President Obama scheduled a speech to school kids for September 14. Here’s the press release:
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
August 25, 2010
President Obama to Deliver Back to School Speech September 14
WASHINGTON, D.C. – As students begin their school year, President Barack Obama will deliver his second annual Back-to-School Speech at 1:00 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, September 14 at Julia R. Masterman Laboratory and Demonstration School in Philadelphia, PA, a 2010 National Blue Ribbon School. The President’s Back-to-School Speech is an opportunity to speak directly to students across the country. Last year, President Obama encouraged students to study hard, stay in school, and take responsibility for their education.
“Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide,” President Obama said to students last year (http://www.whitehouse.gov/mediaresources/PreparedSchoolRemarks) .
President Obama’s Back-to-School Speech will be live streamed on WhiteHouse.gov.
For more information about watching the speech, visit www.whitehouse.gov/back-to-school . This event is by invitation only, and additional media coverage details will be released soon.
Richard Connelly at the Houston Post blogs wrote about the impact of last year’s speech, and the furtorpor over this year’s speech. It’s worth a read and a think:
Let’s examine what we learned from the brainwashing last year:
1. A year later, subtle changes can be sensed in the youngsters whose parents so carelessly let them listen to the speech. Instead of sports and girls, boys are talking about Chairman Mao — until their parents walk in the room. Then it’s all xBox and whatever the hell kids are talking about these days, or so they’d have you think.2. Talk radio and Fox learned a lesson from their hilarious overreaction to last year’s speech. Now, they take a deep breath and ask themselves when a new controversy comes up “Is this just Republican BS? Like that education speech, and death panels, and whatever else they throw up against the wall?” Then they run with it, of course, but still — now they sometimes take a breath beforehand.
3. The piercing intelligence of members of the Oklahoma state legislature was conclusively proven. Oklahoma State Senator Steve Russell said this: “As far as I am concerned, this is not civics education — it gives the appearance of creating a cult of personality. This is something you’d expect to see in North Korea or in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.” Has any statement in all of human history proven to be more correct? Besides “Steve Russell is a hack,” we mean.
Connelly has more. Click over there.
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
Compared to any Republican?
I was surprised anybody voted for Bush once. But I work with teachers who despite getting kicked by Bush when Bush was governor of Texas, voted for him both times for the presidency.
And then they whine about NCLB.
“Ain’t we got every fool in town on our side?” asked Huck [Finn].
“And ain’t that a big enough majority in any town?”
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I’m kind of surprised Obama would ask students to take responsibility for their education. His policies suggest that teachers and teachers alone are responsible, and that no other facet of society has any relevance whatsoever.
I guess the President has no time for such things, which is why education funds were taken from food stamps, rather than his pointless and unproductive Race to the Top.
I only wonder who it is he thinks will vote for him twice.
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There’s so much sarcasm behind every word (I think) that it ends up being a real challenge figuring out what he’s trying to say.
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Ed you just made me a fan of Richard Connelly’s brilliant humor.
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