unprecedented. And I’ve grown a bit weary of disingenuous liberal/progressive posts like yours citing previous presidential national in-school addresses that you cannot seem to prove ever happened. However I have open mind and you are free to enlighten me to those prior addresses.

    You have a nice day,

    Joe

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    • Joe not unprecedented, refer to 30.1.1 when it clears the mods for links to the text of Regan’s Q&A in 1986 at 1:01 PM and Bush I’s speech from 1991 at 12:15 PM both carried on TV for viewing in classrooms!

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        • Joe before finding the times since all I had to go on was my memory of watching it in school and it was possible my teachers used the advance technology of the time and recorded it. When I found that blog the seething hate and blind partisanship was apparent. Furthermore the regular readers seem so uneducated they spell Obama… Abama and I saw that more then once! The two sources I cited are more factual, include the text, time of delivery and channels that carried it. Since the text of this speech is not availible yet we can not compare content however the two previous seem to include discussions of polotics so even if that was included it too would not be unprecedented although in poor taste. The DOE having suggested reseources is different but we live in a different time. The DOE has a palethera of resources for teachers, parents and students. They had them for the inaguration. It was out there. NCLB actually required that to be expanded!

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        • The thought of even using the word ‘moral’ with either Reagan or either Bush is amazing… Reagan did more damage to this country than perhaps any other president could, by making the government itself the enemy. Shame that Republicans have forgotten their roots. Government of the people and by the people… government is needed to protect citizens on so many levels. Just look at New Orleans to see what happens when we elect people who believe that government has only a limited role.

          If Reagan had not been so damaging and misleading, then we certainly would not have had George Bush (our leading immoral leader, sending us to a way killing God on knows how many innocent Iraqi civilians, not to mention thousands of American soldiers).

          Do not suggest that Republicans have the market cornered on morality. This is a claim that the religious right constantly suggests… and the antics of conservative republicans constantly show is wrong.

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          • Something odd happenned as I posted that last statement: “our leading immoral leader, sending us to a way killing God on knows how many innocent Iraqi civilians, not to mention thousands of American soldiers” was meant to say “our leading immoral leader, sending us into a war killing God only knows how many innocent Iraqi civilians, not to mention thousands of American soldiers

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          • ProudDemocrat –

            Are you proud of President Carter’s legacy? If you are, you might get to relive it through President Obama.

            We can only hope conservative Democrats in both houses move Obama away from the radical Democrat left, vote against Cap & Trade and push for true bipartisan health reform..

            Joe

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          • I think the Religious Right Hijacking of the party is what is killing it! I call them Jesus Juice Republicans. When the GOP stops jumping at their becon call they may have a real chance of taking back control. No matter how Obama preforms between now and Nov. 2010, if that doesn’t happen, the GOP will lose a seat or two more in the senate and the house will stay the same give or take 10 seats which in a body of that size is not very significant. The Dems will hold all but one of their current seats and pick up 1-3 more in the senate. Unless the GOP gets their act together, formulates alternative plans and stops the Roove smear tactics that got them resented in the first place.

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          • You must be kidding Joe. The Democratic Party is a shadow of its liberal status in the 1960s and 70s. Sadly we are no longer anywhere near a leftist party, rather much more centrist. The Republicans are SO conservative that anything that even being ‘slightly conservative’ seems liberal! Obama is not a liberal. If he were, he would support true reforms that increase the rights Americans have, reforms that allow marriage equality, fully funded public education in grade school as well as college, powerful environmental protection (not bow to the coal industry), and most importantly true single-payer universal healthcare. Being liberal means we understand how great this country is, but you are not so blind that you cannot realize that many other countries do some things better, and we can learn from them. It means recognizing that we only live once, and that quality of life is more important than than cutting important programs like S-CHIP or FEMA so that we can afford a tax-cut. Sadly, as much as many of us would want, Obama is not a liberal. But he is a damn intelligent man (much more so than any of us having this conversation), and was certainly the most appropriate leader of the choices we had in the 2008 election.

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          • ProudDemocrat –

            Obama may be your embodiment of omniscience, not mine. And yes of course he is a liberal/progressive which is against all things conservative.

            Joe

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          • Cdev, I actually have to disagree with you on this one. As a Christian, I am deeply offended at how the GOP uses and abuses people of faith. The religious right used to have some amount of power, but now the leadership of the GOP merely pays lip service to people of faith in order to win their vote. My two cents…

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        • The word “can” in the link you provided means the teacher has an option to have their students engage in activities leading up to the Presidential address.

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    • Well Joe wouldn’t want to try to teach YOU anything about the history of our great Republican presidents since I am merely a Liberal Democrat however those speeches were made by ol’ 20 Mule team on November 14, 1988, and W’s dad on 10-1-91. I checked my facts something Rush, Darth Chenney, and the rest of your ilk have declined to do.

      I do find it amusing when during the W Bush reign of terror I mean presidency people who questioned the authorities like you were called traitors or anti american. Leave it to the Republicans…..

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          • Katleen King –

            I am an unrepentant conservative that believes in less government, a low personal and corporate tax environment, small federal, state and local government and individual responsibilty. What could you do to help me achieve those goals that you despise.

            Joe

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          • Joe it seems to me you only want to fund those items in govt which you personally use! You hide behind the conservative blanket by agreeing that schools need funding but “starve them dry” since you no longer use them.

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          • Joe
            to what end should schools be publiclly funded in MD since a free approrpriate public education was garunteed to all in 1865 by the state!

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          • Cdev –

            Its not a question of public funding it is a question how. We need competition and free choice in schools across the nation.

            Joe

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          • Joe, you have repeatedly discussed competition in schools (and also between schools, which makes sense); what exactly do you think this competition between students within a school should look like? Seems to me that students are always competing… for that top grade. We do that now, always have, and likely always will. What type of competition do you feel we should be having within a school that, as you say, we no longer are?

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          • P.S. Competition between schools I understand, but did not intend to imply agree with. A conservative mantra of several years has been the idea of competition between public and private schools. Of course we all know that their intent is to use government money to fund vouchers to send would-be publicly educated students to a private (usually religious) school. As this would clearly violate the establishment cause, it would be (should be) unconstitutional; and I, along with most, proponents of public education STRONGLY oppose the voucher system. This would take money away from the public schools that most need it.

            I still would like to hear what you mean by competition within a school however… that sounds interesting.

            P.P.S. It is Mrs., not Mr. CMWteacher, thank you.

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          • CMWteacher –

            Of course it means vouchers for a private option in education. And no worries about The Establishment Clause since vouchers establish no state religion. The schools can be secular or any religion (see Zelman v. Simmons-Harris).

            Your a teacher and you really thought your red herring regarding The Establishment Clause would actually work?

            Joe

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          • This one has been discussed for ages, and yes, I am a teacher, and yes, I do believe that states and/or the federal government using tax dollar to pay a religious school for a would-be public student via a voucher system violates the separation of church and state, without question.

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          • CMWteacher –

            Your opinion on this matter is irrelevant and you are wrong about The Establishment Clause. Of course you can take it up with The Supremes if you like.

            I think you are afraid of competition from private secular and religious schools. You like the status quo since it benefits you.

            Joe

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          • First… I vote, therefore my opinion is most certainly not irrelevant (hence why we have the president that we do!)

            Second, there is school competition already, and the school at which I teach competes wonderfully. I would stack our school against John Carroll any day, and we are heads and tails above Mountain or Harford Christian Schools, no competition whatsoever.

            John Carroll at least knows how to teach government and science; the others are stuck in the dark ages when it comes to scientific reality, and radically twist portions of U.S. history to serve their mission of indoctrination.

            What people fail to recognize when you compare statistics between public and private schools is that our numbers are always skewed down because we do not give up on poorly achieving students. They stay in our schools, and we do are best to try to advance all. Honors students at CMW can compete with anybody in the state of MD, without question. Students that are not currently at that ‘honors’ level, whatever the reason, we care about just as much, and will work hard to help them identify and achieve THEIR goals. Now before you start harping about how this is code for indoctrinating liberal ideals, remember that choices make intelligence, and we do make a point therefore of presenting options and public opinions about a myriad of topics across curricula, and allowing students to develop their own views with the least amount of political and social bias we can. You MOST CERTAINLY cannot say that about a Christian school like Trinity, Mountain, or Harford, and maybe just barely can say that about John Carroll.

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          • CMWTeacher –

            The irrelevancy relates to your specious perversion of The Establishment Clause and not your suffrage.

            It’s great that you think Harford County Schools are competitive and because you believe it, Harford County Schools should have no problem with school choice through vouchers.

            It is clear indoctrination is occurring in schools on all manner of social and political issues e.g., global warming, gay marriage, social justice, health care and progressivism. The problem is that we have one-sided indoctrination in these aforementioned areas in not just social studies classrooms but in all other classes as well. I am for age-appropriate debate in the proper context not leftist ideologue brainwashing.

            Joe

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          • CMWTeacher, why are you so afraid of competition? If public schools are the best, that is where the students will stay. The vouchers should also be able to be used between public schools. Watch how fast our poorer performing schools shape up then. Allow the principals some control, like getting rid of the block schedule and every day math, and see where the students go. If you are afraid af competition it tells us a lot about our school system.

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          • The problem is not competition, the problem is using taxpayer money to pay private schools (particularly religious schools). This both takes money away from the school system, and, as has been stated, violates the establishment clause.

            I doubt there is much point on any further argument about this. Vouchers are unconstitutional, and you are very biased against certain realities (do you REALLY think it is a biased position to teach the realities of human-impacted global climate change despite the overwhelming dearth of peer-reviewed scientific data???). As I have seen so often on Dagger, there are a few posters on here that feel they have some mental authority over hoards of PhD scientists and researchers that have long since reached conclusions, and when they are taught in school, YOU claim that WE are being biased! Wow.

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          • CMW Teacher, you are forgetting that the taxpayer money is our money. If I were to choose to send my child to a private school why shouldn’t that money go to that school? You feel you have some sort of right to it? Remember, it’s my money.

            And yes, if a teacher only teacher one side of the global warming debate then that is indeed biased. In fact, it is indoctrination.

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          • Sandy it is the govt.’s money. WHile yes SOME of it was yours before they took it they also took money from LOTS of people including most of the teachers we have and they have every right to be expressive of hpw that money is spent. Just because they work for the taxpayer does not mean they lose the rights of a taxpayer. That also means they don’t take their marching orders from each and every individual but rather the BOE who is entrusted with the making the decisions.

            The supreme court did rule that spending money on religious education is against the law. Private schools can recieve money from public sources, like home schoolers for the non religious portions. However the trade off is they become accountable to the local educational authority something most private schools do not wish to do.

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          • Cdev, that doesn’t make it right. School vouchers are legal in some parts of the country and I hope they will be here some day.

