President Obama’s scheduled speech to school children on Tuesday, September 8th, has been widely criticized for politicizing the classroom.
Of course, teacher’s have been using presidential speeches as teaching tools in the classroom since long before the Gettysburg Address, so what’s the big deal?
Apparently it is a big deal. Maybe it’s the concern that this speech will be unusually political. Maybe it’s the Department of Education released lesson plan that originally called on students to write letters on how they can “help” the President.
For whatever reason, more than 83 school districts [1]nationwide have already decided not to air the President’s speech on Tuesday or to make it optional viewing. Loudoun County, Virginia choose to nix the speech altogether, citing their busy student schedule. What do you think? Should the speech be controversial? Should schools refuse to air it, require it, or leave the decisions up to teachers and principals?