FRIHOST • FORUMS • SEARCH • FAQ • TOS • BLOGS • DIRECTORY
You are invited to Log in or Register a Frihost Account!

School that refused Obama speech will bus kids to Bush talk

   Frihost Forum Index -> Lifestyle and News -> Politics
 


handfleisch
You couldn't make up this stuff...
(I've heard that one thing kids learned from Obama's speech is that Republicans are lying kooks, for having blathered about "indoctrination".)

http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local-beat/Kids-Didnt-Hear-Obama-But-Will-Be-Bussed-for-Bush-57827022.html
Quote:

Kids Didn't Hear Obama, But Will be Bussed for Bush
Church questions district's "duplicity" on president talks

The Arlington Independent School District, which passed on airing President Barack Obama's live classroom address, has announced that some students will be bussed off campus to hear a message from former President George W. Bush on Sept. 21.

District officials said it's part of a Cowboys Stadium field trip that the North Texas Super Bowl Host Committee invited 28 fifth-grade classes to attend several months ago.

In addition to hearing from Bush and former first lady Laura Bush, the students will hear from legendary Dallas Cowboys players and North Texas business and community leaders. The event launches the Super Bowl committee's largest-ever youth education program.

Students must have their parents' permission to attend, school officials said.

Dwight McKissic Sr., the senior pastor of Arlington's Cornerstone Baptist Church, said he's concerned about the district's decision to not broadcast Obama's message while transporting students to hear a message from Bush.

"I do not understand the duplicity in this situation," McKissic said in a news release from the church. "I believe the students and the public deserve and need to have these differences explained."

Obama told students to stay in school, work hard and set goals in an 18-minute speech delivered Tuesday morning from Wakefield High School in Arlington, Va.

The Arlington school district, like many in North Texas, decided not to broadcast the president's speech live after some parents expressed concern about its content.
Bikerman
Having issued a warning to JMI256 about unsupported allegations of criminality, I am now doing the same here about gross generalisations.
Clearly the statement that 'Republicans are lying kooks' is a gross generalisation. SOME Republicans may well be - just as SOME Democrats may well be.
Conducting discussions in terms of unsupported allegations and gross generalisations is not useful. It illuminates nothing and merely serves to promote the sort of playground 'tit for tat' that has become too common in this forum.

Now, the point of genuine interest (at least to me) that emerges from this is that it appears that school districts were allowed to decide for themselves whether the Obama speech was 'played' to the students or not. Is this indeed the case? If so then surely the allegation that the Obama speech was 'forced' on children despite the wishes of the parents cannot be sustained? I am not an expert in the US school system, but I'm imagining that the school districts function like a cross between our Local Education Authorities and our Parent Teachers Associations. That is, they include parent representatives and are responsible for setting the overall 'policy' for the schools in the district.
liljp617
Bikerman wrote:
Now, the point of genuine interest (at least to me) that emerges from this is that it appears that school districts were allowed to decide for themselves whether the Obama speech was 'played' to the students or not. Is this indeed the case?


I can't really comment on how widespread it was, but there were certainly a number of schools that chose to "review the speech" before showing it to the students.
dv8r
This is very upsetting.
Even the president does not have "freedom of speech"
Looks real good on that school.
Keep up the great work brain-washing all students until they are all jar-heads!
Refusing services , which are almost free from Obama.
But spend more money busing students off-grounds to see Bush.
Bet that school board will be crying to Obama's faculty in the future, that they will need more funds for their bankrupt school board budget.
Any other betters?
Bikerman
liljp617 wrote:
Bikerman wrote:
Now, the point of genuine interest (at least to me) that emerges from this is that it appears that school districts were allowed to decide for themselves whether the Obama speech was 'played' to the students or not. Is this indeed the case?


I can't really comment on how widespread it was, but there were certainly a number of schools that chose to "review the speech" before showing it to the students.

Well, again speaking as a teacher, I would support those schools that did so. To be quite honest I would also want to review any speech by a politician that was intended for my students, and I would expect my colleagues to have a similar position.
On thinking further about this - the situation is different here. I'm making a natural but false analogy between our Prime Minister and the President. It isn't the same because the Pres is also the head of state in the US, whereas our PM is just another politician (albeit the boss).
I suppose we could compare with our Queen - who IS the head of state. I'm not sure how useful that would be though - since no-one here believes for a minute that the Queen would make a speech to school-kids containing party-political points.
I really don't know how to view it, other than to be pragmatic - the speech was totally non-controversial and exactly what I would expect from a head of state, not a party politician.
handfleisch
Bikerman wrote:
Having issued a warning to JMI256 about unsupported allegations of criminality, I am now doing the same here about gross generalisations.
Clearly the statement that 'Republicans are lying kooks' is a gross generalisation. SOME Republicans may well be - just as SOME Democrats may well be.
Conducting discussions in terms of unsupported allegations and gross generalisations is not useful. It illuminates nothing and merely serves to promote the sort of playground 'tit for tat' that has become too common in this forum.

You're right, it's unclear that I meant the Republican Party, as in its public figures who spread the "indoctrination" baloney. Here is a piece on the subject: How kooky lies go from fringe websites like World Net Daily to the mainstream via the RNC:
http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/worldnetdaily-rnc-and-mainstreaming
Quote:
Jerome Corsi's bizarre piece in WorldNetDaily suggesting that President Obama was preparing concentration camps to round up and imprison his conservative critics...

Henke called upon the RNC to disassociate itself from WND, but they unsurprisingly have politely declined.

That's because, of course, the transmission belt is now the be-all and end-all of Republicans' current political strategy. The idea, much as it was in the 1990s, is to delegitimize Obama's presidency by whipping up the far right with unhinging conspiracy theories that spread into the mainstream as well. This undermining is then exploited by the "mainstream" Republicans in precisely the way we've just witnessed with the teabaggers' derailing of the health-care debate. It's deeply cynical -- not to mention dangerous -- but hey, it works.

http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/worldnetdaily-rnc-and-mainstreaming
ocalhoun
dv8r wrote:
This is very upsetting.
Even the president does not have "freedom of speech"

He has free speech just like everybody else.
He does NOT have the right to force people to listen, just like everybody else.
Related topics

Obama orders review of Bush's signing statements
Obama's speech to students Kindergarten through 12
Plan to Strengthen the Economy
Plan to Strengthen the Economy
Obama's speech to Congress Feb 24, 2009
6-Year-Old Minn. Boy Brings Pot to School
Should we wear uniform to school?
Bush's Last Press Conference
Closing the Military Prison at Guantanamo
Nearly 1 in 10 kids are victims of 'cyber bullying'.........
Italy convicts 23 Americans in Bush Rendition Case
What did Bush lie about?
Your pet..
School, And Religion ( NOT FOR KIDS )
school uniforms
Reply to topic    Frihost Forum Index -> Lifestyle and News -> Politics

FRIHOST HOME | FAQ | TOS | ABOUT US | CONTACT US | SITE MAP
© 2005-2007 Frihost, forums powered by phpBB.