MONROE - President Barack Obama's live back-to-school address to schoolchildren set for Tuesday won't be Must-See TV for area students, as local school districts express mixed emotions about the now-controversial speech.
The address, announced this week, is intended to motivate students to excel in school, Obama administration officials said. It will be shown live at 11 a.m. CDT Tuesday on the White House Web site, as well as on the C-SPAN cable television channel.
"During this special address, 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," according to an e-mail from the Department of Education to public school educators that encourages schools to show the speech to students. The e-mail also includes links to classroom materials for K-12 that can be used along with the speech.
Since plans for the live speech were announced, conservative pundits and some parents have denounced it, saying the speech is little more than an attempt to curry favor for Obama initiatives, specifically his embattled health care reform plan.
"My kids don't need to be exposed to his propaganda as he tries to lead us into a socialist state. Are (sic) children have been taught the importance of education and they certainly don't need to hear it from him," one anonymous poster wrote on SFGate.com, the San Francisco Chronicle's Web site.
The Monroe School District will not make the speech mandatory viewing on Tuesday, but neither will it prevent teachers from showing it, Superintendent Larry Brown said.
"If it fits into the curricular day, that's fine," he said, noting the district is encouraging teachers to preview the speech and show it at a later date if they wish.
Under the district's policy, teachers must inform parents if they will be viewing movies or other media in the classroom. Parents then have the option to have their children opt out of the lesson. Students 18 years or older can make that decision themselves. As of Friday morning, seven or eight parents had contacted Brown about the speech; he said they appreciated being able to opt their children out of watching the broadcast.
Brown said from what he's read so far, the speech will contain an important message. "The message that kids should work hard and be positive, contributing members of society, is a good message," he said.
An actual script of the speech is expected to be sent Monday, and Brown said he anticipates reading it then to see what it will contain.
Some say criticism of the president's speech is overblown and reactionary. Brown said he understands an original portion of the accompanying curriculum asked school children to write how they might be able to help the president. While that has created some controversy, Brown said he interprets that to mean to ask children to express how they might be able to help their country. The White House since has revised the lesson plan to say students could "write letters to themselves about how they can achieve their short-term and long-term education goals," the Associated Press reported Thursday.
Brown also pointed out there's a school of thought that "it is appropriate to listen to what the president of the United States has to say, no matter what your political affiliation."
Regardless, the district is sensitive to parents' wishes, he said.
"We're in a very charged political environment. We want to make sure we respect what our parents think and believe," he said.
What Brown doesn't like is using students as "pawns" in a political debate.
"Now we've thrown children into the mix. Now our children are pawns in the political arena," he said.
As principal of St. Victor School, a parochial school in Monroe, Joe Peters didn't receive an official e-mail from the DOE. He said the school will not be showing the speech live, mainly because the school doesn't show anything to students that it hasn't had a chance to preview. However, teachers, especially in the upper grades, may want to preview it and show it to students at a later date, Peters said.
"Our job is to support the parents' role as primary educators," he said, pointing out the speech may be a valuable educational experience for the family, and parents who want their children to see it can view it as a family online.
Brodhead Superintendent Chuck Deery said the district will not be hosting a schoolwide broadcast of the president's address, either. The speech will fall during the lunch time and "it wouldn't work," he said.
In Brodhead also, individual teachers and principals may choose to incorporate the speech if it is appropriate to the particular class. "It needs to be tied to the curriculum," Deery said.
Karen Ballin, the superintendent in Monticello, said she has reservations about the speech. The first she heard of it was at 2:15 p.m. Thursday, when she received an e-mail from the Department of Education, asking districts to tune into the live speech. Ballin said she doesn't recall ever getting such a directive from the federal government.
"While we respect the president and agree with the intended message, Monticello Schools will not make the live viewing of the speech a mandatory part of the instructional day," Ballin said in a district statement. "We believe the best way for students to focus on learning is to actively participate in their scheduled classes, especially as we are trying to establish consistent routines at the beginning of a new school year."
She noted the controversy itself may make interesting fodder for classroom discussion, particularly in upper level Social Studies classes, but that also will be left to the discretion of classroom teachers.
The short notice on the speech is a logistical issue for the Black Hawk School District. Principal Jerry Mortimer said Friday morning he wasn't sure what the district was going to do about the speech. Superintendent Charles McNulty was out of the district Friday morning, so "we haven't discussed it. I'm not sure what we're going to do about it," Mortimer said.
"I don't have an issue watching it, me personally," he said, but receiving notification late Thursday of the first week of school, coupled with a long holiday weekend looming, makes it difficult to schedule.
