Daughter Told To Watch SOTU Tonight

Originally posted by MrWendal
The assignment the OP's daughter is given is limited. No room for disagreement. She is instructed to pick 3 things she likes and how she can help. What if you do not like what he says and you see through the obvious nonsense? Do you then fail for having a differing opinion?

Because the teacher doesnt want a bunch of stupid arguments, the teacher is trying to promote positivity.

Pick out 3 things she likes....what is so evil about that? And how she can help? I remember being asked questions like that in Participation in Government.

You people are moonbats.

Hmm "moonbat" refers to a political slur for social liberals or leftists.. odd usage here. If youre going to try to insult someone.. use a correct insult. Like tea bagger or right-wingnut.

reply to post by aching_knuckles


We did discuss parts of it. As we discuss things in the news daily. Then she went and wrote her paper. Without me looking over her shoulder. I raise her to be fair, look at both sides, and practice empathy. I do not expect the school to do it for me. If I see what I percieve as unfair (not allowing but one opinion to be expressed) whether it be at school, at church, or the convenience store inbetween and let it pass then I am not practicing what I preach.

I am no fan of Obama. Not by a long shot. But I am also not a fan of barbie, and I have spent countless amounts of money in 13 years on them. I would not fill her head with hate for anyone. She is no slacker and is capable of forming her own opinions.

She paid attention, watched it through, and finished her assignment without either of us weighing in.

She noticed the one sidedness of it without me pointing it out for her. So we talked of compromise and she was free to do what she felt was right.

reply to post by Advantage


Yesthere were lots of positive things said...but like you I noticed the BS meter going up.

The man is an awesome speaker for sure. Now if he could just do some of the things he promised we might see some positive change.

reply to post by Kangaruex4Ewe


We watched it with the kids.. when Obama mentioned education and competing with other countries my 17 yr old had an interesting comment Id have to say I agree with. She said something like she would believe him about competition if we made it mandatory to have a second language taught from 3rd grade as in S Korea and had a trimester schedule like in Japan. I figure this comes from when we had a Japanese exchange student several yrs ago.. the daughter was not thrilled when she saw how much more important education in Japan was than here in the US.

I tend to agree. If we raise an undereducated generation like this one coming up.. doesnt matter if they go to college or not on Obama's plan. They still wont compete well.

Originally posted by EssenSieMich
Good Points:

1. He seemed 'Clean'.
2. He seemed 'Articulate'.
3. His teleprompter was working.


How you could help him make the U. S. a better place:

1. All of the children can look around the school to see if they could find his 'Birth Certificate'.
2. All of the children could circulate a petition to encourage him to 'Resign'. (Bonus)

No need for the birther yap as this is older then dirt.

As to the speech itself it was an encouraging insight to how positive change is needed. The best points were the clean energy independance, high speed rail lines as the rail line alone can bring $1,000,000,000,000,000! in real money over the next 20 year period. Millions of passangers and literately billions of tickets means real revenue that can go to pay off our debt. The number mentioned is $1 Quadrillion USD, yes, the figure does exist.

If 75 million people traveling say 500 miles paying $500 a ticket per week would generate about $375 Billion in real money.

reply to post by Advantage


Kids do say the darndest things don't they? Sounds like you have a smart cookie too.

My daughter is obsessed with the debt clock. We are not a rch family. We survive on one income as well. So she is quite aware that money runs out, you have to make more to live, and if you don't have it then you have nothing to spend. So tonight she asked where we were going to get more money for more programs. I can't answer that. I have no clue.

They are observant and smarter than most give them credit for. They are watching the adults at all times... even when we think they ignore us.

reply to post by Advantage


You have a very clever daughter there.

I just checked the world education score board as of Dec 2010: The USA falls in 14th place!

Well I think it all depends on how the student interprets the assignment. She can always write about how something she disagreed with was a good point because it provoked her to think about an issue or that she agreed that the topic appropriate for the president to discuss in his speech but not necessarily agree with his view point. I would want to teach my daughter how to argue for her perspective and take on the assignment rather than just to turn in homework because it was assigned. But I do hope you let your daughter express HER opinions, and not yours. Why not just let her write the assignment and THEN discuss it with her?

