Margiotta upset about Obama speech to students

We have a 30% dropout rate in this state. The President's message is exactly what students should hear. Margiotta and Fetzer should be ashamed for inflaming this tin foil hat stuff. Conservativism in the south was founded on nobility and civility. These comments were neither.

What students said:
Peaks, whose father died when he was 8 and who has spent time in foster care, related to a story Obama told about a student from Chicago who bounced from foster home to foster home but is on track to go to college.
"I'm going to try to do better on my work, and I know now I didn't take my education real seriously," Peaks said after Obama's pep talk. The speech "was just a motivation for me to stay in school."

Southern High School sophomore Danisha Barber said Obama's message was little different from what teachers and administrators told students every day. But it sounded urgent coming from the guidance counselor-in-chief.
"I guess by it coming from the president that it kind of means something more," she said.

one student who's school didn't watch:
"I would have gotten enlightenment to help me strive for excellence for these last two years," said Quanshaun Morgan, a junior at the Cameron-Village-area school, where Obama spoke in person about health care in July. Hearing Obama would have helped keep him on the "straight streets," Morgan said

Hope Margiotta is proud of getting his knickers in a knot about this completely appropriate speech. Made himself look the fool. Is he running for reelection in two years?

In 1991, then-president Bush gave a similar speech, and the Democrats in Congress investigated it for months afterwards.
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Weren't the Dems in an uproar about the speech because they said it was a waste of taxpayer money? Not that I agree with the Dems back then for making a ruckus, but disagreeing because of money is a lot different than people saying they didn't want their kids to hear the president, period.

I'm with Apexter on this one--Ron got it wrong this time and I agree that WCPSS wimped out by making school principals/teachers the bad guys. I'm still amazed that people would object to their kids hearing the president speak or that they were suspicious of the content.

Our elem school is only showing it to 4th & 5th graders because it fits in with the curriculum and a permission slip came home for it. Haven't heard anything from the middle school.

As to the teaching time argument, I can see where people are coming from but at least it was an educational experience. What about all the Yo-Yo selling assemblies or EOG pep rallies? Those take away from teaching time too and I don't hear a big uproar about those.

Don’t you hate when socialist speak about personal responsibility … this kind of indoctrination encourages children to think for themselves and other dangerous activities. It is scary that the man with “his finger on the button” who could bring mankind to an end would be allowed to speak to our children. Seriously, this is how Republican became a joke. With a game plan of doing the opposite of what the Democrats do ... it just makes them look foolish all the time.  Democrats should promote deep breathing so Republican would hold their breath and pass out.

I don't get why anyone would support Obama's education speech. What special knowledge does he have that is so important to tell our kids? It is alarmingly presumptuous that he feels the need to do this. Does Obama think most parents are not doing an adequate job of informing their children of the importance of education? Does he believe he possess some grand insight that we do not?

Obama is an elected official with defined responsibilities, none of which includes advising our children. His time would be better spent reading the Constitution to gain a better understanding of where his responsibilities begin and, more importantly, where they end.

I think the doors to the White House will soon have to be enlarged to accommodate Obama's head.

"Margiotta upset about Obama speech to students"

in other news, water is apparently wet.

This is one instance where I have to disagree with Ron.

This was an excellent motivational speech, and I am disgusted that it was not made available to all students.

Actually, I do agree that the board should have voted on it.  I think the staff's handling of it --- leaving it up to individual principals to decide, who then left it up to individual teachers to decide --- was just plain wishy-washy. 

It would have been better to have the board make a firm decision and relay it to their staff.  Teachers and principals need the good will of parents more than the staff and board do.  Passing the buck to the them rather than leaving it at the executive level where it belonged put all the heat on the teachers and schools.