Latest News and Comment from Education

Friday, September 4, 2009

School Choice: To Air Obama Talk or Not? - WSJ.com




School Choice: To Air Obama Talk or Not? - WSJ.com:

"Mr. Obama plans to encourage children to achieve their educational goals in a televised speech from a Virginia high school at noon Tuesday, according to the White House. Lesson suggestions to accompany the speech at first encouraged students to write letters to themselves about ways in which they could 'help the president,' stirring an outcry among some conservatives, who said the assignment was an effort to politicize children.

The materials were quickly revised, to encourage students to 'write letters to themselves about how they can achieve their short-term and long-term education goals.' But the flap has persisted, drawing many phone calls to schools by parents and casting an unusual cloud of controversy in school districts over the annual ritual of launching the new school year"