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  33. Matt-i love you
    Joe- –i will edit myself. it’s hilarious you think matt is racist.
    people of the tea party. You are CRAZY.
    My brother did not fight a war in IRAQ and watch his friends DIE so that our UNITED STATES PRESIDENT could be silenced.
    i can not even believe that i typed that. This is why we are going to shit. Our president, be it Jesus Christ, the Devil himself, Buddha, or freaking Tom Cruise is accused of BRAINWASHING our kids. Wow! i mean, god forbid he wants to wish your kids well in the school year. Let’s just let them be slackers. Yes, please don’t let them strive hard and complete goals. let’s protect them against big bad dudes like obama. Meanwhile, you are sceaming and kicking so loud that you are not hearing anything. You are opposing to oppose. you are fighting to fight. You are going to be the sad sack of shit griping that picket sign that yells “ANTI-ANTI ANTI” while weeping on a curb wondering where your life went. So busy you are with fast judgements and quick draw anti-committees. So fast to cut the rest of the world out..because you are right and no one else is.
    You suck.
    Get your head out of your ass. Why did you immediatly think “brainwashing!” when Obama wanted to make a speech to the kids? Really? Something is F’d up in that pea brain of yours to go to that extreme. Don’t you see how silly that is? Of course not. you are too busy being a hater and a protester to see anything else.
    Don’t even give me that crap where you aren’t “angy mobs”. Cuz, bitch..im angry and i recognize that crap a mile away. Ya’all are a mob and youre pissed off. Get over yourselves.

    And i am available for fist fighting. i look forward to it.
    We are savages right? Let’s take it back to primal!!!!

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  34. Melissa –

    Calm down, please. Here’s what I suggest you do, replay your Tivo of Rachel Maddow and Ed Schultz mud wrestling, take two aspirin and avoid alcoholic beverages.

    Joe

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  35. who the? what the hell are you even talking about? Are you one of them? Or you were just born stupid and making little to no sense? Who is rachel maddow and ed schultz?
    you mistake me for a politically charged person. i am not. Just common sense driven. Please refrain from a response. i don’t care enough for you to waste your time.

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      • melissa,

        get a hold of your emotions. Joe has a right to be a little mad about things. Obama is president and he don’t like it. Obama could be preaching the good book and joe and his cronies would have a problem with it too.
        I think you are being a bit harsh….take pleasure in the fact that joe needs to suffer Obama for the next 7 years and the joe’s world order is crumbling while he marches on with his tea party mobsters and anti-property tax, anti-govt, anti-Obama, anti-cia investigation, anti-abu graib fiasco, anti-school speech, anti-health care, and anti(insert anything else) cause.

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        • Rocco –

          Did congress change the presidential term to 8 years?

          The American people have already grown tired of President Obama’s liberal/progressive claptrap. And thankfully we are a decidedly a center-right country that is now paying attention.

          Obama has lost his mojo campaign appeal now that he has had to govern he loses more ground each day.

          Joe

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          • joe,
            obama will be reelected. by then illegals may be on a fast track towards citizenship and your world order will probably include voting in spanish.

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  36. Melissa –

    Please chill out a bit and it’s not a waste of time for me to help someone as challenged as you. It’s my way of giving back and the best part is my beneficence cost taxpayers nothing.

    Missy the first step for you is to admit you have a problem and break out of your state of denial. Can you do it? I hope you can!

    Joe

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    • How are you going to tell someone to chill out and keep pushing them? does that really make sense? come on bro really?

      And Melissa,

      Let’s not let ppl get you pumped up to the point you have to start cussing.

      We all can agree, it is a crazy world, we don’t have to respond to everything…

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  37. The original sample letter to school principals by Mr. Passaro states, “Furthermore ____Child’s Name___________ does NOT have my permission to participate in any efforts ‘to help engage students and stimulate discussion on the importance of education in their lives.'” Yes, helping students be engaged and discuss the importance of education…what a terrible thing for them to do. Obama is a monster for proposing to do so; what is he thinking? To me, that sentence shows how sad and absurd this whole situation is.

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    • Kalmia78,
      Very Clever, but not too smart….
      Taking words out of context to disparage my words, but not smart enough to hide your tracks. Here for the edification of your fellow apologists is the full text…When read as it was written it takes on a different meaning. The line you quote was written by Arne Duncan. It was added to the letter to illustrate, with sarcasm, that his type of interference, no matter the egalitarian terms he used to disguise his intentions, is recognized for what it is bull..plain and simple. The parent goes on to state I am keeping the responsibly to shape my child’s opinions to myself….

      “Furthermore ____Child’s Name___________ does NOT have my permission to participate in any efforts, or ((((“to help engage students and stimulate discussion on the importance of education in their lives”))) or any “student video contest on education”))) (Quotes are from Secretary Arne Duncan’s letter to School Principals)activities.

      Challenging my child to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for my child’s learning is MY RESPONSIBILITY as a parent. I DO NOT CEDE this responsibility to President Obama, or anyone else – now or ever.

      Signed,
      A Responsible Parent

      As a parent of 6 and a Grandparent of 12…,
      Tony Passaro

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      • It’s not taken out of context; the entire text of the letter is on this page. Also, my use of quotations marks grammatically shows that within the quote from your letter there is another quote (that’s what the second set of quotation marks signifies). I really didn’t intend to imply othewise.

        Regardless, you are quoting someone else to send the message (by whoever chooses to utilize this letter) that they do not want their child to be engaged in or stimulated to a discussion on the importance of education in their lives! I understand that you think these words are being disingenously used by the Obama administration (which is your opinion), but to use these words makes your intention sound a bit absurd. In my opinion, that’s what I hope would happen in a school! Stimulation, discussion, being engaged. Yes, it is important for parents to do this but also important for this to happen in schools as well, especially for children who are not fortunate enough to have parents who take the time to do this for their children. Having this reinforced by the president (any president!) is a positive thing; such reinforcement is not ceding anything.

        Signed,
        A Responsible Parent (of 1…does that make my beliefs less valid?)

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  38. HAHAHAHA this is hilarious! KKK vs Blackpanter; I feel sorry for your kids! How would of thought hate could this strong. this is hilarious! they are not going to show it ppl, let’s move on. let’s not waste a good Saturday hating each other. why can we come together during a ravens game but not for our kids??? we are going backwards not forward. Some know someones pace maker is jumping right now, let’s cool it down a bit.

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  39. ppl, your kids are not the new “Benjamin Buttons” why are we living in the past, they are not growing in that direction…present and future is what is important. let’s stop what happen 8 plus year ago trivia questions. boring *yawn*

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    • Again optional use seems to escape you? It means you have a choice. HCPS effectively made the choice for the whole district something they do alot that tics many of you off. It just happens you agree with the choice they made. A real change would have been if they allowed the actual people in the classroom to make a choice based on the particular needs of the specific children they teach!

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    • HAHAHAHA, do you know what a commie is with out searching it on google? when I was in high school; the first time we bombed Iraq. I remember them stopping a basketball game to tell all the student we just went to war and we bomb and kill… with some detail. question is it more horrifying than a man black or white want to motivate you kids to not be a fool and stay in school for 10 min or is it better to tell your kids we just bomb the crap out of ppl? i know mostof us would say they deserved it, but really…that is what want out kids to hear rather then stay in school? i am just curious to hear you answer, no debate just want to know how you feel about the 2.

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    • we are repeating, it is to late 🙂 good quote though. God has a better one…learn to forgive or he will never forgive you. sorry, he is the only one I follow. and he is not choosing sides on that one, he doesn’t care what color you are.

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  42. the president must be a very power man; he was only going to be on tv for 10 to 20 min. you all are making sound like he is God. Only God has enough power to do all the things we think he might do on Tuesday. Then he is moving on…Tony P. wrote a letter that took about 45 min to write and be reviewed and posted. it took HCPS all day to look at the policy if it can be shown. it is taking all day to discuss things that happened 8 + years ago…we all need to let some things go, i dont care what color you are.

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    • Oh my, by all means what was I thinking. Let me put down my own book and attempt to research the issue to tune into a TV show. What was I thinking, thats much easier.

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          • I’m critizing the entire netweork, not just the show. In recent years, Fox News has presented a plethora of misleading and biased stories, ideas, and innuendoes, both on its “news” presentations and blatandly through its commentators (take a look at sites like Media Matters for America for more specifics).

            One of the more recent ones was when the Gov. Mark Sanford in Argentina story broke, Fox News had a (D) after his name, stating he is a Democrat. You could say that this was an honest mistake, but they’ve made too many of this type of mistake. Besides, a news organization should check their facts a little better than that; if not it makes me doubt their abilities to report the news (whether they are biased or not).

            Joe – it’s not an intense hatred for Fox News, it’s a strong desire for the truth. Although I hate to add to another tangent on this out-of-control thread!

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          • Kalmia while I agree with your assesment of Fox other networks err on the opposite side of the spectrum. To get a good view watch NBC and Fox and meet in the middle.

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          • I like Fox Sunday morning shows because they have both liberals and conservatives and give all equal time. Don’t see how that can be called biased.

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  45. Sandy –

    Liberal/progressives have an intense hatred for Fox News. Tucker Carlson’s investigative report on Text Books is spot on, plus they play Pink Floyd as a bonus.

    Joe

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    • By the way Joe I’m not a liberal or progressive, but I understand its easier for folks to see either Republican or Democrat as the only options for humanity. The two-party system in this country is one of the major problems in trying to get common sense approaches to problems solved. Voting party lines is not he end all be all ya know.

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  46. Sorry but I can’t resist jumping in on this one with all of it’s tangents.

    First of all, the federal government should stay the heck out of the schools. School systems fall under states rights. If one reads the Constitution and digests the doctrine then one can plainly see that no federal administration, whether Democrat or Republican controlled, has the right to dictate, control, or take part in any school decisions, rather each state has this right.

    Secondly, not slighting the teachers but the reality is that teachers are handcuffed when it comes to teaching what is on the test, they are not permitted to be educators any longer. School systems are not educating students in real world real life survival skills and applications but simply teaching what is on the achievement test. Everything comes down to achievement test results. We have 18 to 25 year olds that can’t balance a check book or understand balloon mortgage rates, don’t understand the difference between a job and a career, and don’t realize their individual responsibilities as citizens and their individual importance as citizens because those weren’t the questions on the achievement tests. I became a successful contributor to society and I thank my parents and my teachers. I didn’t get involved in a mortgage that I couldn’t afford and I don’t seek government handouts, bailouts, or intrusions and for that I thank my parents and teachers. Fortunately I went to school when educators held classes, parents took an interest in the betterment of a generation, and the President of the United States didn’t feel the need to give me a pep talk, indoctrinate through some special hidden message (had to throw that in for the conspiracy gang), or insist upon social promotion for those that didn’t want to learn.

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  47. Hi,Matt and Steve,
    Still living at home with your folks??

    First, let me start by stating I am not a politician nor do I ever intend to be one.

    Second, I am old enough to have witnessed how the propaganda of Joesph Goebbels was used to subvert the youth of Germany in the 30s.

    I will now attempt to explain how propaganda, always subtle, changes perception. I know that what follows may be difficult for your Cool Aid soaked minds to accept but lets give it a shot.

    This Obama video offers a clear example of how the Left has slowly spread its corrupting influences over our culture..

    It is this subtle inch by inch tactic that has so successfully caused us to over time be slowly backed into a corner and away from our values…. That being said, I will now give you an example of how on a fundamental level, changing the name of a “thing” morphs it into something else. Changing it’s name changes how it is perceived… For example “the War on Terror” is now “On Overseas Contingency”…Here, the title change removes the threat and immediacy of the former title and ultimately renders the object benign. While the reverse, like calling an “Old Person” a “Senior Citizen” immediately raises the status of the object and it (the Old Person) is perceived as an object to be respected…

    Political Correctness” does this all the time. We change the descriptive words and therefore change how the object is perceived. Changing “Merry Christmas” to “Seasons Greeting” for whatever reason, quite effectively removes God from our lexicon and our culture.….Taking “In God We Trust” off our currency renders the acceptance of God invisible.

