WH, Dept of Education Revise Language on Students Outlining How they Can “Help the President"

I am haitian living in america...I just wanted to let you all know about the brutality that's going on in haiti due to the un troops....I'm sure you all are aware of this already.....the trooops are making haiti worser than it already is .they are killing young men and women especially in the streets of port-au-prince..I see. Pictures of them lying dead on the streets bloood running all over the place with no medical aid..not only that kids as young as 12 and 13 years old are being raped by brazilians troops daily. They rape them with the promise of food and money and sometimes they dnt even go through with their promises.they are suffering from sexual slavery child pornography and many other hardships under the authority of these troops....the un needs to get out of haiti and they need to do it now. My country need some serious help and instead of provind that the us has omly established more..people have siad that people are paying to make haiti look bad..the worser we look that would be somewhat beneficial to american interest.I haven't been to haiti for almost 10years now..I plan to go next year in january...a lot has changed since I left I heard..I just hope I could go there safe and come back to america..that is if I even come back...PLEASE GET UN TROOPS OUT OF HAITI NOW..WE DNT NEED OTHER PEOPLE RULING OVER OUR LAND..NOT IF THEY ONLY ADDING TO THE MASSACRE! SO HOW ARE YOU MAKING A DIFFERENCE?

Mary J Rowell ----you are so right about everything you wrote! You covered all the points right-on! thank you.

Two more things I failed to mention in my spiel: The concerns that parents have over their children hearing the President speak have nothing to do with the fact that he is African-American. The socialist ideals the the president has presented and lesson plans that were prepared for the students following the speech are what got parents concerned. It apparently has happened in other socialist/communist countries, and these parents are wise enough to perceive this instead of blindly submitting to everything the government does. Race has nothing to do with it!!

The second thing I wanted it remind readers is of the old adage,
"The hand that rocks the cradle controls the future". Parents are the ones held accountable (by God, who incidentally created the family)for their childrens welfare, including their education and belief system, not the government!! Who do you want to control the future of America, the Federal government, or the mothers/fathers? That is the ultimate question.

This speech is just another reason that I homeschool my children. I agree with the comment about people who are worried about that speech, but do not worry about the rest of the school year when their children are being indoctrinated during the rest of the school year in a government-run school where God, the Bible, or prayer is not allowed. If a teacher was to repeat what President Obama said at the end of his speech, "God bless America", she would probably face a lawsuit and put her job on the line. President Obama is definitely a Socialist president and I can understand why parents would be concerned about his planned speech. If we could only learn from history: every country which has ever become a Socialist/Nazi/Fascist/Communist dictatorship has always started with indoctrinating the children (which are easier to reach if they are in a government-run school 40+ hours/weeks) prior to showing their TRUE intentions. They also attempt to control the media and the press so that the masses can be brainwashed (if it wasn't for blogs, conservative radio shows (i.e. Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, etc), and Fox News, as well as various Conservative political/current event publications (like God's World News, Newsmax.com, The Washington Times, Phyllis Schlafly's newsletter, etc.), the masses would be almost completely brainwashed right now!! And speaking about kids being able to "think for themselves", if the government was so concerned about kids being able to think for themselves, why don't they teach both evolution and Creationism in the schools??? Why isn't the Bible allowed??? There seems to be some bias here. Christian students are routinely harassed, not only by other kids, but by teachers and School officials (not to mention the ACLU (American Communist Leaders' Union- LOL). It is high times for parents, who care about their kid's minds, to take full responsibility for their childrens education and to take them out of the government schools for good. That would force them to shut down, and compulsory education would no longer exist. Long before compulsory education came into existence, Americans ranked among all other nations as one of the most literate, educated people in the world. The literacy rate was very close the 100%; it is woefully much lower than that now; and we rank near the bottom in comparison to other countries (achievement test scores), some of them being third-world countries!! What is wrong with our education system?????? DUH!!!!! The government got involved, that's what! Everything the government gets into, it ruins. When are people going to realize that?? By the way, a lot of the voters who helped to get President Obama elected were graduates from public schools/college students. Does that tell you anything? The public schools/colleges have both been ruined by the government (yes, the colleges are just as bad!) and the young people have been indoctrinated into socialist thinking, which explains why they voted for a Socialist candidate. Does anyone recall seeing a group of young adults waving a Communist/Soviet Union flag on the night of Obama's election victory?
It was commented on during the Fox News coverage, and even posted on the internet. I wonder how many people even noticed it. Well, I guess most people are already brainwashed and have been dumb-downed for so long that nothing catches their attention much anymore; it has happened so many times throughout history (i.e. China, Russia, Germany, Italy, Cuba, Canada, most of Europe, etc.) As the old saying goes, "History repeats itself because we fail to learn from history".

