Sacramento-area students can ditch Obama TV talk

Sacramento Bee
By Steve Wiegand
swiegand@sacbee.com
Published: Saturday, Sep. 5, 2009

President Barack Obama wants to tell the nation's school kids next Tuesday about the importance of a good education – but not everyone wants them to hear it.

A furor over both the president's message and motives – and phone calls from some irate parents who view the speech as political propaganda – has spurred Sacramento-area school officials to allow students to skip the nationally televised speech.

The president's speech, which coincides with the beginning of the new school year, will be shown live on C-SPAN and the White House Web site at 9 a.m.

According to the White House, Obama "will challenge students to work hard, set educational goals and take responsibility for their learning."

But some parents and school administrators across the country fear the president will stray from encouragement to indoctrination.

"We had a number of parent calls concerned about it," said Elizabeth Graswich, spokeswoman for the Elk Grove Unified School District. "So we decided to go ahead and put the information out to the schools that (not showing the speech) was an option available to them."

Graswich said principals and teachers were told to send home "opt out" letters that allow parents to keep their children from watching the speech "and (completing) subsequent assignments" related to it.

Maria Lopez, spokeswoman for the Sacramento City Unified School District, said the district didn't order opt-out letters.

"But we did ask principals that if they were going to show the Obama address, they please provide an option for students whose parents did not want them to view it," Lopez said.

The San Juan Unified School District was following a tack similar to Sac City. Spokesman Trent Allen said that it was up to teachers to decide if the speech fit their lesson plan.

"Parents who are uncomfortable with that are able to ask that their student have an alternative assignment," Allen said.

Both Allen and Lopez said that like Elk Grove, their districts had received calls from concerned parents.

State schools chief Jack O'Connell said that while choosing to air the speech was strictly up to local districts, he was encouraging schools to tune in.

"I think it's a teachable moment," O'Connell said. "This president is very charismatic and inspirational, and I hope this is an opportunity to reach some of our students and motivate them."

But it is concern about Obama's charisma – along with his political agenda – that seems to have stirred the furor, particularly among practitioners and patrons of conservative talk radio.

On Wednesday, Canadian-born writer Mark Steyn said on Rush Limbaugh's nationally broadcast radio show that Obama's ambitions to create a "cult of personality" were similar to those of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il or former Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein.

"I don't see that it's part of American education to get grade-school kids to write letters to themselves about things they can do to help the president," Steyn complained.

Steyn's reference was to a recommendation posted on the U.S. Department of Education's Web site as a potential classroom activity to accompany Obama's speech.

The suggestion was that students "write letters to themselves about what they can do to help their president."

After howls of protest from Republican politicians and conservative groups, the suggestion was changed to "write letters to themselves about how they can achieve their short-term and long-term education goals."

The change came too late, however, to stop dozens of districts around the country from deciding to ban the speech.

"The president's speech next week is a perfect example of a good idea gone astray," Prescott, Ariz., school Superintendent Kevin Kapp posted on the district's Web site. "If parents want their children to see the speech, parents can record it and watch the speech at home with their children."

Jim Harper couldn't disagree more.

For more than 20 years, Harper has taught government at Laguna Creek High School in Elk Grove, and he can't recall ever being directed to limit students' exposure to a U.S. president.

"I don't believe any conservative or liberal group should have this kind of influence on the ability of my students to listen to the president of the United States," Harper said, "particularly now, when we are facing the challenges we are at home and overseas."

Rather than sending home opt-out letters, Harper said he will not air the speech on Tuesday. Instead, he will hand out copies of the speech and news accounts of it to students and form a lesson plan around them.

While educators maneuver, the back-to-school brouhaha has political analysts bemused.

"Everyone on both sides of this severely overplayed their hands," said Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California.

"There's nothing wrong with the president of the United States talking to schoolchildren about the importance of a good education. On the other hand, the way that original (Web site) recommendation was written, it's understandable why Republican parents might think their kids were being asked to write love letters to (House Speaker and conservatives' archenemy) Nancy Pelosi."

Analysts also point out that on this issue, as in all things political, consistency is the first casualty.

Exhibit A: In October 1991, President George H.W. Bush gave a nationally broadcast address to school kids, telling them to "make your teachers work hard."

Democratic political leaders were harshly critical. Then-House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., likened the speech to "paid political advertising."

"Why," responded then-House GOP whip Newt Gingrich, "is it political for the president of the United States to discuss education?"

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