    These continual well disguised messages have insidiously invaded our consciousness and crept surreptitiously into our mainstream of thoughts and ideas.

    While this video, on the surface seems innocuous enough, it contains subtle tugs that reinforce in us the Cult of Personality growing up and around Barak Obama. Not since Reich Minister (Czar for those that miss the subtlety ) of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels masterminded the cult of personality around Adolf Hitler, has a plan been executed so deftly and so successfully.

    Obama now appears to his deluded followers as the true and ultimate leader and Messiah.. The promises to serve Obama, woven into the message, the picture of Obama, shown in a messianic pose as he looks “God Like” into the future, the phrase describing the loneliness of leadership all support and reinforce the stereotypical image of the messianic leader.

    Soon we will be asked to say “Happy or Merry Obama Day” and the transformation will be complete…..In this case, first God is removed and then God is replaced by Obama.

    Most of you would dismiss this video as non threatening, however that is why it works. Like a slow poison the toxicity of these messages builds until cumulatively they achieve what the propagandist wanted to achieve, a perceived reality. How do you defend against this type of mind poison…..simple, ZERO tolerance. You must reject, you must expunge totally all messages, images, songs and writing that are employed by the Left to create these perceived realities…The propaganda (mind altering)message composed of the aforementioned elements grows until this most dangerous of ploys is implemented. Over time the perceived reality is widely accepted and the propaganda messages coalesces and becomes “The Truth”. That is why we must totally discard the concept of “Political Correctness.” The Left, for years has used it to change our perception of reality and modified it to what they desire our reality to be……..

    What is interesting is that so many American Mothers instinctively perceived the danger of this video. Then they immediately applied the ZERO tolerance antidote, and forbade their children to watch it. Therefore protecting their children from being influenced by this perception altering video…..

    Tony Passaro

    Bel Air Tea Party Coalition

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    • I truly can not believe a 15 to 20 min broadcast to motivate kids to stay in school got to this point. You are not realizing that it is you that is giving Obama a bigger than God complex. And anyone that truly follows God, that truly walks with God, understands that. I understand, and I feel you when it comes to standing strong on your issues, but damn bro…only God, and i mean ONLY GOD, has the power you are giving Obama. You are giving him this power, yes you bro! I know it is hard to see but it is true. People have a right to choice. I am not mad at you for supporting your issues…but I don’t think and I hope t Obama is not trying to brainwash kids for 20 min. I mean brainwash them to stay in school, get a good education; what is wrong that. Let’s take a break FOR the kids, ALL THE KIDS. There is sooooo much crap on TV, if you really feel this strong about how TV can get a message across as brainwashing, why don’t attack the whole industry. Why are you only concern with this one guy and his thugs??? Why are you attacking the cool aid soaked minded people when you want their support? Who in the hell is Tony Passaro???? There are so many people on your side the can get the message across better then you; I just don’t get how you call yourself a leader? Who are you, why should Hartford County follow you? I mean they can stick to the same issues you have, but they are so many adults out there that can do a better job then you Tony, so why do you feel you should lead? People don’t read your message, they read INTO your message, which just as brainwashing as any TV show out there, or broadcast. Who are you???

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      • Tony Passaro is not a leader nor do I profess to be one.

        I am a concerned citizen that is not intimidated by addle headed critics
        from speaking his mind…..
        And since you insist on remaining ananmnomouse please do not refer to me as
        your Bro….the last thing I want to be is the “BRO” of a coward that make
        ridiculous statements and then hides his face in anonymity. Are you so
        ashamed of what you write that hide behind the label “Outsider”????
        The only point you made in your rant is that you have spent too much time
        drinking Cool Aid.

        Tony Passaro

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        • How about this: I got your e mail address and i will email you my name…then you can tell me what i am so coward about and we can handle it from there old man??? if you really want to go there, you and I, then let go old timer. someone else wrote the earlier and you diced to copy it. hahah you are some leader BRO!!!!

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    • you say “This Obama video offers a clear example of how the Left has slowly spread its corrupting influences over our culture..”

      question: Have you seen this video yet? I thought it was a live broadcast?

      0

    • “Soon we will be asked to say “Happy or Merry Obama Day” and the transformation will be complete…..In this case, first God is removed and then God is replaced by Obama”

      Let’s hope not; the more you type it and the more the people read this crap the more likely it would happen…and believe it or not, it will be your fault. So please stop disrespecting God like that! No one NO ONE has Gods Powers. Read this one more time NO ONE. so stop putting it out there. God will; punish you for such a statement bro, believe me…

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    • “Most of you would dismiss this video as non threatening, however that is why it works. Like a slow poison the toxicity of these messages builds until cumulatively they achieve what the propagandist wanted to achieve, a perceived reality. How do you defend against this type of mind poison…..simple, ZERO tolerance. You must reject, you must expunge totally all messages, images, songs and writing that are employed by the Left to create these perceived realities…The propaganda (mind altering)message composed of the aforementioned elements grows until this most dangerous of ploys is implemented. Over time the perceived reality is widely accepted and the propaganda messages coalesces and becomes “The Truth”. That is why we must totally discard the concept of “Political Correctness.” The Left, for years has used it to change our perception of reality and modified it to what they desire our reality to be……..”

      You could of shorten this paragraph up by just saying you must Hate… :-), you could of save 10 min…

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      • Dear Cool aid Boy,

        If it took you 10 minuets to read my reply suggest you enroll in a remedial reading class….
        The message is a statement of fact, not emotion. Hate is an emotion. What I fail to understand is how you can ties a statement of fact, being critical of actions I frankly find reprehensible and spin it to a statement of hate. Is that the Cool Aid or the smoke overcoming your intellectual abilities???
        Well maybe that is the reason you required 10 minutes to read it…..
        Tony Passaro

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    • Just like changing the focus from WMD’s, which were not there, to “bringing peace, freedom and democracy to the Iraqi people” changed the focus and duration of why we were there. Was that not propaganda when Bush flew in on the fighter and declared mission accomplished? and if it is accomplished why are we still there?

      Was Reagan’s and Bush I’s video’s propaganda? If you call one propaganda I have no preoblem with the label being applied equally as long as you are up front and not wearing partisan blinders!

      PS thanks for discovering the caps lock key was on!

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  48. “It is this subtle inch by inch tactic that has so successfully caused us to over time be slowly backed into a corner and away from our values…”

    SO our values before was to drop out of school and be a fool???

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  49. “While the reverse, like calling an “Old Person” a “Senior Citizen” immediately raises the status of the object and it (the Old Person) is perceived as an object to be respected…”

    HAHAHAHA 🙂 did you make this up? HAHAHA I like that one…

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  50. “Political Correctness” does this all the time. We change the descriptive words and therefore change how the object is perceived. Changing “Merry Christmas” to “Seasons Greeting” for whatever reason, quite effectively removes God from our lexicon and our culture.….Taking “In God We Trust” off our currency renders the acceptance of God invisible.”

    I can respect this but this is not Obama and his “Thugs” Fault… This is between believer and non believers. you should be mad at everyone for this. Almost every TV channel does this…

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    • OBAMA and his Cool Aid drinking minions are using propaganda to manipulate
      Americans….
      I do not care if the media does this, Obama is an Elected Official using our
      tax dollars to sell us a bill of goods we do not want, care for or desire.
      Disguising the message is disingenuous and un-becoming the President of the
      U.S. I did not care for it when past Presidents did it so do not tell me
      that all he is doing is trying to fool us like Bush or Clinton or whomever
      did in the past…..He is being disingenuous and that is unbecoming of the
      President of these United States. My God, do you not expect the our
      President to have any integrity?? Better get your face out of the bucket
      of Cool Aid..

      Tony Passaro

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      • yeah, but the other crap you do want? dude, why don’t you just grow a pair and change your name to Grandpoopa and get it over with already. I can respect more if you just come out of the closet.

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  51. “Obama now appears to his deluded followers as the true and ultimate leader and Messiah.. The promises to serve Obama, woven into the message, the picture of Obama, shown in a messianic pose as he looks “God Like” into the future, the phrase describing the loneliness of leadership all support and reinforce the stereotypical image of the messianic leader.”

    To me, this is Propaganda for what you “think” might be shown on Tuesday. You just gave this man a bigger then God complex just by typing this. People are going to read this and rank this man with God just because you compared the 2. Personally I never thought of Obama like this. You haven’t seen the video yet and this what you get out of it already. I am starting think your the a messianic leader HAHAHA NOT!! 🙂 HAHAHAHA the more I read post, the more I think you are the new Richard Pryor…hold on, I think he drunk Cool Aid too.

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  52. “What is interesting is that so many American Mothers instinctively perceived the danger of this video. Then they immediately applied the ZERO tolerance antidote, and forbade their children to watch it. Therefore protecting their children from being influenced by this perception altering video…..”

    Where are the stats??? Where are the stats American Mother are teach their kids to be afraid be very afraid? God does not like scare children; and that is not very mother like if you ask me. Especially a mother who follows God. If this is that case Mother across the country are burning TV at rapid pace because they have a lot more to fear then just Obama. They should alos be scare of haters like you Tony.

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    • Dear Outside,
      My I call you Cool Aid Boy, it sounds much more appropriate.

      Harford county will not air the speech, the entire state of Hawaii will not
      air the speech, Baltimore County will not air the speech. Do you need more
      statistics??

      You sound very delusional, best you shut your computer down and go to sleep.

      Tony Passaro

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      • Tony Passaro, even though we don’t have footage or evidence of this yet but after the broadcast Tuesday, do you plan on gathering all the kids and molesting them at you home? Is this true? Is it true you plan on harming the children? I mean what you are typing to the people might seem like “Propaganda”; slowly spread its corrupting influences over our culture. Are you just a dirty old man still hiding in the closet? Is your subtle an inch by inch tactic that has so successfully caused us to over time be slowly backed into a corner and away from our values so you can have our children all by yourself for you little dirt. Though it is not Tuesday yet and the is no proof of you plan this is an example of how on a fundamental level, changing the name of a “Dirty Old Man” morphs it into something else.

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      • That is not really a problem with me if they show it or not…I just want to know the REAL reason why they don’t want to show it. The crap you talk about makes no sense. 🙂

        0

    • Outsider, I for one am a stat. I don’t want my children subjected to a message or an assignment from President Obama. Or any other adult that I don’t know for that matter. I don’t know what he is going to say and that is the problem. Yes, I am a very over protective mother and yes, we have many political debates in our home. That’s where they belong.

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  53. Tony,
    Baltimore county is allowed to air the speech. From the superintendents newsletter last week it stated that teacher are allowed to decide the educational merit on there own. Imagine that!

    0

    • Thanks Gov Teacher,
      But student must first have a Parental Consent note from home saying it is O.K.
      If not, the concerned parents will keep their children home. This is unfortunate as it will cost the school matching funds.
      Tony Passaro

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      • Matching funds do not work on a daily basis according to attendance but enrollment. If the parent kept them home for the time required to effect matching funds they would be locked up!

