Do you believe that parents who break the law and keep their children out of school for reasons that aren't allowed by the law should be immune from punishment? I'm not saying they should lose their children, but if the law says that a child has to be in school, and parents knowingly break that law, they should be held accountable. I think a fine would probably be appropriate.
I posted this to my facebook page and one of my high school teachers responded: "pathetic, isn't it? The school district requires that watching the speech fit in with the curriculum you teach (huh?) and that you notify the parents and give them the option to have thosr kids do something else and that something else should be related to the curriculum! Who is going to watch it under those conditions?! HISD got so many angry phone calls that they issued a memorandum about it. They are acting as if he is giving a campaign speech. He's the President, dammit! -let him talk to the kids who will run the country some day. One of them is going to be the president some day too!"
The takeaway from the post above (as well as permission slips I saw from a teacher friend of mine) is that HISD is not only allowing children to miss the speech -- they are requiring permission slips to watch it!!! The world has truly gone mad. Call HISD first thing tomorrow and tell them they've lost their damn minds.
And, again, why is HISD doing this? Because they got so many angry phone calls from Republican nutjob assholes. We have to call them too.
yea....fine them for not allowing their child to watch an Obama speech. fuel+fire. That has GOP win written all over it.
I give up. I am all for protecting the rights of parents to be the guiding force of the education of their children, but Jesus Christ! Watching a speech given by the President should simply not be controversial. I reiterate...parents should watch the speech too so that they can teach their children their values should anything the President says contradict those values. This just smacks of censorship to me. Censorship of an American President. I just give up.
Do you have any idea how many times parents take their kids of of school for no real reason. To go to Disney. For a "mental health day." Just because. If you fine parents for taking their kids out of school on the day of the speech, you'd have to fine them anytime they take their kids out of school for a day. Not an appropriate governmental response.
I can understand how Batman feels. Keep in mind that Batman and I agree on very little politically. We do agree that pressuring a school district to censor an American President is nuts.
I think I misspoke...errrr mistyped...uhhh whatever the hell it is we do here. I think we agree on the large issues, but disagree on details. I tend to favor less government. I lean toward center right. You lean to the left. The difference between us and Congress? We are both sane.
Blah blah blah, you're right, you're wrong. You're a racist, you're insane, you're crazy for this, you're insane for that. It's just one happy carousal isn't it? If you honestly think that this isn't a political stunt of desperation by the Obama administration then you are blind. I don't care what party or what opinion you support. If a family doesn't want their children to listen to something then my goodness let them. It's their right as parents. Leave it alone.
Telling kids to work hard in school is a political stunt? Look at yourself hard in the mirror and let go of the hate dude.
Yes. It is a political stunt if I ever saw one. Face it, people are coming around and seeing that his policies are extremely to the left and they don't want any part of it. Of course he's gonna do something like this. How can you not see it? And I'm looking in the mirror right now and I look pretty damn good thank you very much. Typical, resorting to name calling. I don't hate anyone.
I really don't care much if kids are let watch this speech or not, but I think there's a benefit that most people wouldn't pick up on: One of my best friends teaches Pre-Kindegarten in an urban school, and all of her kids are black. She uses Obama as a motivator all the time: If a kid won't do an assignment, she tells them that President Obama would have done it. If a kid wants to misbehave, she tells them that President Obama wouldn't approve. She claims that it works wonders on black 4-year-olds. I would think that President Obama himself telling them to do their homework and obey their teacher would work even better.
Or how about we stop this whole "black" talk altogether. When it comes down to it we're all people are we not? Labeling people only furthers this misconception that certain people need people that look like them to tell them what to do when that is not the issue at all. What I don't get is that people are not seeing the real problem behind all of this. Why would someone besides a child's parent's need to tell them what to do? Because they are being lazy parents. Say what you want, but it is what it is. I don't care what you're party affiliation is, do your part parents.
