President Obama's "Propaganda"

by: robert.harding

Mon Sep 07, 2009 at 20:13:35 PM EDT

Of course, this is absurd. As much as I disagree with his politics, I would have loved to have heard President George W. Bush speak in my school. I would have loved to hear President Bill Clinton speak. It shouldn't matter. This is the President of the United States.

As promised, the White House released the remarks that will be shown to schools all across the country. Here is an excerpt:

I've talked a lot about your government's responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren't working where students aren't getting the opportunities they deserve.

But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world - and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.

And that's what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.

Every single one of you has something you're good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That's the opportunity an education can provide.

Maybe you could be a good writer - maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper - but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor - maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine - but you might not know it until you do a project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a Senator or a Supreme Court Justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.

And no matter what you want to do with your life - I guarantee that you'll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You're going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can't drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You've got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.

Those who attacked Obama over a speech to students throughout the country really have egg on their face. Those that said Obama was going to spread his "socialist agenda" also have egg on their face.

This speech is a speech from a president, not a politician. These are words that every student should hear and words that every parent should be saying to their children.

There is nothing more than encouragement and advice in the speech. No propaganda. No socialist agenda. No politics.

The comedy there is that while Obama's speech isn't political, Republicans chose to make it political. Even though it seems small, this is a big issue. If the GOP is willing to go so low as to make this political, how can they be taken seriously?  

NYCLU Targets School For Mass Student Search

by: robert.harding

Fri May 29, 2009 at 10:18:14 AM EDT

According to WSYR-9 in Syracuse, the search was for drugs and tobacco. The 23 students who were searched were told to, among other things, fold over their waistbands. These students also had to take off their socks and shoes during the search.

Out of the 23 students who were searched, all the search found was a marijuana pipe on one student. That student has been charged for possessing the pipe.

The NYCLU called on the school district to issue a public apology yesterday to those who were subjected to this inappropriate and invasive search.

The New York Civil Liberties Union has called on the Red Creek Central School District in upstate New York to publicly apologize to high school students subjected to illegal, humiliating and invasive searches by state police and school officials.

In a letter to Superintendent David Sholes, the NYCLU also urged the district to take steps to prevent invasive searches and protect students' rights. Students subjected to the April 9 searches were passengers on a school bus parked outside of Red Creek High School. Every student was pulled off the bus and searched.

"This was one of the most humiliating moments of my life," said 18-year-old graduating senior Stephanie Schultz, who is attending college in the fall. "My school taught me about the Constitution and about my rights, and then pushed them both aside and made me feel like my rights didn't matter."

Schultz and at least 17 other students on a Williamson BOCES school bus were removed from the bus in mixed gender pairs and ordered to the Red Creek High School principal's office by a uniformed state trooper. In the principal's office, the students, male and female, were subjected to invasive searches in full view of each other.

You can read the NYCLU letter to the superintendent here.

These types of searches at schools aren't out of the ordinary. My local high school, where my sister is a senior, recently had a search that involved police officers with drug-sniffing dogs going from car to car in the parking lot looking for drugs. I'm not sure what, if any, reasoning these officers had to conduct such a search, but it's not the first time a search of that nature has taken place.

Don't put political tricks in my child's bag (w/ UPDATE)

by: cliffweathers

Tue Oct 21, 2008 at 15:09:35 PM EDT

However, we also must be reminded that our State representatives are using these funds to insure their incumbency, making it harder to defeat on November 4. One of the most cynical uses of using these public funds for campaigning purposes is the "Halloween safety" flyers distributed in our school districts. These flyers are campaign flyers masquerading as public-service announcements. They use public assets and our children as campaign tools.

In my Senate district (SD-38), I am challenging the legality of GOP State Senator Thomas P. Morahan's distribution of these flyers. And today, I started with my campaign, by  sending the e-mail (below) to the Superintendent of Nyack Public Schools. If you live in a Republican Senate district, you're likely getting similar flyers sent home with your children. I urge you to send similar letters to your local school superintendents.

Read on:

NCLB - It's Getting Serious

by: SteveinNYC

Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 13:42:44 PM EDT

Lest you think that the debate over reauthorizing No Child Left Behind is hard-to-follow/wonkish/a tempest-in-a-teapot or anything like that, note that Jonathan Kozol today entered his 76th day of a partial hunger strike over NCLB.

In protest over that law, Kozol, the widely-published, passionate advocate of educational equality, has taken himself into the realm of serious danger.

He's sick of NCLB. Mandating math and reading tests and punishing schools and students who do not meet their targets is "turning thousands of inner-city schools into Dickensian test-preparation factories," Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page quoted Kozol as saying. It has "dumbed down" school for poor, urban kids and created "a parallel curriculum that would be rejected out-of-hand" in the suburbs.

The NY Times, The Business Roundtable, and NCLB

by: SteveinNYC

Mon Sep 17, 2007 at 12:57:14 PM EDT

Every corner of the educational community has protested the consequences of No Child Left Behind, including that the law has narrowed the curriculum and unfairly penalized schools already making progress.

In spite of that, an editorial in the NY Times defends the status quo. Referring to proposed NCLB revisions, the Times complains that the changes will "allow schools to mask failure in teaching crucial subjects like reading and math by giving them credit for student performance in other subjects."

Yet, just one paragraph earlier the Times has this to say: "Faced with poorly educated workers at home - especially in science - American companies are increasingly looking abroad."

Numbers Don't Lie, But . . .

by: SteveinNYC

Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 12:44:56 PM EDT

. . . those who attempt to explain them often do. The so-called Learning Environment Survey released by the city of New York is a case in point.

For teachers the results were gratifying. Nobody -- not even Mike the Master of Spin -- could do anything to diminish a statistically astounding 90 percent approval rate!

Curiously, although the DOE apparently wanted to know what parents thought about "the quality" of their child's teacher, it didn't ask parents what they thought of the school principal. Though maybe it's not so surprising considering the fact that Klein is betting the farm on them to bail him out of the first and second reorganizations.

More Good News from Albany

by: ElanaDMIBlog

Mon Jul 30, 2007 at 12:06:19 PM EDT