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  54. Nope,
    No note required.

    from the Super’s Newsletter:

    The BCPS Superintendent’s Bulletin (vol. X, no. 16) states that, “Viewing the address with students is not mandatory. Teachers may choose to connect this current event to instruction. … Teachers should make the instructional decision that best meets the needs of their students. Meaningful experiences related to President Obama’s address will have the same qualities as meaningful instruction: rigorous, engaging, and purposeful acquisitioin and processing of knowledge.”

    All this information is available at the top of the article….But who reads now days.

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    • I don’t know I think Tony the Tiger enjoys making stuff up in his little home office…How did this guy become such a voice????? Tony never has any info to back what he is claiming; if he wants ppl to follow, at least he can use some ref instead of believing everything that squirrel in his backyard is telling him.

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      • Tony,
        The note from home you are referring to is mentioned in Delegate Impallaria’s email regarding his opinions. The note is needed if your students is going to see the address and you do not want that to happen. This occurs in many occasions throughout the school year in many classes and is handled with tact by most teachers. As for basing your facts on his email, I would take it with a grain of salt. He mentions teachers right to strike as a basis for parents rights to boycott schools. Well, sorry but teachers have no right to strike in the state of Maryland.

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          • Dear Cool aid Boy,

            I have read your rants with amusement.
            You are a living example, no a typical product of our failed educational system.. You can not spell, your syntax is abominable, your grammar is that of a two year olds. The best you can do is make irritating, dis-ingeniousness statements. Your reliance on vulgarities indicates your lack of command of the English language. Your thoughts are scattered and your clarity non existent. You write like a boy on controlled substances. One that is still living at home sponging off his parents. On top of that you are a coward for not revealing who you are. I guess you are too embarrassed to let people know that it is you who makes these idiotic statements…..At this point, please be advised, I will no longer dignify the dribble you insist on passing off as commentary with further comment.
            In short, you no longer amuse me so my debate with you is at an end. Write me after you get a job, but not before you get a badly needed brain injection.

            Yours in Liberty,

            Tony Passaro

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          • what ever bro…i forgot i was chatting with a God want a be. you are wanna be racist but can’t even do that right. question: how does it feel to be a failure all your life? and someone who wears a sheet over their head doesn’t offend me when it comes to hiding. and please don’t cover up the “boy” thing by saying I am childish…we know what you mean when you say “cool aid boy”, I am a man, i can take Poopa. just grow a pair so i can have some respect for you. otherwise stay in your closet and let the people that know what they are talking about do your work for you, because you really suck at it. you need a rep to talk for you bro.

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  55. And FYI: it will not cost matching funds, Physical counts for enrollment are taken on all fridays for the first four weeks of schools. Only when students have become No Shows ( having never came to school at all for the year) does it count for matching funds. Keeping a student home for one day will not effect the schools enrollment numbers. Since any parents who would want to keep there child home due to the presidents address is already incredibly engaged in their child’s learning, I doubt that they had missed any previous days of school or will miss any upcoming days

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      • Yes, and we use physical count to withdraw students who have not showed since the beginning of the year. It helps get and exact count. Ironically in some schools in the county, this number on October 1st is vastly different due to the transient population of the student body,

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  56. Good Lord (can I say that?) such a peeing match! Tony, don’t let them goad you to their level. You’re better than that. All of you knock it off, ok?
    Here in Carroll County, an email was sent by the B of E to all principals, but nothing at all to parents (they send us emails all the time). So I emailed my son’s teacher last Thursday to simply inquire if she’s showing the broadcast. My son’s teacher does not EVER not respond to my emails, but she didn’t this time (what’s up with that?). Therefore, I’m picking my son up at 11AM. The only reason I’m sending him at all is because he wants to attend a boys’ soccer match and the rule here is if a kid is out of school all day, they will not be allowed to attend after-school activities.

    Since when have school systems usurped the power of parents in raising their own child and making decisions for that child? As a parent, I manage my son’s health and financial care (among zillions of other things). I will continue to manage his education too, no matter what they try to do to usurp it.

    ‘Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.’
    Martin Luther King

    Does this make me a racist, too? LOLOLOL!

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    • nope, that makes you a parent; good for you that you made the choice of taking you child out of school, on your own will; not because tony the Tiger said so. Quoting a famous black means nothing to me at the least. You show no state of being racist…so why should you be called one? there is nothing to “read into” n your post. I am guessing you are not use to quoting black people which is something new to you. I personally quote God because there is no one like him and color really doesn’t matter. It dumb founds me though that it scares you that the president for maybe once is trying to do something positive and it makes you run. I am sure you let your kids watch tv…out of all the things on tv, why does this scare you. you son plays soccer; so did I, do you know what kids talk about on the soccer field while you are sitting in those bleachers cheering them on? worse things then the motivational talk Obama wants to give on Tuesday, but you mention nothing about the president in your post… Anyhow, good for you for being a parent and not a racist. There is nothing wrong with that. I personally teach my kids to stand up and not run in fear. And really tony is not stooping to our level, we are stooping to his. His statement have been unprofesional since day uno. And people follow it???? why? I rather listen to you, seem to be much smarter then he is.

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    • I think the rub is that some parents are complaining not because of their own desire but to make a political point at someone elses urging. It is equally as wrong for Tony P and others to “urge” other parents of children that are not theirs to want to not watch them. I do not know if Tony P has kids and if they are in an HCPS school. My wife found comical that on wednesday and thursday she fielded two calls about this. One pro and one con. The pro parent wanted to know because if not she would record it. The con parent wanted to know and if she was she wanted to come observe the class. After the Alert now message which we got and clearly said all HCPS schools would not be watching it. She got 25 calls and e-mails friday from both sides. She spent a good hour and a half after her duty day at home friday night returning e-mails and calls! It is wrong to put the very teachers who are educational experts in the position of dealing with your anger and hate for political points!

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  57. The issue is, and rightfully should be, whether or not parents have the right to manage their children’s education. It matters not, the ideological content of the speech, nor the personality of the president. The speech should have been widely pre-announced, so that every parent has knowledge of it, there should be no “surprised” parents, after the fact! Also, the intentions of the schools and teachers must be clear and understandable; will students be “held captive” for this speech? Parental decisions, predicated upon their own ideological persuasion, and their opinion of the president, and their perception of his intentions, are absolutely legal considerations in making parental decisions!

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    • “Will students be held captive” get a life!!!. kids need to exposed to different points of view, that is part of learning. As a parent is your job to counter balance any ideas or thoughts that conflict with your values. the president, this one of prior ones don’t have to run it by the parents….parents should be involved in their kids education, not just when a president speaks to them, but always.

      Bush didn’t run it by on one when he spoke at schools, neither did Clinto, or Reagan. Conservatives had their chance and the blew it big time. take a seat, shut up, and let the man be president, you will have a chance to vote him out of office.

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  58. I personally think most Americans would have welcomed the president into the school at the beginning of his term. He ran on a platform of leading from the middle, transparency in government, and not increasing taxes on Americans earning less than $250,000. So far this is what we have;

    Left wing Perlosi designs an $800 billion stimulus bill that is signed into law without being read.

    Left wing Waxman drafts a cap and trade bill (signed in house) that essentially taxes Americans without any consequence on Nations that are the leading polluters – India and China.

    Obama imposes the largest ever federal cigarette tax increase.

    Obama rewrites Bankruptcy protocol in his takeover of General Motors and essentially takes care of his “Union Voters”.

    Obama goes on a World-wide tour apologizing for American behavior and routinely embraces the Muslim faith.

    Obama appoints certain “CZARS” with values far left outside the American mainstream. Good bye Van Jones..

    Obama uses his office and national press conferences to belittle and call-out Americans that disagree with his views, i.e Rick Santelli. He nationally scolds Officer James Crowley for arresting a racist professor Gates.

    Robert Gibbs, Harry Reid, and Nancy Perlosi routinely demean Americans that exercise their rights to free speech.

    Obama pushes for quick vote on Healthcare before the summer legislative break before the topic is fully debated. Tort reform an acknowledged problem on both sides of the isle is virtually ignored.

    A Cash for Clunkers program where car dealers need to wait months to be reimbursed by the Government.

    The facts are clear. Obama was the most liberal voter in the senate. He affiliated himself with the likes of Bill Ayers, Reverend Wright, and ACORN. During the presidential campaign he was able to fool most of us Independents and some Republicans that he would lead from the middle. The fact-of-the-matter is that the Guy is a fraud. Thank goodness that the Harford County School Board has acted responsibly and kept this phony out of OUR schools.

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    • ed,
      so far Obama has dealt with the greatest economy meltdown (created by Bush)that this country has seen since the great depression. He has been president for 6 months and you are ready to make him Bush Jr.

      I think he as brought respect back to the office of the president, the world looks to us as leaders again and he has closed Guantanamo which just brought this country, founded upon liberty. great shame. I can tell you that america is just as safe as it was before his presidency but with no shame attached.

      HCPS is nothing but a dictatorship appointed with no representation from the voters. Whatever they do, they do according to their own machinations and have nothing to do with the president’s speech.

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      • Rocco

        I agree with you that Obama was dealt a bad hand. I guess George was dealt a bad hand as well when he inherited a recession and the 9/11 attack.

        Obama knew what the rules were when he was campaigning for president. I think my points are very clear with regard to what Obama campaigned on and what he has done since taking office.

        George could have certainly identified the Banking crisis sooner. However, the system crashed because of Worldwide Greed – plain and simply. For your information, the wheels for this were set in motion by the Clinton administration. Although, I don’t blame Bill or George. Like I said it happened because of a Greedy Society that lacks fiscal discipline and buys so much on credit.

        With regard to Gitmo and all of this torture nonsense. Waterboarding a few miserable SOBs to save Americans. No brainer for me. Thank God we had people in office that had the balls to do what was necessary. Gitmo is a state of the art facility that shouldn’t be closed.

        Rocco – I hope you are correct w America being safe.

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      • Rocco,
        The recession was not created by Bush. It was created by changing the lending rules and frocing mortgage compan ies and banks to lend to applicants who were not financially qualified. This starting with Carter, ended with Clinton and was helped immensely by Barney Frank, Christoher Dodd, Barbara Boxer, etc.

        Bush questioned the lending practices and the strenghth of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Look at the videos on you tube showing Boxer, Frank and Dodd angrily defending the lending programs, the strength of the lending institutions and insinuating anyone questioning them as right wing extremists or racists.

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    • Ed wasn’t freedom of religion an amendment to the constitution?

      Also Bush had his gustapo make lists and look up disadents. Sounds like Germany circa 1930.

      Ed I do not think you are an independent.

      Be fair Dems and Republicans do the same crap. Look at things objectively. What made you not vote for McCain and Palin if I may ask?

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      • CDEV,

        Yes – Freedom of religion is a right. However – the country was founded as a Christian Nation and in my opinion should remain such.

        Bush is not president anymore.

        I was a republican but after the Republicans spent like drunkin sailors during the Bush administration I decided to become an Independent.

        McCain is an opportunist but I thought he was a better choice.

        CDEV – you failed to address any of the facts I listed.

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        • SO you are in favor of freedom of religion only if it is christian? I do not remember that clause in the constitution. Mybe you can point out the section.

