Comments on: President Obama’s Speech to Students: A Great Opportunity for Synchronous, Live Discussions

By: A Wordle Wonderland | 21st Century Literacy Log

A Wordle Wonderland | 21st Century Literacy Log — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 22:32:54 +0000

[...] engaged in live micro-blogging while watching the speech–something I was alerted to because Wes Fryer announced it and then participated in the event with his [...]

By: Andrew Pass

Andrew Pass — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 15:15:12 +0000

Wes,

I think that you are absolutely correct. I am not a supporter of Obama. In many ways I still think the less government the better government. But, Barack Obama is the President of the United States, and as such, the Head of State of the United States of America. He not only has the right, but also the responsibility, to preach about the importance of education. Similarly, as citizens of a democratic society, we have a responsibility to judge for ourselves whether or not we agree with the things that President Obama says. Personally, I disagree with much of what he says. But, I’m certainly not going to ignore what he says. Consider the relationship between the words ignore and ignorant.

By the way, as a teacher in a Jewish day school, I used to have my middle school students read some of Mein Kampf. Hitler was ignored in the 1930s, to the peril of the world. (No, I am absolutely not comparing Obama to Hitler. But, I think my point about listening to different perspectives is made by this anecdote.)

Thanks for posting!!

By: Michael Bodine

Michael Bodine — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:43:07 +0000

Critical thinking skills are key in almost any learning situation. Whether the lesson plan was “Write a letter about how you can help the president…” or “…[same] improve education,” the *first* item of discussion is why? Does this make sense? Why would you write such a letter? Do you want to? What would you hope to accomplish? What are the writers of this lesson plan hoping to accomplish? This addresses both the far-right distrust of Obama and also should inform the students and teachers about what the students think is missing from their educational motivation today. The lesson should always be as much about our assumptions regarding the subject matter as it is the subject matter itself.

Would that more leaders took the time to address our kids and admonish them to study hard and stay in school, not fewer! Would that more schools approached controversial subjects as opportunities for learning rather than issues to be avoided!

By: James Sigler

James Sigler — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 04:44:06 +0000

Wasn’t the essay prompt in question, “Write a letter about how you can help the president improve education?” I agree with you Wes, that there is too much vitriol in both sides of the political isle. Several presidents since Reagan have addressed students. That is a tradition of the President and we should teach our students to respect the office of the President despite whichever political party is a part. The president SHOULD encourage students to work hard in school and graduate to meet their goals.
BTW, I already created a Wordle of the speech at http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/1104953/President_Obama%27s_Speech

By: Elizabeth Barrette

Elizabeth Barrette — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 23:45:33 +0000

I’m glad to see other folks blogging about this. I have posted about it in Gaiatribe too, with links to official resources plus some added study questions of my own.

By: Jonathan Wylie

Jonathan Wylie — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 21:16:12 +0000

I think that regardless of what you think about the speech, for or against it, the speech itself has promoted a lot of discussion and is bringing education back to the forefront of discussions at all levels. There has been so much about the economy, corruption and natural disasters that education has been given a back seat for a while.

By: Peter

Peter — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 20:33:35 +0000

Wes – good point on the transparency. But more to the point, do you have any issue with the activity that encouraged students to ““write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president”? I still maintain that’s the source of concern behind this controversy. The speech is about what students should do but the activity lessons seem to focus more on supporting, helping the President. That could be a good thing but the way it was framed and phrased invited the controversy.

By: The Virtual Meeting Coach » Blog Archive » So, What’s The Big Deal About Meeting Live Online With President Obama?

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 16:55:53 +0000

[...] education – a parent, a teacher, a grandparent, an aunt, an uncle, or a school kid – please help yourself to Wes Fryer’s blog today. Wes has been tirelessly covering all the bases for many years now in the conversation, “How [...]

By: Wesley Fryer

Wesley Fryer — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 15:26:08 +0000

@Peter – Transparency is not only provided by particular authors using social media, it is provided via social media and the window it provides into the process. The fact that people have picked up on the “discussion question” and have caused it to be changed is a positive for social media and the cause of governmental transparency, I’d say.

@gopmom – Good grief. Over-the-top reactions like yours to this situation can and should make great case studies for students and teachers, examining our modern day polarized politics and the language of conspiracy and hate which has sadly become mainstream. Sheltering your child from the President’s address is not likely to help him/her become a more critical thinker and informed citizen. My position is that we should leverage opportunities like this to advance those goals, and not narrowly see the world through a partisan lens.

By: gopmom

gopmom — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 14:35:00 +0000

Hmmm, lets see. The most polarizing partisan President ever has his Secretary of Education send a letter to school principals across the nation telling them POTUS will address the nation’s “schoochildren” and they should refer to the accompanying lesson plans whilst participating in this unprecedented event. And you have no issue with that because you just love the guy. Fine. That is your prerogative, just as it is mine to protest the participation of my child my private parochial school. (My school is not participating by the way. Responsible parents FTW.) Parents are the decision makers, followed by elected school boards and superintendents. The Secretary and the Prez attempted a complete usurpation of the power of parents across the nation and all the MSM and Libs can whine about is that we don’t want our children indoctrinated. Nice dodge but those of us who are paying attention fully understand that it is that usurpation of power and the ridiculous lesson plans that are the issue here. This is the missing link. No other President who has addressed the nation’s children – voluntarily, I might add – has had the arrogance and stupidity to provide a read about my magnificent but still unverified life story”and/or write about how you can help POTUS instruction.
Obama and his cronies completely overstepped on this one and they are the ones who should be lambasted for their mistake. You know full well that if W had made such a poor move, heads on the Left would have exploded. Anyone with any intellectual honesty would recognize this.

By: Terry Smith

Terry Smith — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 04:31:16 +0000

Two ideas from this blog that stand out to me are the hate factor and the clear example of how schools are fearful of parental comments and constantly seek approval before doing anything. I’m a 4th grade teacher and my kids will be viewing the president’s address. We’ll hear it, then decide what we think. At the same time, we’ll marvel at the technological ability to have the leader of our country streamed live into the classroom.

By: Peter

Peter — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 03:40:24 +0000

Wes, I do think that some of the uproar over the speech is silly. The speech should be (and probably will be) a great opportunity for students. The problem many have isn’t with the speech itself but with the suggested classroom activities the Department of Ed released. In fact, the Department recently changed one activity (although they don’t mention it on the site – so much for transparency) because one had suggested elementary students “write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president.” For many individuals, that crossed a line because it went beyond just thinking critically about the speech.

I suspect that if former President Bush had a discussion guide that asked this question you would be one of the first to object. And I suspect your bog post would be that students shouldn’t be asked to think of ways they can help the president (which could be mistaken to mean helping support a political agenda), they should think about ways they can help themselves, their community, and their country.

My guess is that this is all a result of poorly chosen wording. had the discussion guide not had that activity, there wouldn’t have been the controversy (the speech data was public for several weeks prior to last week’s uproar).