One word to say about this outrage: disingenuous. Your conclusions and "outrage" (because let's be honest, it was fake) say more about you than they do about the subject at hand. Like "death panels," it is all a bunch or horse puckey trotted around like fact. You know it, I know it - and you should be ashamed. How about you save the hysterics for real issues?

For once I agree with Camille Paglia, who said: 'An example of the provincial amateurism of current White House operations was the way the president’s innocuous back-to-school pep talk got sandbagged by imbecilic support materials soliciting students to write fantasy letters to “help” the president (a coercive directive quickly withdrawn under pressure).'

If the planned speech was really so non-political, the WH should have released a copy in advance, along with the study materials. Absent that, the parents who don't want their kids to "help the President" with his political problems, aren't to be blamed for not wanting their kids forced to listen to whatever speech he might come up with -- and pressured in a classroom 'discussion' of how to "help" him.

Personally I support public option, and I wish Obama did!

Much ado about nothing. There was a couple interviewed on the news, talking about why they were going to keep their kids home from school today. The woman was in tears, whining about not wanting her "babies" indoctrinated into "his socialist agenda". Maybe she should just keep her kids out of school permanently, so they don't get exposed to anything that might be different from what she believes. How sheltered does she keep them? Does she have so little faith in the way she raised her children, to think that they would be swayed by a single speech? Does she have so little faith in the beliefs she taught her children that they'll just abandon them when something different comes along? I know I raised my son to have a mind of his own, and to look at all the facts and evaluate for himself. I trust him to stand by his own beliefs, and not be like a leaf, blowing wherever the wind takes him.

If God isn't welcome in my children's school, then neither is the president...I don't care WHO the president is.

This article by ABC Senior White House Correspondent Tapper says "Education Secretary Arne Duncan penned a preview of the President’s message in a letter sent to school principles last week." Doesn't he know a principal is his pal?

Education Secretary Duncan isn't any better. He says “We encourage you to use this historic moment to help your students get focused and begin the school year strong."

It's a great thing Obama understands his job is to lead. Maybe in some future time, senior journalists and the top education bureaucrat will actually be capable of writing English correctly.

I don't like most of Pres. Obama's agendas or actions lately. However, I did read the transcript of his speech, and so long as he sticks to it more or less, it is benign, maybe even positive.
Wisdom can come from numerous sources, even those that we wish we could reject. And we (I speak to fellow conservatives) are fools to reject it FOR THE SOLE reason that it comes from a liberal.
Lastly, to all those parents claiming that they don't like the speech because they can't "supervise" it, how can you begin to stand on your soap-box and proclaim that principle when you are sending your kid(s) to public (aka, government-run) schools? How can you be worried about "indoctrination" by the government due to this ONE speech, but not be worried about the thousands of hours they spend in government-approved texts? You might want to think a bit more about that.

Funny, I bet you didn't care how much of the budget was being spent on bullet-proof vests for soldiers in Iraq when dubya was our leader. Or how much of the budget was being spent taking care of those same soldiers in our federally-funded VA hospitals. I didn't hear any parent, or anyone else for that matter, getting all up in arms about that.

BUT

God forbid that the current president spend budget money on telling our children to do good in school, so they in turn can put more money back into the budget with all the good jobs they are going to get once they get out of college! HOW DARE HE!!!He should be promoting abstinence in our schools like our last one! Now there is a guy really had the finger on the pulse of this country, I tell you what!

