Obama wants to indoctrinate our children, call your schools!

[SBarry]

I just got off the phone with my kids' school. I let them know that I do not want them to participate in the Obama Indoctrination of the nations (not yours) Children, taking place on tues, Sept 8th. They are discussing it, I will keep my kids out of school that day. My 17 year old said he would organize a sit-out in his high school.

Get on the phone, don't let them try to turn our kids into little liberals, they get enough of it now from their liberal teachers.

Can you imagine the fallout if GW Bush tried this? Damn Hypocrits. The backpedaling has already started. It is funny how they start these crazy events, then backpedal as fast as they can when someone actually checks the facts about what they are doing.

[FarmerRick]

My kids' school is not participating in the televising of yet another campaign speech. 
I figured that they wouldn't be, but called to confirm it this morning.

[kompulsive]

Yeah, from what I hear it was horrible. He told them to do a bunch of crazy partisan stuff like stay away from drugs and stay in school. HORRIBLE! I think it's a crying shame that some of these kids weren't able to have their President talk to them due to the political agendas and paranoia of adults. Sometimes a cigar is a cigar. Let these kids be kids.

[rugermanx]

Well Kompulsive, this goes far deeper than the speech. There is a video out of "hollywood stars" that are pledging allegiance to the president of the United States of America. I will pledge to the flag and to the country for which she stands but I will never ever in a million years pledge allegiance to ANY president. Not to one of them. EVER. not to Bush, not to Reagan, not to Clinton, not to Washington, Franklin, etc. NEVER TO A MAN. I bring this up to show indoctrination. Get the "popular/cool" people to do so and there are those that will follow. Now onto the point about the speech to the kids. A lot of the outrage that occurred because of the speech HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE SPEECH. Rather it had everything to do with the "lesson plan" for those teachers that wanted to use it as a "learning moment". Such suggestions as "Write a letter to yourself showing how you can help the president" (and yes I saw the original pdf of that lesson plan but didn't save it.) So yes a cigar is a cigar. But there are those that would rather creep into a classroom to in the words of a former POTUS, "make the children as unlike their parents as possible."  We have a former vice president going around telling our kids that "there are things that you understand better than your parents." Cell phone use/features yes, global warming NO. I have done some serious research on sun spots and sun cycles (ever since getting my ham ticket) and after that it wasn't a hard search to find out that the earth cools when there is less sun activity and warms when there is more. that goes all the way back to the "global cooling" that was such a crisis in the 70's to the warming of the 90's. and the funny thing is the same groups screamed about both. Heard about the hole in the Ozone layer lately? Nope, because it started shrinking and then couldn't be used as a scare tactic anymore. This is a much deeper problem than "well kids, stay in school"

Please remember this is the same administration that did a conference call with the NEA to tell artists to incorporate policies of the administration into art. And the speech was done by a man that worked closely with a man that founded the Weather underground and bombed buildings. He also aligned himself with a man that said things such as "white polluters and white environmentalists have basically steered toxins into colored communities." He went to a church for how long that preached "god damn america its in the bible." If that's in the bible, I haven't happened to read it. (And I have read enough that I would think I would have come across at least a hint at it.)

So to use your analogy again, Yes sometimes a cigar is a cigar. But if you take every cigar someone hands you one of them is going to blow up in your face. So to say that it was the "political agendas and paranoia of adults" that caused people to be upset, is saying that the fear (yes fear not paranoia) was unfounded. Noting the track record of the president and the people he has surrounded himself with, I would say that the fear is founded. And therefore the intentions as well as the means of delivery should be held to high questioning by every individual citizen.

"It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority."
? Benjamin Franklin

[kompulsive]

First of all, I'd like to thank you for your comments and that fact that you're being civil. Second, we sure as hell agree on one thing; global warming is a crock. Are we doing a horrendous amount of damage to the environment that needs to be neutralized immediately? Absolutely. Is the "global warming" argument valid? Absolutely not.

Now, to the meat of our dialog. It appears that your issue, at its core, is a general distrust of the government in general. I won't argue with you for a second about that. However, I get very irritated when blanket statements are made about the educators in our state. The vast majority of those educators are fabulous and we have national statistics that will back that up. Moving on, I believe that there are a couple of things that you should be aware of...

No public cirriculum in our state (or any other state that I am aware of) has ever consisted of lesson plans that are distributed from some top-level administrative wing, with a plan that every instructor must follow. Each instructor is the living ruler, and 99% of the time, author, of his or her course material. If an elementary-level instructor has a personal agenda, then your children watching a nationally televised speech by the President should be the least of your concerns. I won't go into specifics on this board, but if you'd like to know more about my personal association with education in our state in particular; I'd be more than happy to share that information with you on a private basis.