The real story is to find out if this teacher requires his/her students to watch the SOTU every year and write a report.

If he/she only assigns it when a person he/she likes is in office well then you have bias and child indoctrination. If he/she assigns it every year no matter what then it is a non-story.

Shouldn't be too hard to figure out.

Originally posted by aching_knuckles

Originally posted by MrWendal
The assignment the OP's daughter is given is limited. No room for disagreement. She is instructed to pick 3 things she likes and how she can help. What if you do not like what he says and you see through the obvious nonsense? Do you then fail for having a differing opinion?

Because the teacher doesnt want a bunch of stupid arguments, the teacher is trying to promote positivity.

Pick out 3 things she likes....what is so evil about that? .

That is my thought too. The teacher's goal in this subject is to foster a positive interest in current affairs and politics.

Cynicism and negativity regarding politics certainly happens all by itself as we mature.

I can't understand the rush to make a child feel those things sooner than natural.

I was helping my daughter with math the other day and became frustrated because I thought she wasn't paying attention...and it was showing.

My wife, who was a grade school teacher for 13 years, intervened and pulled me aside.

She explained the only thing more important than a child understanding the math was the child feeling it was a positive experience.

She said once the child crosses that line in thier education where they feel a subject is no longer "fun" but rather a frustrating chore...they rarely get back that sense of joy in learning and preserving that "positive" view of learning a topic is absolutely critical to thier success...

The longer they have a positive view of it and find the joy in the subject...the longer they learn near effortlessy...once that is gone it becomes an uphill battle for the remainder of that child's education.

I learned my lesson and waited a couple hours until the frustration passed and returned to the math lesson with a smile and less stress and sure enough she and I were both "fresh minded" and devoured the lesson in a happy climate of learning.

Keep it positive for your daughter....the cynicism will surely arrive soon on it's own and that is OK...but don't hand her your cynicism, she needs to develop her own ...in her own time.

Originally posted by SirKnightE

Originally posted by Kangaruex4Ewe
Sorry. I have no link just my 13 year old coming in the door this afternoon informing me that her homework was to watch the SOTU speech tonight. Her history teacher said they were to watch it in it's entirety then report on what you found to be good points, list atleast 3 people who attended, and how you could help him make the U. S. a better place.

No mention of what you thought the bad points may be. Just report on what you liked and how you could help him achieve his goals.

I'm all about being a better citizen and teaching my children to do the same. But this assignment smacks of indoctrination to me.

And yes. If it were Bush or Clinton I would feel the same.

If they want a report they should allow good and bad opinions. Teaching the kids to only focus on the good and ignore the bad is not my idea of fair or honest.

I know one assignment that won't be handed in tomorrow morning. I feel it is the principled thing to do. The right thing for me to do.

We will sit down as a family and watch this tonight and discuss it together... But there wil be no "praise" paper handed in.

They had us do the same thing when I was in middle school, nothing really new

Just because it has been going on for ages dosent mean it is right.
Where i live this would be seen as brainwashing.

Originally posted by Advantage
Hmm "moonbat" refers to a political slur for social liberals or leftists.. odd usage here. If youre going to try to insult someone.. use a correct insult. Like tea bagger or right-wingnut.

Im sorry...i wasnt aware that "crazy" had a political leaning...but im starting to find out i guess.

Here's the thing, and its something I can tell you from experience working with middle school children.

The minute you open the door for the students to speak about the negativity of a subject like this, you open a nasty can of worms. The work becomes about the parents' political views, and nothing more. There'd be half a class with pro-obama parents who would say not one negative thing, and the other half with anti-obama parents who would be presenting their parents' point of view, not their own.

It happens every single time.

The teacher is actually taking a bit of a risk doing this assignment at all-speaking on politics as a teacher is a VERY big no-no. Had she opened the door to the negativity, all it would take is one child going home to a pro-obama parent and repeating one a child of an anti-obama parent stated. At that point, the teacher's job is at risk.

I commend this teacher for his/her actions, and wish we had more out there who taught relevant topics, not just busywork.