So when Bush Sr did it in 2001, was it indoctrination then? There are some serious looneys in this country if they are afraid of letting their kids listen to our President. DD
The problem is when the wording was NOT helping the president with education it was "Write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president. “ This become a open ended thought process and "education" was not part of the wording.
...If the preparatory materials for teachers provided by the Department of Education had students, "Write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president."...In exact wording as quoted then...Yes, that smacks of indoctrination and I condemn that. Please show this exact communication from the Dept. of Education back then if possible for reference. Again I am open to Obama speaking to my children about their education, but the language as communicated was a problem from the Dept. of Education,... when you combine this obvious communication idiocy with a Obama political advisor who spews his blatant hate-inspired idiocy,...you get a correction with damage done and a resignation... Not too bad.
Two things. The speech is on education, so it was a logical inference to make. Also the wording in the lesson plans has changed, so it doesn't really matter now anyway.
Write letters about what they can do to help the President do what exactly? The query in and of itself gives me no concern. This is not the first time that a President has asked kids to write. Reagan did it in the early 1980s. Getting kids to consider how a President can better lead is not a problem. it is a useful exercise in critical thinking. If the question were asking kids to figure out how they can help the President enact his specific agenda, as though his agenda is the only valid agenda, that would be something different. I see nothing indicating that this is the case. I see a non issue.
The thing is the communication from the initial momentum was "Write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president", so it is unfathomable to connect such wording with education at the beginning. The wording changed due to the backlash and I think it did matter because of that.
Except that the the lesson plan was designed to go with the president's speech on education. Why would a lesson plan to go with the President's speech on education talk about writing a letter to help the President with distributing money from the stimulus package? It only makes sense that it would be about education. The lesson plans were designed to go with the speech.
Did the Department of Education had students, "Write letters to themselves about what they can do to help President Reagan."...In exact wording? Kids should help themselves and not be worrying about the goals and agenda of a President unless the decision is theirs. Again, Talk about education. But I need to have this wording be as such as communicated. I don't want, well I inferred logically ****. This ain't Star Trek. It's a directive, and that directive better be clear...
The problem is the communication directive to students was to be administered before the speech. BEFORE the speech the directive as specified by the dept. of Education for students is to "Write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the President"...That is wrong.
The wording could have changed as the result of a routine revision. The wording could have changed in response to the paranoid ramblings of some people. There are a zillion other reasons that the wording could have changed. When I was in college, it was the liberals that seemed to have what we called "dry erase placards." The joke was that there was a cause du jour that they were up in arms about. It has come full circle. Now it is the right that has the dry erase placards. I never thought I would see the day.
so the previous POTUS asked American citizens / sons and daughters to fight and die in unnessecary war and none of you WHINERZ complained and the current POTUS just asks for ideas to help the country and y'all go NUTZ
What? What? It's a crime to try to help the president? What? What on earth is going on? What are you complaining about man? So Obama is a communist or something? He's indoctrinating kids because the Dept of Education suggested kids write letters to themselves about helping Obama? What?
Of course not. The Dept of Education was in its infancy at the time, only having started operations in 1980. If you listen to a speech about the importance of education, the natural response to "How can you help the President" is listing how you can help the President regarding improving education. If the speech is about TARP, the natural conclusion is how you can help the President administer TARP. It all depends of the topic of the speech. As for "indoctrination," we have all been indoctrinated. Saying the pledge of allegiance at school, being taught romanticized stories about the founding fathers...it is all indoctrination. We were taught that the founding fathers were visionaries and were inherently good and fought for right. The British would have referred to the as seditious, treasonous scoundrels. The difference? It isn't "your guy" at the helm. He is not "my guy" either. I voted McCain. He is, however, my President. I respect the office of the Presidency. That must be the result of all of that...you know...indoctrination I received in public school.
Um, in fifth grade I/we were asked to write a letter to President Bush telling him (if I recall correctly) about how he could turn into being the sort of President we wanted him to be. To this day I still remember what was either the Presidential seal or (and I'm trying to be kind/not inflame) possibly the Dept. of Education seal on these modified blue books that we were asked to pencil our thoughts into. Still remember it, clear as day. I remember a video message that spoke about drugs to us, from him, that delved into (completely innocuous and appropriate) musings on just what we wanted from our President, our future, our country, etc.