Lastly, I believe I wrote a letter to the President every single year that I was in elementary school. No one ever made a stink about that. My parents were quite interested to read what I wrote to the President every year, and then compare that letter to the one I wrote the previous year. I was never told what to write about in this letter, aside from what I would do if I were the President. What better way to teach your children to exercise their rights? Is this not what we're doing here quite frequently as members of the NFOA? Are we not voicing our opinions and rallying together to contact those in positions of power in hopes of making a change? If anything, these children are being taught to question authority. It is as simple as getting in the habit of learning that one person is powerful enough to make change.

[kompulsive]

Also...

Let's get back to the simple point of this post.

I want to know how this was an "indoctrination." I've watched the speech and I've read it word for word several times. Secret Socialist wink signals, coded eye movements, and other ridiculous paranoia won't cut it. So please, enlighten me.

[RLMoeller]

You should take a look at some of the stuff that is being shown in our schools (not Nebraska, but thousands of schools around the country) that are teaching that capitalism is bad and that the governments job is to take care of you.  The video I saw was produced by a group with ties to ACORN and all of the "left of liberal" czars that are being put into place by Obama.

You should also take a look at the textbooks that are being published.  There are only 3 publishing companies of textbooks.  The content is being modified by review boards.  The people on those boards are not teachers, not educators, not subject matter experts.  The board is made up of "politically correct" experts.

There is more if you were to look at it.  And it is scary.  I will agree that we in Nebraska have many excellent educators.

[rugermanx]

I am not contesting the quality of teachers in Nebraska.

No public cirriculum in our state (or any other state that I am aware of) has ever consisted of lesson plans that are distributed from some top-level administrative wing, with a plan that every instructor must follow.

Ok, yes they can  choose what to do. But the (Federal- which I think is kind of "top level administrative- oh yeah and piss them off and you could loose funding)  Department of Education made some "suggestions".

Lastly, I believe I wrote a letter to the President every single year that I was in elementary school. No one ever made a stink about that. My parents were quite interested to read what I wrote to the President every year, and then compare that letter to the one I wrote the previous year. I was never told what to write about in this letter, aside from what I would do if I were the President.

Yes, I did as well, however I was never asked to write a letter showing how I could help the president.

Also...

Let's get back to the simple point of this post.

I want to know how this was an "indoctrination." I've watched the speech and I've read it word for word several times. Secret Socialist wink signals, coded eye movements, and other ridiculous paranoia won't cut it. So please, enlighten me.

Once again, the outrage happened before the speech was even posted, the outrage was over the "suggested lesson plan" that was released on the Department of Education website. So being that the outrage came up over just the document, they then released the speech, whether or not that speech was the originally intended speech is only a guess to all but a few people.

I am not being a conspiracy theorist here, however If the suggestions for the "teaching moment" had a reference to "what can you do to help the president?" Then I have to ask, what are we going to "help" him with? Is it the betterment of the country? If so, say, Write a letter to yourself showing how you can better your country.

You should take a look at some of the stuff that is being shown in our schools (not Nebraska, but thousands of schools around the country) that are teaching that capitalism is bad and that the governments job is to take care of you.  The video I saw was produced by a group with ties to ACORN and all of the "left of liberal" czars that are being put into place by Obama.

Show me a man's friends and I'll show you his beliefs, looking at Barrack Obama's friends tells me that the president is more than a little radical.

Cass Sunstein  believes it is constitutionally legal to put sterilants into the drinking water, also that it should be legal for animals to file lawsuits against humans IN COURT.

Van Jones believes that the white man is "basically steering toxins into communities of color"

Several more that are anti-capitalist, socialists, and even a couple of hardline communists. And yes I think all three of those things are bad things. Plus Reverend Wright, William Ayers, Jeff Jones, SEIU, ACORN, just to name a few more.

Was his speech going to be more on the lines of Al gores' "there is stuff you know better than your parents" speech? We shall most likely never know. There are many times this president has used doublespeak, anyone who uses doublespeak should not be trusted IMHO.

[kompulsive]

Neither of us is going to change the others political views. I just think it's a shame when people read this far into stuff and deprive their children of something because of their own paranoia. That's all.