          Your are certianly within your rights to think McCain was a better choice. Every American over 18 got to make a choice the majority of them agreed on Obama. The president is still our president even if we did not vote for him. in 2012 you will get to vote again. I thought both candidates had pluses and minuses. I liked McCain very much. I thought he would have the experience and insight to fight the war effectively and bring it to an end. The reason I did not vote for him is simply this….I thought he was to old and delicate to survive the stress of the office and I did not trust Sarah Palin to lead. I felt that was asking for Bush but worse. Rampant spending and the complete takeover of this country by the extreme religious right. If McCain had picked a more centerist running mate he would have won in a heart beat. Steele and it would have been game set match.

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          • CDEV

            Get back to the topic – I produced a list of facts why Obama can’t be trusted with my children. All you seem to do is go off on tangents rather than address the facts and topic.

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  59. O.K. MATT AND THE OTHER LIB;S DID YOU EVER HERE OF THE COUNTRY OF RHODESIA, SOME SAY OH YEA WHITE RULE RACIST PEOPLE, NOT TRUE, REALLY I LIVED IT FROM 1976 TO 1978, IT DID NOT TURN OUT TOO WELL DID IT? I DEPLORE THE YOUNG PEOPLE OF AMERICA TO LOOK LISTEN AND FEEL WHAT IS AT STAKE HERE.OBAMMA IS NOT WHAT YOU THINK, MUGABE WAS THOUGHT TO BE A OBAMMA BY THE PEOPLE OF RHODESIA, DID’NT WORK NEVER WILL, PLEASE GET A CLUE BEFORE IT IS TO LATE, KIND REGARDS VITO

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  61. Nicely articulated, Ed. Obama is a fraud. Had he not proven himself a fraud, I would not have objected to his broadcast, so long as I understood the subject matter. Parents are naturally cautious. The left asks us to trust this guy, but how can we when his agenda, strategy, and actions are so extreme. I don’t want my kids listening to someone who sounds so good and is so well practiced at hiding deception in his words, yet opposes nearly everything I believe is true and right.

    Guys like Rocco, Outsider, Matt, etc. are pawns, like so many others who committed themselves to the fraud of Obama and either refuse to admit that he is a fraud or are too vested, emotionally or through practice, to change course now. Or, perhaps they are believers. Honestly, I can’t understand how they reconcile the facts with the rhetoric, but that’s none of my concern.

    Those of us whose concern it is to raise our children to distinguish right from wrong and true from false will naturally continue to coalesce, like we have over the past year, as the left wonders why we oppose them at every turn. That, of course, is the real shame of it all. They can’t understand us, like we can’t understand them and we are now so polarized, it results in threads like this one.

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  62. “Challenging my child to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for my child’s learning is MY RESPONSIBILITY as a parent. I DO NOT CEDE this responsibility to President Obama, or anyone else – now or ever.”

    Taken from the above letter

    I know this is semantics but this thought occured to me. If we forget the President Obama part and focus on the “anyone else”

    Challenging your child to work hard is indeed a BIG part of the teachers job. Do you not want them to do this anymore?

    Set educational goals. In my role at the private school for kids with learning disabilities I work at I have to write GOALS in many kids IEP’s I do this in conference with the kid, parent administrator and counselor. I do this using data from tests and evaluation. WHile they are discussed at an annual review, I DO MOST OF THE GROUND WORK! The same is true for all children on IEP’s and 504’s. Furthermore my wife’s school has a back to school packet they spend about 7 hours with the kids on during the first two weeks and as a big part of it they talk about setting goals for the year. Do you think this to is not appropriate.

    Taking responsibility for your child’s learning is also part of the schools main mission and focus.

    Yes parents are involved in these aspects but on face value this letter sounds like you do not want the kid to attend school.

    My dad also pointed out this evening it is propaganda that is supposed to be pushed. Go to school, work hard and stay off drugs. Sounds like good advice to me but what do I know I am just a lousey teacher for kids most would not want in a classroom with their child!

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  63. Question………Since HCPS’s decision was that it can not be shown live……What if a teacher record’s it and previews it and goes throught the process and shows it and the speech is as benign as it is said to be. Would anyone have a problem with it still in that context?

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  65. It’s about time that parents step up to the plate and monitor what children are being force fed in the public schools. As a former public school teacher whose children went to private schools, it alarming to see the propaganda that has been propagated on our kids for years and to have this President try and use the education system as a “tool” for his radicalization of our country, just as he is using the National Endowment for the Arts, is a serious breach of ethics. Can someone tell me…why is Obama’s symbol on Air Force One and not the symbol of the United States of America? As a student of history, it parallels what Hitler did in Germany. Look it up.

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  66. The reason that this is a threat to us “extreme right wing nuts” is that we see the agenda of this administration and actually, several previous administrations. This is propaganda, and it is not a good thing. Anytime the government starts enlisting the support of young people and spreading their propaganda among them, there is serious trouble. This is the way of dictators. Take a little time and check into the history of some other nations that have done this. We are talking dictatorship here. This is part of a greater plan to eradicate our free nation. My objection to this comes from my awareness of the agenda of those pulling the strings of this administration. It is not wise to allow them to use our children to further their cruel agenda. More Americans need to wake up to this fact. We are living in a very dangerous time.

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    • I took my grandson and two of his friends to the Holocaust museum on Saturday. They had asked to go, for those of you who think I am part of the vast right wing conspiracy.) I offered no commentary other than to do direct translations, rather than the often incorrect ones provided by the museum. We toured the entire museum, ending up at the lower level where the propaganda display is available now. I said nothing bu listened to their comments and thoughts. All three of them came to the conclusion that the parallels between Hitler’s rise and Obamma’s is striking. They also came to the conclusion that the direct link to the schools was very similar to the technology advances and utilization employed by Goebbels at that time. These are three “normal” 15 and 16 year old Aberdeen High School students who somehow have learned to think for themselves. If these young men can see through the curtain, why can’t the adults here?

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  67. Has anyone asked the kids what they want to do? I think a vast majority of kids in public school don’t even care what the president is going to say. I’m letting my high school daughter decide for herself if she wants to watch it when she gets home on Tuesday.

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    • That would make too much sense! It’s better to use them as pawns in a political game(sarcasm)! I think you stood a better chance of that when left to the teachers to make their plans.

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      • Cdev, that doesn’t make any sense. There was a better chance of the kids getting to decide for themselves when it was left for the teachers to make their plans? I must be misinterpreting you. You couldn’t possible mean that the teachers know what’s best for my child outside of their area of expertise. That’s too far gone even for you. You must have meant “You stood a better chance of your daughter being used as a political pawn when left to the teachers to make their plans.”

        What ever happened to the huge explosion of outrage by the left when kids were given the opportunity to not participate in simple gestures like a pre-game prayer by a football team or a baccalaureate ceremony before graduation? Oh no, they would be picked on and ostracized by their peers. Stop the gathering now!

        Well, how about the students who would bring in a note from their parents excusing them from watching this propaganda? Given that the teachers all belong to a virulently left-leaning union, is it out of the realm of possibility that a teacher holding the same views as thier union could hold this against them, whether intentionally or not?

        The easiest, most fair choice would be to leave the politics and speeches out of the schools whenever possible and, since we hear the bellyaching about not having enough educational time, just keep on teaching the subjects.

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        • Phil I meant what I said. The teacher makes plan kid x says can we wacth the presidents speech discussion ensues and teacher changes plans. Phil setting goals and succedding in school is something a parent as well as teacher know equally as well about.

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    • And don’t we all believe that this is exactly what he intended to say before the right wing questioned the entire exercise? Now nod your heads up and down boys and girls!

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      • Exactly, Dave. The White House already changed the “educational” materials that went with the speech, including the part about all students writing a letter telling how they were going to help the President reach his goals – no room for dissent. If not for the outcry from concerned citizens, who knows what the actual speech would have looked like. Of course, we wouldn’t even have this preview if the people had not spoken.

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          • Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Why, I think that tomorrow at 12 noon since I am not allowed to show the presidents speech I will show students the pre approved documentaries on Castro, Che Guevera, Stalin and Lenin. Make sure I get all my students indoctrinated with the socialist “Manisfesto!” or if I was allowed to I could have my students watch someone who resembles them, came from a similar background who made it, tell them that they too could be the leader of the free world. At least that what he would tell them after all the “no Obama for my kids” folks complained. I surely wouldn’t have wanted his first speech which I sure would have described the formation of the Obama Youth, a secret group of police to pound down any dissenters to his message, and of course the destruction of capitalism with the workers taking over the factors of production and long bread lines for all. Thank goodness.

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          • Government teacher, thats a great idea. Talk instead about Guevera, Castro, Stalin and Lenin. Mention how leaders like these are sometimes worshiped based on a “cult of personality” by some who don’t bother to look at the details or results of their programs, and how everyone should make sure that it never happens again, even on a much smaller scale involving constitutional rights and personal freedom.

            Be sure to mention how many people these brutal dictators and revolutionaries murdered and how many lives they ruined. Also include Juan Peron, Nicolae Ceau?escu and Saddam Hussein, and show the methods they used to rise to power and how we should be aware that things aren’t always what they seem to be, and how the power of the media and the government are used to shout down any dissenters as subversive and unpatriotic.

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  69. Please all u lost sheep out there ready for the slaughter -wake up to what’s really behind everything It’s right there in front of u & it ain’t pretty Quit ignoring what’s happening to u & your rights & stand up for true freedom for us & our kids!!!

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  70. I just read the President’s speech and as long as he sticks to the speech, I see nothing wrong with his message.

    The message is one of personal responsibility, a strong school work ethic, the benefits and opportunities available to students later in life who study hard and of accountability.

    It is an apolitical positive message emphasizing the importance of going to school, working hard and striving towards the ultimate goal of a high school diploma. Just trying to stay open minded and fair.

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  71. We all can debate the various issues on here forever between all parties. However lets get back to the HCPS and their decision. Again I go back to the innaguartion and the president’s speech that was aired live without any prior viewing – I would love to have access to any internal documents that would show what was discussed last week about this policy and what was discussed in January about the inaguration speech and teachers airing it in their classrooms. This is what I find so unacceptable. If the policy was in effect at that time I didn’t hear about anyone calling to find out if the school system was airing the speech and having objections to the airing out of fear about what agenda their child would be exposed to if they watched at that time. If the tables were turned and it was any other president that the HCPS deemed unacceptable to air live I wonder what would you have to say then. You can’t have a policy that you only inforce when the water gets hot! I’m ready to let my voice be heard tomorrow that they can’t decide to inforce the policy at their discreation. What other policys will be next!

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  73. Why does he have to mess with our kids!!!!!
    Children of all ages have already been effected between the war and the economy. Kids are not dumb and see the news and hear parents talking. This man is helping to destroy our country and now he wants to go into our kids classes! The extremist that he chooses to socialize with believe in brainwashing as a child but not in the USA!
    Leave our kids out of his agenda and let them be kids!!!
    Thank you to HCPS for protecting our children!!!

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    • Plus if they are as smart as you saying, wouldn’t it be nice to give them the benefit of the doubt? This can be educational… you all are making these kids sound like muppets.

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      • Mom your free to have your opinion on the current president that is what our country is all about. However you agree w/the HCPS decision because it’s in line with your views. What will you when a different HCPS board decides to enforce policies only when they see fit and you don’t agree with those decisions?

