I was shocked to learn only a few minutes ago that the administration of the largest independent school district in the state of Minnesota had no idea until today about the President's intention to speak to the school children of this country next week.
As one teacher said to me, "It is very hard to just add in an activity with no prior warning or knowledge that this is happening. I don't expect a lot of teachers to just buy into this regardless of the politics."
That is interesting, disappointing, and shocking.
It is also remarkable that the event is scheduled for 12:00 EDT. That's lunch time. Given the way lunch schedules work in many schools, that cuts out a lot of students.
Well, here are two web addresses you can look at for information about this event:
White House Blog: "My Education, My Future"
Resource Page: THE PRESIDENT'S BACK-TO-SCHOOL MESSAGE TO AMERICA'S STUDENTS
This actually looks to me like a well organized and potentially effective event, except for one problem: They needed to announce this much sooner and get the word out. I'm not sure if any of you have ever tried to get the attention of a school administrator (or for that matter a teacher) via snail mail or email. Unless you are the parent of a kid in a particular class, you won't get far most of the time.
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The Becker School District has decided not to air it "live," but to make it available for later viewing. What was it about political correctness again? They don't want to offend parents or to disturb them because the topic has become "politically charged."
Am I living in bizzaro-world?
The fracking PRESIDENT wants to address the kids, and exactly WHY aren't people just tickled pink about it and falling all over themselves to make it happen??
There are times when my-world and the-world are just completely and inexplicably out of sync. Like now.
Minnesota isn't alone. My wife works in the administration (curriculum and professional development), and nobody there knew about it until after 3:00 p.m. yesterday (September 3), and then only when calls from irate parents came in ("i don't want my kids indoctrinated", "i'll cause problems if you air it").
I'm not sure what will happen in our district because, due to a law that forbids public schools from starting until after labor day (can't have education interfering with vacation), school begins tuesday and it's only a half-day, so kids will probably be gone by the time he's on. offices are closed today, so i don't know if it will be aired later in the schools here, or never.
Actually, the Roseville School District, I remembered after I wrote the letter, has no kids beyond 9th grade in the HS, as it is frosh orientation. It is the first day of class for everyone else.
That's... quite amazing
I live on the other end of the fragging Atlantic ocean and I knew about it :s