As the President speaks, teachers can ask students to write down key ideas or phrases that are important or personally meaningful… they could think about the following: What is the President trying to tell me? What is the President asking me to do? What new ideas and actions is the President challenging me to think about? Students could discuss their responses to the following questions: What do you think the President wants us to do? Does the speech make you want to do anything? Are we able to do what President Obama is asking of us? What would you like to tell the President?
Teachers can extend learning by having students… Write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president. These would be collected and redistributed at an appropriate later date by the teacher to make students accountable to their goals. [They can...] write goals on colored index cards or precut designs to post around the classroom.
I like the part about focusing on things that are “personally meaningful.” We wouldn’t want to miss out on a chance to reinforce vapid self-esteem pedagogy just because we’re also busy breathlessly urging kids to do something for the Dear Leader. Speaking of which, remember that Obama children’s book from the election about “the name the whole world knows”? I never would’ve been so skeptical about it if I knew it’d eventually make its way into federal documents.
All that said – eh. He’s on TV. They’re little children. Let them watch the President for a few minutes so they get a sense that it’s important to watch the President. Would I prefer it if they were in a classroom getting drilled in reading, writing, and arithmetic? Obviously. But that isn’t going to happen anyway. You think if you keep kids from school for a day they’ll be dodging mindless liberal bromides and insipid drip drip drip indoctrination? Good luck.
That’s who they are and that’s what they do.
None of which necessarily excuses the creepy, almost symptomatic fascination that teachers and Department of Education bureaucrats have with pledging to help Obama. But you’ve got to make some allowances. It’s not often they get to work under a President who affirms the empty banalities that got them through their Masters of Ed programs. The One’s dexterity with “hope” and “change” means that he literally speaks their language. So you can see how they’d be over-enthused.
References and previously after the jump…
References:
* President Obama’s Address to Students Across America September 8, 2009 [Teaching Ambassador Fellows, U.S. Department of Education]
* Watchers Council Results – Turns Out, You Really Can Say Just About Anything [MR]
* Obama Children’s Book Instructs Youth About The “Name The Whole World Knows” [MR]
* Watchers Council Results: Incompetence In Education, Foreign Policy, Economics. But Especially Education. (Plus: Uber-Competent Right Truth Joins Watchers Council) [MR]
* Shh… New Study Debunks Liberal Education Myths, Verifies That No Child Left Behind Works [MR]
* Recycling Is Garbage [NYT]
Previously:
* Low-Information Democrats Plus Media Bias Equals Obnoxious
* Contradictions Are Not Your Friend
* Breaking: Obama’s Power Makes People Fall In Love