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      • Obviously a trash talker not a real parent! I have three kids that are all aware of what is going on in our country. Because we are a family, we do watch news together and the do see and feel the financial strain on our country. They do hear about the war and lack of support this man has for our soldiers. The do ask why he appoints these crazy czars/friends and want to know why does he associate with these people.Sorry but this man is not a role model that I want my kids to follow. I have read his speech already and read in to my two eldest. Their response was “boo whoo – does he want us to feel bad for him!” The majority of our country is not in favor of this man so why would we feel a need to have our kids subjected to him in class.

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        • nope trash talker and a parent…thanks for the I I I I story, good stuff. if your kids watch all that on tv and know whats going on, well you might as well send them to school. sounds like you are sharing your meth with your kids; that script gave no reason for you to feel bad for him. like you, he felt rough times and he is motivating your kids to get up and keep working hard; you but sound like that is a problem…it is better to tell your kids do stay down when you are down. come on, get of the stuff. if they don’t feel bad for him, why should we anyone feel bad for you???

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        • Again what will you do when your views are not in line w/the school systems – you continue to vent against the president and not respond to the action of the HCPS. If they were showing it and you objected you could have your child abstain from viewing. Did they watch the inaguration in January (at school) or did you teach them to not appreciate the peaceful transfer of leadership our constitution and founding fathers designed for us!

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          • Colleen, it seems that many students did watch the inauguration, and even were excused from school in some Maryland counties to attend it, but I suppose the video systems were down for both of President Bush’s inaugurations, and there must have been some crucial lessons taught on his two days so the students needed to be at school. Nothing to do with politics, I’m sure.

            I was unaware that choosing to not watch the current inhabitant’s swearing-in means that I don’t “appreciate the peaceful transfer of leadership our constitution and founding fathers designed for us”. I did see the part where the adoring crowd booed and yelled obscenities when the previous inhabitant was introduced.

            Made me proud to be an American. Not. The only thing worse than a sore loser is a sore winner.

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          • Phil because of the respect I have for the office of President of the United states I would not boo the office holder despite the fact I might dislike his polotics, him personally or his job preformance. I even say the same thing about the Governor of Maryland but sadly at the 4th of July parade in Bel Air that did not seem to be the case of a great deal of people. Simply put People on BOTH sides of the aisle do it!

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          • PHil dIRt…if you are going to jump in and your 2 cents in, at least you can answer the question: “However you agree w/the HCPS decision because it’s in line with your views. What will you do when a different HCPS board decides to enforce policies only when they see fit and you don’t agree with those decisions?” see in Chicago, if you were to attend a Bears game and you stick your face where it doesn’t belong, they would simply tell you “Get off my Ditka”. Colleen asked a very simple question but you all can’t get off the coach.

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          • I’m sorry, Outsider, next time I’ll run my comments past you for approval before posting.

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          • I ‘can’ answer the question but having free will (for now), I was choosing not to do so, but I’ll play along…

            If HCPS (or any governmental body) enforced a policy that I did not agree with, regardless of the administration or political climate, I would accept their decision and work to change the policy, as I have in the past.

            Some of us actually believe in the rule of law and understand that active policies are to be followed, regardless of the personal involvement of situation.

            However, if those we entrust to run the systems fail to enforce the policies or follow the defined rules or laws (even something as simple as not paying their taxes or stealing gift cards intended for poor folks), I will work for their removal, regardless of party.

            PS – “and you stick your face where it doesn’t belong”? And you made this determination? Who died and made you Forum Czar? (At last count, that would be Czar Number 45 if you were in the Obama Administration)

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          • In regards to President Bush inaguration being watched in school do you really believe that over both of his terms that teachers ignored the teachable moments of our country’s political process. Any teacher worth a nickle at some point during a presidential election year incorporates this into their lesson plans – to believe otherwise is sad.

            I was also referring to children in schools watching the event and learning from it, as for some depending on their age, it may be the first time they get to witness it as it’s happening. To block that from your childrens learning experience is to deny them a learning opportunity. You can still share your views and beliefs and yes even disappointment if people booed. But how would they learn that Americans did that if they don’t get to watch? Also are not those that are protesting and blatantly showing their hatred for the president just as guilty of showing disrespect to the office. Anyone can strongly, passionately disagree with his or any other administration views but when it becomes vulgar and laced with hatred we all then become UnAmerican.

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          • Phil
            Thank you for at least replying to the main question. However I was unaware of the policy the HCPS is currently standing behind. I have at times tried to obtain ALL their policies as they relate to my children and their schools. One would not have known this policy was around based on the precident the schools set when they have watched other live events, especially the inaguration since it’s also a Presidential figure and took place so recently. The similarity is glaring. So that is the grounds I use to state my case – if you have a policy that you don’t enforce and the complete opposite action is taken you’ve created a precident. They now appear to be biased and censoring and next time you might not agree with them. While I disagree with the uproar over this address it’s clear many people will not open their minds to listen to reason. However, the HCPS actions are a disgrace to every citizen, young and old.

            By they way everyone should read President Bush speech in 1991 addressing students. His is extremely similar in message to our current President’s message and some can even argue that he’s even more demanding to our students to step it up.

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          • Thanks for answering the question Dirt; I know it was hard but you did it, and still was able to voice your opinion about Baltimore City and people paying their taxes. Hopefully we can tackle those issue down the road…it can hard for most to make a point when people get of the issues and keep displaying their dislikes for the president. Thanks for stepping in and answering “Mom’s” question, must of been too much for her to handle.

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          • I dsiagree with the idea that the school is setting a precedent. An inauguration is an historical event, while a Presidential speech is not – it’s a photo op and PR event, just as every President, D or R, has done for years.

            Also, if the school shows one inaguration, it should show them all. If this one was shown because it was especially historic because of the racial makeup of the particular person, I would assume that the ceremony for the first woman, first person of Asian or Hispanic heritage, first gay, first Jewish or first Muslim person elected would also be viewed in class. We have seem to have established that it’s all about what the person IS, not what they have accomplished.

            Concerning President George H.W. Bush’s speech to schools in 1981 – following that speech, the leaders of the Democrats (who controlled Congress) not only denounced Bush’s speech, they also ordered the General Accounting Office to investigate it and held hearings on the issue, calling top Bush administration officials to testify. The GAO found no problem with the event.

            Also, the National Education Association denounced the speech, saying they couldn’t support a president spending taxpayers’ money on a staged media event when schools needed more funding. Now, when belts are even tighter, there surprisingly hasn’t been a peep from the NEA. (Hahaha! Big surprise!)

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    • Outsider you have gone beyond any decency in this blog. That was tasteless and insulting thing to do. No sweat, now we just ignore you from now on, Bye

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      • I wish you can read my forehead right now so you can see the part where it says I really don’t give a crap Dave Yensan…you can ignore me you if like, I started ignoring you yesterday. I can not believe you found the nerve to actually tell someone the they said was tasteless and insulting. Dave you just about as annoying as a fly around a cows A** on a hot summer day. So go back and read your post for the last couple of days then ignore yourself my friend. Wow some people act like they are so freaking important. LOL too funny Dave, too funny!!! buzz off… hey, your kids won’t be scare of you all their life; they will wake up from the crap you are putting them through(if you have kids). watch what I tell you Davy. Man you make me chuckle HAHAHA wow! Man let me leave your confuse butt alone, you silly willy. :-).

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    • Nope Dave….It’s actually an amusing image…

      maybe you (and others) are just upset because it makes the ones so vocal about this really are. The President has the right to address the students of the public school system (which IS run by the government — like it or not)…

      If parents don’t want their children to hear a message of staying in school and studying hard…then they will be raising members of society as closed-minded as they are….

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      • Thanks Laughing…I really didn’t think an actually visual of the crap they are talking about here would actually bother him so much…oh well. it is funny because that is what it is going to look like tomorrow, people are going to look like a bunch of cartoons pulling their kids out of school; it is just unbelievable to me!!!

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      • Laughing, I keep repeating this because it is so VERY important. The schools aren’t really run by the Federal Government. They can offer the school systems money to get them to do certain things and the school system can choose to take it or not. Schools are under the jurisdiction of the state government, NOT the federal government. Really important!

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  75. Im assuming there will also be a strong lesson about the american political machine, the actual meaning of the slightest mention of such terms as “the last administration” ect. I also assume there will be a Republican response immediatly following.

    This is ill advised no matter if it was republican or democrat driven. Its also a insertion of federal govt, without the advantage of legislation, into the education process…a state responsibility.

    This would be better if it were recorded and offered to school systems wheras they could choose to show it or not.

    Go Dagger !!!

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  77. This is just crazy! The President of the US wants to talk to the children of the US for 18 minutes. If you are talking about wasted instructional time, take a look at the block schedule not an 18 minute speach.

    Is it a teachable moment? Of course it is. Teachers use current events on a daily basis and in high school that is key to connect to kids. This a true opportunity for social studies and other disciplines to utilize a current event to help kids to become critical thinkers. I would think that teachers have already talked about his plan due to it being a current event. Kids are aware of this whole issue with the healthcare plan/issue.

    This is an opportunity for our kids to watch the speach and to actually think for themselves as to whether they agree with our President or not. It also allows them to further evaluate as to what parts of his speech they support or don’t. Do we not want our kids to be able to evaluate the world around them? They need to be critical thinkers and if we hide them from real world situations, when and how will they be prepared to do that when they graduate?

    In addition to the live speech, the text is now released and that allows for previewing and many other type of critical thinking activities and follow up activities.

    I understand possibly not letting younger kids to watch this speach, but I can’t understand how you would not let high school kids watch this speach. Why are we sheltering our high school kids from something that is a true teachable moment? An 18 minute speech? Give me a break! I may or may not support him but regardless I do not think any harm will befall a high school student from watching an 18 minute speach that will ultimately affect their lives in one to four years.

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    • From reading the speech, how is that possibly a teachable moment? Is there anything in there that a student hasnt heard a hundred times? And if not, why haven’t the parents and teachers been telling them that! To me it just seems like 18 minutes of wasted time. What’s new? I’ll just count it in with FOT, LICW, and the block schedule.

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        • You should tell them a million times. But I don’t need the president spending our tax dollars to do it. My kids don’t know him and they don’t care what he says as much as they care about people they know and love and know love them say. Kids know who love them, lets hope they aren’t just influenced by celebrity.

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          • Sandy you seem like a deeply involved parent and that is great. Maybe your kids only find the celberty status mildly influetnial. Yes kids are resilient and know the ones that they percieve as loving them and will listen. Sadly more and more kkids today either have a limited sphere of those that love them and those in some cases may be a parents or grandparents. I know …. not your problem right? WRONG? It takes a village to raise a child. That child will grow up. If this 20 minutes of his time inspires some potential dropouts to keep trucking or a mediocre kid to apply himself or a kid to forgo the party life to do well. Then it was worht it as far as I am concerned. When I taught High school I would end class every friday “Have a Nice weekend, Stay out of Trouble and don’t do Drugs.” The kids found it funny and by mid year they finished my statement for me. Some kids, whom I did not have a good relationship with probably didn’t care but (and maybe I am being Niave) if just one kid said no to drugs or didn’t get in a car with a drunk driver or made a good choice over the weekend. Then it was sure as hell worth the modicum of dignity I gave up to be “that teacher.” I watched what happened to a school with a student body of 3,200 when one of them is an innocent bystander on a corner and I am at the funeral for a honoor student who was going to be the first in his family to go to college!