[Dan W]

No public cirriculum in our state (or any other state that I am aware of) has ever consisted of lesson plans that are distributed from some top-level administrative wing, with a plan that every instructor must follow. Each instructor is the living ruler, and 99% of the time, author, of his or her course material. If an elementary-level instructor has a personal agenda, then your children watching a nationally televised speech by the President should be the least of your concerns. I won't go into specifics on this board, but if you'd like to know more about my personal association with education in our state in particular; I'd be more than happy to share that information with you on a private basis.

This, as far as I can discern, is where the indoctrination fears started. The Obama administration attempted to do an end run around all the school boards and principals, and in conjunction with that speech, school teachers were sent study packets and a letter from the Department of Education, complete with assignments and questions to ask their students.

After this agenda was publicized, I think there was a pull back by Obama, and the speech was not very controversial. My problem with this is the attempt by the Dept. of Education to bypass all local controls, and go directly to the teachers with an agenda that was political in nature.

 Now we have Obama calling for changes in the school calendar

Can you explain the need for the Federal gov. to get involved in setting the hours of school attendance or extending the required number of school days... 

[SBarry]

Have you not seen the news stories about children singing songs about Obama? They have changed the words to many popular songs and inserted the new Messiahs name into them. Teachers are teaching the students that Obama is the saviour of the world, and it needs to stop.

What was eventually said to students was not the original intent. The speech was changed once we found out what the liberal left planned on doing.

[kompulsive]

Have you not seen the news stories about children singing songs about Obama? They have changed the words to many popular songs and inserted the new Messiahs name into them. Teachers are teaching the students that Obama is the saviour of the world, and it needs to stop.

What was eventually said to students was not the original intent. The speech was changed once we found out what the liberal left planned on doing.

...really though, how could you not see this one coming? The school with the children singing was an isolated incident and those in charge of it should be fired. I don't disagree with that at all.

As far as the Dept. of Education "bypassing local controls," don't bet on that happening anytime soon. I'm going to make some calls and get it from the horse's mouth tomorrow about all of these study packets that were supposedly sent out and get to the bottom of it. I'm interested on how it all came about.

Dan, I think you may just be seeing the negative on a few things as far as our state's control over education goes. From year-round school in Colorado, to half-days for elementary/middle school students in Nebraska on Wednesday; I don't really feel like Federal government is taking the reigns here.

[rugermanx]

As far as the Dept. of Education "bypassing local controls," don't bet on that happening anytime soon. I'm going to make some calls and get it from the horse's mouth tomorrow about all of these study packets that were supposedly sent out and get to the bottom of it. I'm interested on how it all came about.

The Department of Education, posted on their website a pdf of the lesson plan. When the people sounded off, the speech was posted 2 days later and the pdf was changed within about a day of going up.

...really though, how could you not see this one coming? The school with the children singing was an isolated incident and those in charge of it should be fired. I don't disagree with that at all.

Seems to me there are now several videos of this type of thing going on that are now "out of the bag" and there is also video of people praying to obama. Seems to me that the school indoctrination is spreading, it is a known fact that liberals have saturated our school system. Teachers are told not to use red pens to correct assignments because red is just too harsh. This has resulted in a generation of kids that thinks that a D is just a B without a belt, a generation that has celebrated mediocrity. But that is a whole different topic for a different day.

The whole purpose of government (at least as I perceive it) is to grow. They seem to be doing a good job on the federal/state/county/city levels. And in the process they seem to want to acquire power. Which is probably why a government has never given up power easily. Most out of control governments have to be forced to relinquish power. Either by a complete overhaul thru the voting system. Or thru armed conflict. There are soooo many instances where oppressive government results in civil/revolutionary war. Which is also why we need to make dang sure that we use our freedom to vote and make sure people that are corrupt don't get into power, or at least don't stay there for long once they are.

[Randy]

I do not have a school age child and have not tried to dissect the information pro or con.
This I do know Obama is ANTI-GUN...

[Mosin]

Obama:  Anti-gun, Non-American, Believes in Abortion, Non supporter of our troops, radical friends, 20yrs in a church full of racism, Wants to change the core belief of this country, God like personality, Do I need to say more!  I think he has a big hidden agenda for this country.  Anyway back to the topic.  He has no right to come in to our schools bypassing the school boards.  That alone is a indoctrination!  His speech was down played because of all the people that got mad.  Good for all the people in this country.  Power is in the hands of the people if they use it!  My kids go to a private school.  I called them and they responded with: We would not even consider participating at all do to the fact he is pro-abortion. On the West coast you would not believe some of the stuff kids are being subjected too.  If you stack it all together Obama has and will try more avenues to get his Non-American believe of change in our homes and our lives!

