Obama’s Back-to-School Speech

There have been many excellent posts flying around the education blogosphere about the hysteria surrounding tomorrow’s Presidential Address to students (the text of which has already been released and can be found here) regarding the new school year.  Here are a few of the best comments I’ve seen:

From Will Richardson’s Weblogg-ed: “It would seem to me that there should be no better place for my children to watch that speech (or any other, for that matter) than in a place where ideas are encouraged, where critical thinking about those ideas is a natural part of the conversation, and where appropriate response and debate can flourish.”

From Eduwonk: “Pretty tepid stuff… the only risk to the nation’s young people is boredom.”

From The Changing Face of Education in Iowa: “Under the circumstances, this would be a great chance to model constructive civic discussion. A great chance to have students analyze “the truth”. Here, we have the president who is emphasizing the importance of visiting with our nation’s students, and we have politicized the discussion.”

From Assorted Stuff: “This is a wonderful opportunity to engage kids in a genuine discussion of the issues raised by the president, even about the artificial controversy surrounding the speech.  That lesson would be far more valuable than anything – ANYTHING – teachers might have planned for that day.”

In light of the crazy fears some people have expressed with regard to this speech (Obama is trying to indoctrinate your children into becoming socialists!!), it is at least somewhat refreshing to see that many educators see the teachable moment this speech could provide.