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          • Yes, but you had a relationship with those kids. President Obama is a stranger. Really, I have 3 teenagers who tell me no one cares what he says. My daughters AP English 12 class spent today analysing it and agreed it was a total failure. They thought he was interesting in the way he put his speech together, which I admit is over my head, but they all agreed the content was pathetic and useless. Their conclusion was it was a photo oportunity to make himself appear to care about kids when he actually did nothing to help them. Out of the mouths of babes…….

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      • When I made my initial remarks I had not had any opportunity to view the President’s speech. In just hearing about it or quickly viewing the text, I think the difference of just having a parent saying it over and over, is that the President of the United States is addressing the students.

        He is taking time out of his busy day to talk to the students and young people of America to let them know how important education is to their success. To me that is not a waste of 18 minutes because as you stated it is NOT parents or teachers telling them that at least a hundred times (I would bet much more than 100 times).

        It is not an issue of politics or policy, it is not an issue of race: It is about the one thing that our children need to be successful today: EDUCATION.

        I think it is more embarassing how HCPS was the only county or one of them in the State of Maryland to not show the speech live. To think that high school students can not think critically is absurd. That is what we want them to do, especially in real life issues. We did miss a TEACHABLE moment as it was only played live once. They would of drew opinions and then we would of been able to have activities and discussions. Forming an opinion on your own is indeed an important skill.

        I am out on this issue, I just put a lot of belief in that our children could of watched the speach, drawn an opinion, been able to explain why they feel that way, and then had a discussion on the speech (which would of explored all the different sides and issues). That is what I want my children to be able to do rather than be robots and get all of their thoughts from me.

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  79. Does this mean that none of the HCPS students were permitted to watch Obama’s Presidential Inauguration Speech live either? If (god forbid) a major news event were to happen (like I was a kid and the space shuttle exploded), are kids not told about it or allowed to see what is happening on TV?

    What about honored speakers to the school — are all of them required to submit the full text of their speeches in advance for review and approval or are any special exceptions made? If so why can’t the President of the United States be treated as an honored speaker? If any sitting President of the United States says they wanted to physically visit a school and give a televised speech to the students (Reagan at Fallston High School in ’85) will the President at that point be given Blank Check by HCPS to say what he wants on any topic he wants without them pre-screening or attempting to fit it into the curriculum? How is what President Obama attempting to do now any different in the age of this interweb where he has the ability of talking to all students at the same time rather than having to pick one school district and hope the hear about it from Walter Cronkite?

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    • Teachers now have the option to use it in class as long as you have communicated it to Parents and shown the curricular connections it may have. From here, parents may opt out of their students seeing the speech. Much like any media that is too be viewed in class that is not explicitly part of the curriculum.

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  81. For those who oppose the children hearing the speech, did you oppose it when President Reagan came to Fallston HS? Did you oppose your children hearing President Bush? I’m sure not. This is very sad. We consider ourselves the most civilized nation in the world but are the most disrespectful nation in the world. President Obama, is the President. His speech encourages our children to be focused, work hard even in the face of adversity, be innovative, study, turn the TV off, turn the Xbox off; isn’t that what we all teach our children? I didn’t read the word Democrat or Republican in the speech. I didn’t read any hidden “mind controling” agenda. Had this been President McCain, would we be having this conversation. How can you say you are a “Patriot” but you don’t even respect the highest office in our land? You are not required to agree with the President’s political view points, the great thing about living in a free nation, but you are required to respect the office. Hypocrites…

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    • The reason so many of us opposed his speech is because of the work that was released to go along with it. The children were required to write about how they could help President Obama achieve his goals. So, what was he going to say about his goals? Nothing that was appropriate for the classroom. Us parents didn’t want to go there, or didn’t want our kids to go there without us. Those are the kinds of discussions that should take place with parents, not in the schools. The revised speech is perfectly appropriate, I have no problem with it.

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    • Saddened Citizen,
      Were you so outraged when the democratically controlled congress ordered the General Accounting Office to investigate President George H.W. Bush’s speech to a school in Virginia in 1991? Or are you a hypocrite yourself?

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    • Thank you Sadden Citizen. I couldn’t agree more. Civil discourse in this country is dead. And to the others who commented to you, the lesson plans were revised, but the speech was not revised. Although personally, I don’t know what is wrong with asking children to help achieve educational goals, which was in the original lesson plan. President Bush also asked the same of schoolchildren. President Obama wasn’t asking for input on healthcare reform. I agree, it was silly when the Democrats protested in the ’90s, too. But no one called that president Hitler, a Communist, Socialist, Jihadist or the anti-Christ. And yes, I have heard our President called all those things. I watched the speech with my kids, and they immediately made goals for the coming school year. So yes, I guess we are drinking the kool-aid here by setting goals for ourselves.

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    • Sadden Citizen-

      A patriot is defined as “one who loves and defends his or her country ” not someone who bows before a political figure.

      It is everyone’s job as a responsible citizen to question authority and if your representative isn’t doing their job then you elect someone who will. Following Obama’s speech 2 of the questions on the agenda were as follows:
      “What do you think the President wants you to do?”
      “Are we able to do what President Obama is asking us?”
      It doesn’t matter what he wants you to do, he works for us, you tell him what you want him to do for you.

      Just because Obama, or anyone for that matter, has the title of president does not mean that I will defend him. He has accelerated the rate this country is falling. I love my country, not the government. The biggest threat to the Constitution is no longer foreign, its domestic.

      As for not having an issue if it was another President… As far as I’m concerned no political figures should be allowed in school because the kids aren’t old enough to vote and they don’t understand the principles of a candidate. Young minds are easy to sway and brainwash. Obama is a false messiah and has a large following already, we don’t need the youth to join his cult of personality. He’s already calling for a civilian force as strong as the military, anyone ever heard of Hitlerjugend?

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      • Thank you!!! Nice to see that not everyone buries there head
        in the sand.
        Yea… lets all do what our president wants. Thats what Monica Lewinski did and look what it got her.

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      • Why was it that when President Bush was president it was unpatriotic not to support the president but now it’s OK to compare the president to Hitler? Who is brainwashing the children with all this hate speech? The one asking their children to study or the one calling the president Hitler?

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        • just asking: The Obama-as-Hitler references (made by supporters of Lyndon Larouche, by the way, who is a far-left Democrat), seem to remind me of… let’s see… it’s coming to me… the many, many more references to George W. Bush as Hitler, Bushitler, fascist, etc. in blogs, in priont, and at the staged protests by the left during his administration.

          I understand. I guess you didn’t have the television or radio on or read a newspaper or magazine for the past several years. It’s OK.

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      • Not being old enough I have a serious question.
        Yes, Obama has a large celebrity rock star status that can be attributed to two factors (according to my hypothesis) the big one is he is significantly younger and in touch with the cultural icons our youth and young people look to, more so then Clinton, second is his embodiment of the fact that there is no more glass cieling. America has become colorblind.

        Is this hypothesis consistent with the prevaling attitude of when Kennedy was elected. He represented a new generation and a cultural group to whom the highest office was previously considered off limits? Was the resentment from others around?

        I am seriously asking not to start a fight I would like some perspective from my elders preferable objective.

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    • I know the factual but Clinton represented the change from one generation to another. He played the saxaphone and made my dad feel like the president was his age and not his elder. Was it like that for Kennedy?

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  83. If the tea parties and town hall protests demonstrate nothing else, it is that a large portion of our population is extremely discontented with the current state of affairs of our government. The media and the Democrats continue to portray this discontent as limited and misguided. The April 15th tea parties were “the usual tax protests”. The outrage expressed at the town hall meetings about ObamaCare was “misguided due to ignorance about what ObamaCare represents”. Some of pundits and members of the Obama Administration are even beginning to suggest that the movement is racial; it’s all about Obama being black! It will be interesting to see how they spin the September 12th march in Washington, especially if a million or more of us show up.
    Some Republicans erroneously interpret this discontent as support for their agenda; manna from heaven they did nothing to create. This view is supported by some in the media, who portray the protesters as acting under the direction of the Republican Party. People who think this frustration is controlled by the Republicans could not be more wrong. With polls showing that an overwhelming majority of Americans would like to see a complete turnover of both houses of Congress, the discontent is clearly universal, not directed at just one party.

    So what is going on? I believe what we are seeing is a manifestation of dissatisfaction that has been growing steadily since at least the Social Security Act was enacted in 1935. The foundation of this frustration is the increasing perception that the federal government has steadily abrogated the US Constitution; that this is no longer the “government of the people, by the people, for the people” that Abraham Lincoln described in his Gettysburg Address. This abrogation has taken two primary forms: 1) usurpation by the federal government of powers not granted to it under the US Constitution; and 2) federal court decisions, especially by the Supreme Court, which radically modify the Constitution, unilaterally bypassing the amendment process. Both political parties and the judicial system have been complicit in this gradual theft of power from WE THE PEOPLE, so they, and the bureaucracy in Washington, are all targets of WE THE PEOPLE’s wrath. And now they are introducing a new strategy to circumvent the Constitution: ratification of UN treaties and citing foreign legal authority that will further curtail our liberties.

    This is not a pro-Republican Party or anti-Obama (racially motivated or otherwise) movement. It is a peaceful movement by WE THE PEOPLE to reinstate our Constitution. Our objective is to restore the limited federal government that was agreed to in 1787 (as properly amended) and to overturn the tortured court opinions and laws that misinterpreted the Constitution beyond common sense, unconstitutionally creating new “rights” and unconstitutionally expanding federal government powers. It is a movement that would have been supported by President Obama’s “hero”, Abraham Lincoln, who said:

    “This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it or their revolutionary right to dismember it or overthrow it.”

    This movement of WE THE PEOPLE is way overdue. Politicians, bureaucrats and judges have been running rough shod over WE THE PEOPLE’s rights for at least three quarters of a century. There have been waves of protest in the past, but they have largely been single issue focused (like abortion) and many have lost impetus when the politicians promised to address them (like the boarder fence) or the issue dissipated (like domestic drilling). The challenge to the tea party movement is to keep the effort alive until our goal is achieved. And WE THE PEOPLE are finally sufficiently discontented that I believe the movement will grow, not lose steam.

    For success to be achieved, it is critical that we fully understand how our beloved country wandered so far off the clear path established by our founders. In this respect, I was attracted to a quote by Steve Malanga that appeared in last Saturday’s Wall Street Journal (reprinted below), which addresses in part the question of what went wrong. According to Malanga, America’s economic exceptionalism in the 19th century was due to our “civic virtues” which “grew out of the pervasiveness of religion.” Malanga argues that today’s economic problems are due to the fact that: “the Protestant ethic began to disintegrate, with key elements slowly disappearing from modern American society, vanishing from schools, from business, from popular culture, and leaving us with an economic system unmoored from the restraints of civic virtue.”

    A loss of “virtue” permeates our entire society, including our government, courts and political class. Politicians and pundits who blame Wall Street for all our problems should look in the mirror. WE THE PEOPLE should look in the mirror!