[kompulsive]

Again, there is no evidence whatsoever that any school boards were "bypassed". This simply did not happen. I've spoken to three different teachers about these claims. One teacher from Bellevue Public schools, one Millard Public Schools teacher, and one Omaha Public Schools teacher. All three told me that they never recieved any kind of lesson plan or letter from the Dept. of Education. They said if anything like this were ever sent, it wouldn't have made it past the principal's desk.

Schools fall under State jurisdiction. This is not a civil rights issue. The Fed's cannot control curriculum, period. You are free to have your own opinion and keep your paranoia alive, but don't get the facts twisted.

[kompulsive]

Obama:  Anti-gun, Non-American, Believes in Abortion, Non supporter of our troops, radical friends, 20yrs in a church full of racism, Wants to change the core belief of this country, God like personality, Do I need to say more!  I think he has a big hidden agenda for this country.  Anyway back to the topic.  He has no right to come in to our schools bypassing the school boards.  That alone is a indoctrination!  His speech was down played because of all the people that got mad.  Good for all the people in this country.  Power is in the hands of the people if they use it!  My kids go to a private school.  I called them and they responded with: We would not even consider participating at all do to the fact he is pro-abortion. On the West coast you would not believe some of the stuff kids are being subjected too.  If you stack it all together Obama has and will try more avenues to get his Non-American believe of change in our homes and our lives!

This is a great example of what I am talking about. Just because your political views differ from Obama's, doesn't mean that him speaking to school children is wrong. If your kids go to a private school, then your private school can do whatever it wants to. That isn't important to me. I'm talking strictly about the public schools. What horrible acts are these poor kids on the west coast being subjected to by their state school system? I don't understand why people are trying to tie things like this in with Obama. That is a state-level issue and it needs to be taken up with their state government.

[rugermanx]

The lesson plan was posted for the teachers to access on the Department of Education website. It was not mailed out. Now we are splitting the legal hairs here. But it was "made available" not sent out. However, Kompulsive, I would still request that since we have been very tolerant of your point of view, I would prefer if you would please change your wording from paranoia to fear, since it is founded.

Something tells me that the waters were tested, and when the uproar occured they backpedaled. Basically the old "what did I do?!? see you guys are just being crazy". Lets take a look here, just a quick look into some of what this group of people have done. That is underhanded at best.

Read the news from the last few months and you get all sorts of stories about "right wing nuts" that are paranoid and buying guns as quick as they can make them. The media goes on to say that the fear is "unfounded since the administration has not made a move on any type of gun control and even signed a law into effect that allows the carry of firearms onto federal property." While a senator, the president made a statement about people that were.... they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.


He also made a statement to sportsmen in Wisconsin, saying "your sporting firearms are safe". Now there are several ways to look at this one and be scared. He has stated he supports the 2nd amendment, (which I am not convinced that he does) and then says that it only applies to the Federal government. That states and local governments should be allowed to ban guns. The other way that we can dismantle this is the fact that Eric Holder the Attorney General has stated he will push for a renewal of the AWB. So there's a little more double speak, and horse****e coming down the pike. If we apply the old "what is your definition of "IS"" mentality to that statement we can see that only sporting firearms are safe, but those evil black rifles, auto-loading shotguns, semi auto pistols and several other classifications of guns are not.

On top of those two instances the man stated in a recent speech to congress that there would be no illegal immigrants benefiting from his "healthcare reform". He then went out and 2 days later basically said that our immigration system is broken and needs to be fixed. Which to many of the people that HE HAS CHOSEN (those are some key words) to surround himself with, means amnesty for illegal aliens. Which means that he just wants to legalize the illegal part so that no illegal immigrants would get care. (even though they already do anyway) At that point they are legal and no one could say he was lying then.

And the last point here is this. Who keeps talking about or hinting at violence and racism occurring? Chavez, Pelosi, Reid, Kennedy, etc. Why? Oh and at the president's Arizona town hall there was a man carrying a gun (this has been discussed elsewhere on this very forum) and I was watching Fox news and here was a black man standing there with an ar15 and a pistol but when I got home my buddy linked me the msnbc story video and they were talking about racism and everything else about the white right wingers "showing up at town halls with guns because President Obama is black" they left out the part about the man with the gun (that they showed) being black.

Now before I am accused of changing the topic I show all of this to prove to you that they use tactics that are underhanded and there is a reason that this FEAR is founded.

[Randy]

The US Federal Goverment does not directly control State School Curriculum or Department Budgets but they most definitely have an influence on how things are run by how US Federal grant (money) is awarded.

Do not play and they do not pay.

[rugermanx]

And the worst thing is Sometimes those that have "influence" hold more power than those that have "control"