Obama goes back to school

[Talka]

Beautiful speech. ; ;

I especially love the part where he says you're giving up on your country if you don't study. That ought to wake at least one kid up.

[Daydreamer]

Awesome speech. It motivated me to try more and I HAVE been doing what he said for years now. Shit.

I've been telling people for years that anyone can do anything they want as long as they get off their lazy ass and try. Yes, it will take time, but if you really want it....

As Randy Pausch said - "Brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want something badly enough. They are there to keep out the other people."

[Beckwin]

lol, I think I'm more offended by the ham-fisted patriotic lines than any republican could be over message/ideological content of the speech.

I think I definitely would've enjoyed that speech when I was in high school.

[Headspace]

Thanks for posting the speech.

It doesn't say anything I'm against. But it looks like a high school english paper, not a president speaking. Quoting Michael Jordan?

I'm unimpressed, but nothing is wrong with the speech that kids shouldn't watch it.

[Talka]

I post in a forum that's fairly conservative. I figure y'all might enjoy reading the stuff going on there.

This is the thread made before the speech was made public: Indoctrinator-In-Chief - Wordforge The BS starts getting ridiculous a few pages in.

This is the thread I made after y'all posted the speech text here. I decided to post it on wordforge, and got the results I expected: Oh no the indoctrination! - Wordforge

It's fun to see how they're all saying "LOLZ they just changed the speech to a generic one because we put Obama in his place!" ><

In other news: Obama Raped by a Unicorn. - Wordforge

[Headspace]

That forum was harder to read than a Plow/Neosutra thread.

[Rhinox]

lol i might make an account to troll those fags

[kuronosan]

Well of course. In any ignorant person's mind, they're right if they're wrong.

[Olo401]

That forum was harder to read than a Plow/Neosutra thread.

Heh ever tried to read Free Republic?

[Olo401]

http://wagist.com/images/political/education.jpg

[kuronosan]

An instant classic.

[Dimmauk]

Conan made a funny joke about the fake outrage from parents about Obama's school speech.

Something about, when kids found out that their parents were making them stay home from school because of Obama's speech, the kids voted him the Awesomest President ever.

[wipers]

My only point is that his speech says nothing new / exciting it is your standard run of the mill. "Do your best and work hard" speech. Sure he is the president and it is important to care about education, but this could be any president saying this.

[Dimmauk]

My only point is that his speech says nothing new / exciting it is your standard run of the mill. "Do your best and work hard" speech. Sure he is the president and it is important to care about education, but this could be any president saying this.

And yet there is outrage. Do you think Obama is more inspiring than Reagan, Clinton, and the Bushes? I do.

[Beckwin]

his goal is just to motivate children, so really it's all that needs to be said. he spoke to his audience, which was children.

[wipers]

He is the president everything he does gets blown out of proportion.

[Bingbong]

And yet there is outrage.

Folks just want to make sure Obama is treated as an equal to past Presidents.

When Bush spoke to students, Democrats investigated, held hearings | Washington Examiner

"The Department of Education should not be producing paid political advertising for the president, it should be helping us to produce smarter students," said Richard Gephardt, then the House Majority Leader. "And the president should be doing more about education than saying, 'Lights, camera, action.'"

Rep. William Ford, then chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, ordered the General Accounting Office to investigate the cost and legality of Bush's appearance.

The National Education Association denounced the speech, saying it "cannot endorse a president who spends $26,000 of taxpayers' money on a staged media event at Alice Deal Junior High School in Washington, D.C.

Did the President have a good message today, yup, and it wasn't overly political or indoctrinating. The whole "personal responsibility" he put to each student is actually quite refreshing to hear.

But let's not act like it was the first time people got all "wee-wee'd up" over a President making a speech to schoolchildren.

[Dimmauk]

Folks just want to make sure Obama is treated as an equal to past Presidents.

When Bush spoke to students, Democrats investigated, held hearings | Washington Examiner







Did the President have a good message today, yup, and it wasn't overly political or indoctrinating. The whole "personal responsibility" he put to each student is actually quite refreshing to hear.

But let's not act like it was the first time people got all "wee-wee'd up" over a President making a speech to schoolchildren.

You left out this part

Unlike the Obama speech, in 1991 most of the controversy came after, not before, the president's school appearance. The day after Bush spoke, the Washington Post published a front-page story suggesting the speech was carefully staged for the president's political benefit. "The White House turned a Northwest Washington junior high classroom into a television studio and its students into props," the Post reported.