    Our founders understood that virtue was an essential ingredient to the success of our system of government. For example, James Madison, the “Father of our Constitution”, stated in a speech to the Virginia Convention that ratified the US Constitution:

    “Is there no virtue among us? If there be not, we are in a wretched situation. No theoretical checks-no form of government can render us secure. To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea, if there be sufficient virtue and intelligence in the community, it will be exercised in the selection of these men. So that we do not depend on their virtue, or put confidence in our rulers, but in the people who are to choose them.”

    Contrary to the lie of revisionist historians, the overwhelming majority of the men who framed our Declaration of Independence and Constituition were Christians. They assumed Christianity and the Church would continue to play a predominant role in America, ensuring the kind of virtuous people required to sustain the form of government they created and wisely use the liberties granted.

    James Madison said: “We have staked the whole of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.”

    George Washington said: “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest prop of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge in the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”

    The progressives always have understood that Christianity stands in the way of their objectives since it provides the intellectual foundation for both our liberties and our limited system of government. So they made it a priority to eliminate the influence of Christianity, and have been remarkably successful. The American Churches and Christians tragically stood by and allowed the progressives to demean their theology as “unscientific” and demanded their beliefs were “irrelevant” on “public” issues. What happened is similar to what WE THE PEOPLE have done; stood by and allowed the progressives to circumvent our Constitution and usurp our government. I believe one of the reasons for the decline of the Christian Church in America is that in succumbing to the progressive onslaught, they have rendered themselves less relevant to many Americans.

    So can anyone be surprised that, as Malanga writes, “civic virtue” vanish from schools, business, popular culture, government and courts? For the Tea Party Movement to be successful, it is imperative that we wake up not only WE THE PEOPLE, but the Churches and Christians as well. We cannot reclaim America without our foundation, and that foundation must be strong and supporting.

    Jon Bauman

    The Woodlands, TX

    ———————————————————————————————————–

    Manhattan Institute fellow Steve Malanga writing in the Institute’s City Journal:

    The genius of America in the early nineteenth century, Tocqueville thought, was that it pursued “productive industry” without a descent into lethal materialism. Behind America’s balancing act, the pioneering French social thinker noted, lay a common set of civic virtues that celebrated not merely hard work but also thrift, integrity, self-reliance, and modesty—virtues that grew out of the pervasiveness of religion, which Tocqueville called “the first of [America’s] political institutions, . . . imparting morality” to American democracy and free markets. Some 75 years later, sociologist Max Weber dubbed the qualities that Tocqueville observed the “Protestant ethic” and considered them the cornerstone of successful capitalism. Like Tocqueville, Weber saw that ethic most fully realized in America, where it pervaded the society. Preached by luminaries like Benjamin Franklin, taught in public schools, embodied in popular novels, repeated in self-improvement books, and transmitted to immigrants, that ethic undergirded and promoted America’s economic success.

    What would Tocqueville or Weber think of America today? In place of thrift, they would find a nation of debtors, staggering beneath loans obtained under false pretenses. In place of a steady, patient accumulation of wealth, they would find bankers and financiers with such a short-term perspective that they never pause to consider the consequences or risks of selling securities they don’t understand. In place of a country where all a man asks of government is “not to be disturbed in his toil,” as Tocqueville put it, they would find a nation of rent-seekers demanding government subsidies to purchase homes, start new ventures, or bail out old ones. They would find what Tocqueville described as the “fatal circle” of materialism—the cycle of acquisition and gratification that drives people back to ever more frenetic acquisition and that ultimately undermines prosperous democracies.

    And they would understand why. After flourishing for three centuries in America, the Protestant ethic began to disintegrate, with key elements slowly disappearing from modern American society, vanishing from schools, from business, from popular culture, and leaving us with an economic system unmoored from the restraints of civic virtue. Not even Adam Smith—who was a moral philosopher, after all—imagined capitalism operating in such an ethical vacuum. Bailout plans, new regulatory schemes, and monetary policy moves won’t be enough to spur a robust, long-term revival of American economic opportunity without some renewal of what was once understood as the work ethic—not just hard work but also a set of accompanying virtues, whose crucial role in the development and sustaining of free markets too few now recall.

    Copyright 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved

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  84. An Open Letter to Mr. Tony Passaro:

    A preface first, if you will. I understand that a significant percentage of the tea party movement with which you are involved is based around condemning or ignoring those who present information contradictory to your rhetoric, but I can’t imagine how you think rudely rebuffing anyone who makes a run at refuting your rhetoric with a ribald retort serves to remediate the already ravaged reputation of rabblerousers such as yourself. That being said, if you insist on isolating your intellect from investigation into these important issues, in order to iterate in idyllic ignorance, I must inform you of my intention to interrogatively invalidate your ideas. (I get bonus points for not calling you an idiot there)

    Oh and another thing: It’s Kool-Aid, not Cool Aid, that’s been bugging me. Anyway, I digress.

    (non-sequitur too, cmon, firefox even has a built in spellchecker if googling is is too much effort)
    So, how about that speech?
    I actually didn’t catch the speech live, so I had to dig up the full text of the speech (found here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/MediaResources/PreparedSchoolRemarks/). I don’t think it’s that vast of a logical leap to claim that that should be required reading for anyone commenting in support or against this speech being shown to schoolchildren. I can’t imagine how you would have gotten your hands on an advance copy, so I’m assuming that your initial letter was written with the same level of information as the average town hall protester has about H.R. 3200. To preface this, keep in mind that if Obama is a power-grabbing egotist for speaking to the nation’s schoolchildren directly, George H.W. Bush (10/01/1991) and even the GOP Messiah Ronald Wilson Reagan (11/14/1988) are guilty of the same crime. Anyway, I read through the speech, and it’s pretty apolitical. In fact, it endorses a lot of the values that conservatives look for in their politicians. He’s big on self-determination, working hard in the face of adversity, and personal responsibility. Quotes like:

    “The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best. ”

    and

    “Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, and to learn something new. So find an adult you trust – a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or counselor – and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.”

    seem innocuous enough, at the very least. Really, if any parents reading this haven’t read the speech in full, take a couple minutes of your time and do it, it’s really just some after school special stuff, and I promise you’ll be much more qualified to make a judgment on whether or not it’s a message you want getting to your kids.

    I understand that Obama has been a controversial president, and there are a lot of people in opposition to his policy proposals, and they have every right to be. Obama the politician is not someone everyone in the country has to support, and in fact, if everyone did, I’d be a little worried. Obama the man, likewise, may not be someone every parent wants speaking directly to their children. However, this was Obama the President, capital P. The leader of this country has an important role, no matter which political party he belonged to. George Bush was speaking as George Bush the President after 9-11, because that’s what his country needed. Barack Obama is one of the first major political figures in recent American history to have this level of resonance with the younger generation. He therefore has a unique opportunity to make an appeal to the nation’s schoolchildren for their own benefit. To be perfectly honest, if you’re sitting here worried if Obama is going to corrupt or indoctrinate your child, your kids probably aren’t the intended audience of this speech. Your kids already have a role model they can look up to, and someone who’s looking out for them, they don’t need Barack Obama telling them to stay in school and work hard, they have Mom and Dad. A lot of kids in this country don’t have a Mom and Dad who care. If even one child decides to turn his life around because of this speech, I’d consider it a resounding success, and if the partisan rancor over this speech has kept these kids from hearing a message that I think we can all agree is good for them to hear, I think it’s a damned shame.

    If he were pushing his political agenda on these kids, I’d object to it as a misuse of school time and taxpayer funds, but this is not a political speech. The themes are the same things I hope you tell your children, work hard, stay in school, believe in yourself, and someday you’ll be able to be whatever you want. There’s nothing objectionable about that, which leads me to believe people’s objections are more oriented towards the source of the speech. From reading your e-mail, it seems you hold a moderately unfavorable view of our President, to say the least, claiming he’s anti-American, out to fundamentally change the country, etc. When you start talking about Obama asking your kids to spy on you, that’s where you sort of lose me. This is just to check, but you are aware that the NSA has been, you know, actually spying on you for years? If you’re so afraid of Obama potentially invading your privacy, why aren’t you focusing your efforts towards stamping out the massive privacy invasion that’s happening as we speak?

    The following claim is especially shaky: “HE HAS ALREADY ASKED FELLOW AMERICANS TO SPY ON EACHOTHER.” I’m assuming you’re referring to the tip line the White House provided to correct myths being spread about healthcare, which was taken down in the wake of right-wing hysteria. The purpose of that was never to encourage Americans to spy on one another, it was to correct misinformation. You weren’t asked for the full name and address of the person who forwarded you the e-mail, just the content, so it could be refuted if it were not true. Anyways, I could also play the race card on you referring to Obama’s people as “thugs”, but I’m above that. But I digress. What exactly makes you so sure Obama is out to destroy this country? I’m pretty sure that if he wanted to destroy the country, his speech would have been more along the lines of “Drop out of school, run away from home, and smoke crack.” It seems more like his speech was oriented around preventing kids from going down that path, which, considering the way our country’s social and political structure, especially the prison-industrial complex, puts urban youth at a huge disadvantage to start with, it’s good to see our government actually trying to help them for once!

    So, summing things up, I’ve read the speech in its entirety, and I really can’t find anything politically objectionable. It’s a pretty standard “stay in school kids” speech, the kind of thing Presidents always do, the only thing different about it is the source. Because it’s Obama, young men and women feel that they can relate to him, and maybe, just maybe, people’s lives will be improved. However, because it’s Obama, people who object to his POLITICAL actions are attempting to make an inspirational speech into a partisan issue. I think it’s a damn shame, really, I do. Get over yourselves, if you oppose Obama’s healthcare, fight him on healthcare, if you oppose him on the war on terror, fight him about the war on terror. The only reason you should rally against this speech is if you honestly believe that it’s a bad thing for our president to tell children to work hard and stay in school, and if you really do believe that, Obama isn’t even close to the biggest problem this country has. Word up.
    -Peace and Love
    John R.

    PS: fun little blog post from ThinkProgress on one enterprising school district’s shenanigans:

    http://thinkprogress.org/2009/09/09/obama-bush-bus/

    PPS: Before you point it out, yes I am aware that Democrats politicized Bush 41’s speech back in 1991 in the same way Republicans are now, and perhaps to a greater extent. They were wrong then, and you guys are wrong now.

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    • Anecdotally I was told by my two high school kids that no one was really paying attention or listening to the speech. I think at that point with it being on television, it really didn’t mean that much to them. Would like to hear what some inner city youths growing up in a crime ridden neighborhood thought about it and if it had any effect on them.

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      • Well I certainly don’t want to generalize, but if you look at election returns from the inner city, I think it’s safe to say that Obama’s a lot more popular in Southeast DC than in Harford County, and that probably translates to the kids too.

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    • John,

      Your points are well made but off target. The uproar was over (a) the bypassing of local Boards of Education by the Federal Department of Education and (b) the political nature of the lesson plan they originally released despite the fact that lesson planning is well beyond their charter. Against a backdrop of an already controversial president as you so rightly point out, the concerns seemed at the time to be well founded.

      Your analysis comes after everyone has had the opportunity to read the speech and evaluate its delivery by the President with a capital P. That, my friend, is 20-20 hindsight.

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      • First off they did not “bypass” the LEA. As evident by the fact it was not aired live here and it was OPTIONAL. Second lesson plans have been compiled by the Dept of Ed on everything under the sun from inagurtions to 9-11 to Material Science to elections. Go look in their professional library. Most of them suck but that is beyond the point.