Is there a website where you can find out how many tax dollars are being spent of the education budget to broadcast the President's speech? In addition, what were the costs associated with writing the lesson plan, assembling the lesson and distributing it? Considering the current budget crisis, is this the best use of tax dollars for education? In my opinion, far too much time and money is being wasted training kids about social issues and not enough, as evidenced by test scores, on academics. It seems to me that the teacher who has been preparing for the first day of school for weeks, should address her class before the President.

Well said EdP. They wanted to "Liberate Iraq" so bad that they promoted the lies to Americans, might I suggest they all go to Iraq to live!

Go to the White House website and look at the transcript for President Obama's speech to America's school age youth. I hope all of the folks out there who became enraged at the idea of the president giving this speech have also given up their love of apple pie, baseball, the national parks, and Old Glory. Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham, and all the other right wing flamers out there should take their self-serving, moronic, brainwashed selves and just go someplace else aside from America because the rest of us who do love this country would be SO much better off without them.

Fear is a product of personal lack of intellect. Many seem to have selective amnesia of past 8 years. They fear social change, I fear the Republican Right is to America what the Taliban is to Afganistan. Uninformed extremists. The New American Taliban Party.

If "anybody" wants to address my child, and I dont care "who" it is.. they come through me first. This should be a speech aired over the television where parents alike should be able to hear it and not exclusively to children, that in its self is inappropriate, sending a message of entitlement concerning the presidents position of authority. Inferring that what he says is above reproach by anyone, much less in need of parental approval and uses the teachers and school system as his coherts. Many children who look up to their teachers will automatically assume, that no matter what is said by Mr. Obama is approved by the school, because the teachers are said to be there to guide the students so the calculations of the students will be to ablige whatever Mr. Obama says, just as their guideance of the teachers does.
I see this as a baby-step to what will soon to come..Periodic Socialistic indoctrination within the classroom.

Hi, Tuesday, out President is going to be speaking at my High School. Personally, I think its a great he is going to be speaking there and I see nothing wrong with it at all. And no, I am not a Democrat, I am in fact a Republican.

Canadian mom made several excellent points including a simple show of respect for the President. As a fourth grade teacher I can attest to the fact that our youth struggle to read and write and that it will take a collective will to excellence to drive us up out of the pit of mediocrity into which our fascination with entertainment and materialism has consigned us. The President is exhibiting appropriate leadership by exhorting and encouraging students who now rank very far down the list in the world in math and reading. Many of the world's citizens speak better English than our own children. Everyone has an agenda including those who are using this as an opportunity to advance their own with absurd and fear-driven commentary. Suddenly America is worried about what their children will hear in this speech? In that case, we had better examine at our society from start to finish.

As a survivor of years of indoctrinations of a "socialist" regime in former Czechoslovakia I get the shivers over this. We spent countless hours worshiping the presidents etc. of that country and Soviet Union. We also wrote letters and poems on behalf of those dear commrades of ours. This reminds me so much of growing up under an oppressive regime of people who thought they knew better than us and our parents.They also pulled wool over our eyes, thinking we had been all just idiots, they also had been saying that the "burgeois revisionists" amongst us did not understand the importance of those changes. They sold the simple workers "change" as well.
Can't Americans see where this Babrak Obama is taking us?!?
I am so scared for America! We've had it good for too long, and we forgot how good we've had it,
so we are now toying with socialist ideas. Wake up America!!! Before it is too late.

Canadian mom---you object to your children being shown 90 minutes of Disney movies? Then get in there and object!
You say "Believe in your children. They are smarter than you think, and maybe even smarter than you. This debate could spark a revolution among teenagers who may be insulted by their parent's seemingly lack of confidence in their ability to listen and learn critically." Did they learn any critical thinking of the Disney movie? No, they wanted toys. YOU should be the one to encourage your children in school, you should be the one talking to your children about politics when the time is right, you should be the one to help your child be an 'awesome member of society'

This is not an innocent encouragement speech--there are lessons plans given to the teachers. Haven't they already gotten their plans made? As RowleyAmerican said:::That's pretty scary. Control the teachers, and therefore control the students. Do it "for the children".

This is not disrespecting the President, this is objecting to his politics and agenda. It is a move to market 'brand Obama' to our young people.
It's wrong