"It's a tough week," Mortimer said of the first week back after summer vacation. "We're all swamped."
The address, announced this week, is intended to motivate students to excel in school, Obama administration officials said. It will be shown live at 11 a.m. CDT Tuesday on the White House Web site, as well as on the C-SPAN cable television channel.
"During this special address, 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," according to an e-mail from the Department of Education to public school educators that encourages schools to show the speech to students. The e-mail also includes links to classroom materials for K-12 that can be used along with the speech.
Since plans for the live speech were announced, conservative pundits and some parents have denounced it, saying the speech is little more than an attempt to curry favor for Obama initiatives, specifically his embattled health care reform plan.
"My kids don't need to be exposed to his propaganda as he tries to lead us into a socialist state. Are (sic) children have been taught the importance of education and they certainly don't need to hear it from him," one anonymous poster wrote on SFGate.com, the San Francisco Chronicle's Web site.
The Monroe School District will not make the speech mandatory viewing on Tuesday, but neither will it prevent teachers from showing it, Superintendent Larry Brown said.
"If it fits into the curricular day, that's fine," he said, noting the district is encouraging teachers to preview the speech and show it at a later date if they wish.
Under the district's policy, teachers must inform parents if they will be viewing movies or other media in the classroom. Parents then have the option to have their children opt out of the lesson. Students 18 years or older can make that decision themselves. As of Friday morning, seven or eight parents had contacted Brown about the speech; he said they appreciated being able to opt their children out of watching the broadcast.
Brown said from what he's read so far, the speech will contain an important message. "The message that kids should work hard and be positive, contributing members of society, is a good message," he said.
An actual script of the speech is expected to be sent Monday, and Brown said he anticipates reading it then to see what it will contain.
Some say criticism of the president's speech is overblown and reactionary. Brown said he understands an original portion of the accompanying curriculum asked school children to write how they might be able to help the president. While that has created some controversy, Brown said he interprets that to mean to ask children to express how they might be able to help their country. The White House since has revised the lesson plan to say students could "write letters to themselves about how they can achieve their short-term and long-term education goals," the Associated Press reported Thursday.
Brown also pointed out there's a school of thought that "it is appropriate to listen to what the president of the United States has to say, no matter what your political affiliation."
Regardless, the district is sensitive to parents' wishes, he said.
"We're in a very charged political environment. We want to make sure we respect what our parents think and believe," he said.
What Brown doesn't like is using students as "pawns" in a political debate.
"Now we've thrown children into the mix. Now our children are pawns in the political arena," he said.
As principal of St. Victor School, a parochial school in Monroe, Joe Peters didn't receive an official e-mail from the DOE. He said the school will not be showing the speech live, mainly because the school doesn't show anything to students that it hasn't had a chance to preview. However, teachers, especially in the upper grades, may want to preview it and show it to students at a later date, Peters said.
"Our job is to support the parents' role as primary educators," he said, pointing out the speech may be a valuable educational experience for the family, and parents who want their children to see it can view it as a family online.
Brodhead Superintendent Chuck Deery said the district will not be hosting a schoolwide broadcast of the president's address, either. The speech will fall during the lunch time and "it wouldn't work," he said.
In Brodhead also, individual teachers and principals may choose to incorporate the speech if it is appropriate to the particular class. "It needs to be tied to the curriculum," Deery said.
Karen Ballin, the superintendent in Monticello, said she has reservations about the speech. The first she heard of it was at 2:15 p.m. Thursday, when she received an e-mail from the Department of Education, asking districts to tune into the live speech. Ballin said she doesn't recall ever getting such a directive from the federal government.
"While we respect the president and agree with the intended message, Monticello Schools will not make the live viewing of the speech a mandatory part of the instructional day," Ballin said in a district statement. "We believe the best way for students to focus on learning is to actively participate in their scheduled classes, especially as we are trying to establish consistent routines at the beginning of a new school year."
She noted the controversy itself may make interesting fodder for classroom discussion, particularly in upper level Social Studies classes, but that also will be left to the discretion of classroom teachers.
The short notice on the speech is a logistical issue for the Black Hawk School District. Principal Jerry Mortimer said Friday morning he wasn't sure what the district was going to do about the speech. Superintendent Charles McNulty was out of the district Friday morning, so "we haven't discussed it. I'm not sure what we're going to do about it," Mortimer said.
"I don't have an issue watching it, me personally," he said, but receiving notification late Thursday of the first week of school, coupled with a long holiday weekend looming, makes it difficult to schedule.
"It's a tough week," Mortimer said of the first week back after summer vacation. "We're all swamped."