Also,



Obama advises caution in what kids put on Facebook
AP


By JULIE PACE, Associated Press Writer Julie Pace, Associated Press Writer – 1 min ago

ARLINGTON, Va. – In a pep talk that kept clear of politics, President Barack Obama on Tuesday challenged the nation's students to take pride and ownership in their education — and stick with it even if they don't like every class or must overcome tough circumstances at home.

"Every single one of you has something that you're good at. Every single one of you has something to offer," Obama told students at Wakefield High School in Washington and children watching his speech on television in schools across the country. "And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is."

Presidents often visit schools, and Obama was not the first one to offer a back-to-school address aimed at millions of students in every grade. Yet this speech came with a dose of controversy, as several conservative organizations and many concerned parents warned Obama was trying to sell his political agenda. That concern was caused in part by an accompanying administration lesson plan encouraging students to "help the president," which the White House later revised.

Obama preceded his broad-scale talk with a meeting with Wakefield students, where at one point he advised them to "be careful what you post on Facebook. Whatever you do, it will be pulled up later in your life."

Obama, accompanied by Education Secretary Arne Duncan, met with some 40 students gathered in a school library before the speech carried on ESPN and on the White House Web site.

"When I was your age," Obama said, "I was a little bit of a goof-off. My main goal was to get on the varsity basketball team and have fun."

The uproar over his speech followed him across the Potomac River, as his motorcade was greeted by a small band of protesters. One carried a sign exclaiming: "Mr. President, stay away from our kids."

During his meeting inside, one young person asked why the country doesn't have universal health insurance. "I think we need it. I think we can do it," Obama replied. The president said the country can afford to insure all Americans and that doing so will save money in the long run.

Obama is not the first president to give such a school-opening talk, but his plans seemed to almost immediately get plunged in controversy. Critics accused him of overstepping his authority, and school districts in some areas decided not to provide their students access to his midday speech.

Duncan acknowledged Tuesday that some of the prepared guidance for school officials included a suggestion that students could compose essays stating how they could help support Obama — an idea the education secretary acknowledged was wrongheaded.

In his conversation with the Wakefield students, Obama said that not having a father at home "forced me to grow up faster."

One young person asked the president whom he would choose to dine with if he could make only one such selection.

"Gandhi," Obama replied. "He's somebody I find a lot of inspiration in. He inspired Dr. (Martin Luther) King" with his message of nonviolence.

"He ended up doing so much and changed the world just by the power of his ethics," Obama said of the inspirational leader Mahatma Gandhi. At another point, Obama told the students that "a lot of people are counting on me."

Obama proceeded later with the speech the White House had released a day early, virtually unchanged. The school he chose as the setting for his talk — Wakefield — is the most economically and racially diverse school in Arlington County, according to the Department of Education. Nearly 40 percent of graduating seniors pass an Advanced Placement test. That's more than twice the national average.

"There is no excuse for not trying" he said in the speech. He said students must be individually responsible for their education, and that it's important to work hard, pay attention in school and complete assignments.

"Whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it," Obama said. "The truth is, being successful is hard. You won't love every subject that you study. You won't click with every teacher that you have."

"At the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents and the best schools in the world, and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities," the president said.


Apparently the kid that asked Obama about Health care was a plant. I'm sure his parents are Socialist Commie Nazi. And of course Obama picked Gandhi, and not some Great American Hero.

[Zosi]

Folks just want to make sure Obama is treated as an equal to past Presidents.

When Bush spoke to students, Democrats investigated, held hearings | Washington Examiner

Did the President have a good message today, yup, and it wasn't overly political or indoctrinating. The whole "personal responsibility" he put to each student is actually quite refreshing to hear.

But let's not act like it was the first time people got all "wee-wee'd up" over a President making a speech to schoolchildren.

Of course, you totally ignore the fact that the Democrats complained about something that Bush actually did after the fact, whereas the people complaining about Obama are largely attacking a hypothetical situation that only exists in their deluded minds.

Also, Bush's speech was right before election season, was delivered to a live student audience and *actually talked about policy*. They're totally different situations, and comparing them and saying "Well, Democrats did it to Bush too!" just makes you look like a brainless idiot.

[QuePsiXI]

Dear everybody(press included),

Until Michael Moore runs a documentary about how Obama was being read a See Spot Run book by a kindergarten class, while Jay-Z's 9/11 album(or if you can't get that reference, the release of Sorority Row) killed hundreds of people, please do not compare current President to immediate past President. Obama's acceptance speech was more progressive than Bush's career.