Obama’s not the first president to address nation’s schoolchildren on live television
by Bob King | September 3rd, 2009The partisan dustup over President Obama’s planned nationwide address to schoolchildren next week has inspired some speculation about what would happen if the shoe were on the other foot:
What if this were a Republican president, perhaps one named Bush, trying to drum up support for one of his programs? Would liberal school administrators even allow the kids to watch it? Would Democratic parents pull their children from the classroom that day?
Well, maybe we don’t have to guess. It turns out that then-President George H.W. Bush made a nationally televised speech to students on Oct. 1, 1991, from Alice Deal Junior High School in Washington, D.C., urging them to “make it your mission to get a good education” and to “block out the kids who think it’s not cool to be smart.” (The president’s sound bite of the day was apparently, “I can’t understand for the life of me what’s so great about being stupid.”)
Update: As a Palm Beach Post reader has helpfully pointed out, then-President Ronald Reagan spoke live to students nationwide in May 1986. And it seems that the first President Bush also made a 15-minute televised speech in 1989 urging students not to use drugs.
Anyway, back to the 1991 appearance by Bush, who used part of his speech — broadcast by CNN and PBS — to tout his administration’s education policies:
We made a start nationally now by setting six National Education Goals to meet the challenges of the 21st century. By the year 2000, at least 9 in every 10 students should graduate from high school. We should be first in the world in math and science. We need to regularly test student’s abilities. Every American child should start school ready to learn; every American adult should be literate; and every American school should be safe and drug-free.
Reaching those goals is the aim of a strategy that we call America 2000, a crusade for excellence in American education, school by school, community by community.
By all accounts nobody called Bush a socialist or organized a boycott, and The Associated Press’s coverage of the speech appeared to be a neutral description of what the president had said, according to a Nexis search.
On the other hand, a story the next day in The Washington Post dwelt on the theme that the speech had been arranged in such a way to make the president look good:
The White House turned a Northwest Washington junior high classroom into a television studio and its students into props yesterday as President Bush delivered a live television address to America’s schoolchildren, the latest administration effort to demonstrate the president’s interest in domestic issues.
The administration had even more control over the highly telegenic speech — carried live from Alice Deal Junior High School by Public Broadcasting Service and Cable News Network — than it does over most presidential events.
Unlike most presidential addresses, such as last Friday’s arms control speech from the Oval Office, yesterday’s was handled not by the television networks but by a private firm paid by the U.S. Department of Education, administration officials said. The White House selected the camera angles and decided which pictures would be sent out, officials said.
The students in Cynthia Mostoller’s eighth-grade American history class said they were advised to wear soft-soled shoes so they did not make too much noise. They were told to pay attention to the president as he perched on a stool in front of Room 112′s blackboard, not the teleprompters in the back of the room from which he read his text.
Some said they thought Bush was thinking more about his own reelection than their education. “I’m sure we’ll never see these pictures on a campaign ad,” Eleanor Davis, 13, volunteered sarcastically.
There are no plans to use videotape from the event in the campaign, White House officials said yesterday.
The Washington Post article also included several quotes from students who disliked Bush or found his speech less than enlightening. It reported that the NBC Nightly News had “devoted its first 2 minutes 40 seconds to the president’s visit,” but that “ABC and CBS ignored the event.”
So what do you think? Are the Reagan ’86 speech, Bush ’91 speech and Obama ’09 speech at all comparable? Is politics more bitterly partisan now than it was back then, or the news media more or less fair and balanced?
And seriously, when was the last time anyone felt compelled to spell out what the initials “CNN” stand for?
Tags: George H.W. Bush, Jim Greer, Ronald Reagan, schools, Sid Dinerstein, socialism, students
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September 3rd, 2009 at 10:43 pm
I would have had no objections to Bush’s Speech had I know about. Nor would I if Obama or Bill Clinton had. The speech topic didn’t sound noxious, with a side agenda, but rather stuck to the topics of education and why it’s good for students to learn. Of course, students are going to complain. Are you going top tell me every kid wants to be in school? I think The Washington Post is absurd.
The reason most people are concerned about the President getting on a Inter-School Network is that his message isn’t purely about education. If you indoctrinate the students to believe a contrived idea, they grow up believing it is reality7. Remember China’s Red Book? Need more be said?
September 3rd, 2009 at 10:49 pm
I hope he gets hit with a spit ball and sits on a tack.
September 3rd, 2009 at 10:57 pm
It’s the lesson plan suggestions that are problematic. “write a letter to your self about how you can help the president” instead of, write a letter to yourself about your education goals and how that goal contributes to the growth of America.
Another assignment: discuss what “the president wants us to do.” How about Discuss how committing to our individual education benefits our communities as a whole.
So it’s the wording that makes it suspicious indoctrination of a liberal president. And ok so that’s fine he’s the president, but it’s the teacher’s indoctrination that can be the most influential.
And yes, the media is biased and will cover it like it was a visit from Jesus.
Some schools say you can opt your child out, but of course that makes you feel like it’s going to be held against your child.
Well, I’m just sure my 8 yr old will stand up and tell all her classmates that when they grow up, they will be paying 60% of their income to the government as a residual effect of these policies. It will be then when we become a socialist country because no one will be able to afford to take care of themselves.
September 3rd, 2009 at 11:21 pm
First, I think it is important that leaders impress upon students to importance of education. The President is expected to lend his support. It can be done in a variety of ways such as speeches, video commercials, worthwhile legislation.
When Bush did his speech, the MSM for the most part ignored it or went the extra mile to ridicule it. The mention of students as props is stupid as who should the President be speaking to about education,,,a senior group?
As Obama as made a historical breakthrough in becoming President and has already thrilled many students with his acheivement, it is natural to expect him to promote education and one should hope that he can connect with kids who suffer through or promote the culture of anti-achievement.
The problem with Obama is that he is where he is at because of a populist message and agenda. His polls always inflate when he bashes wall street, bashes big corporations, bashes rich people or those greedy doctors who amputate limbs just to get that little extra cash His views would do very little to improve any society in a positive way and history bears out the truth to that. It is very easy to see that this is a political move to gain political capital so that he can sweep aside the opposition to his main goal, govt. controlled/manipulated health care.
So should a President push the virtues of education? Absolutely. Is it being done at this time with a completely non-political goal? You GOT to be kidding me! This administration, the D.C. culture, does everything with a political bent.
The real question is, “What if the teleprompter doesn’t cooperate”?
September 3rd, 2009 at 11:41 pm
How much more obvious can it be people!! These same tactics have been used time and time again!!! Back in the 1930′s it was used to create the HITLER YOUTH, brainwashing the youngest of children to believe in what their DICTATOR decreed as to what to believe in!!!! In this case OBAMA’S YOUTH, is what our DICTATOR is trying to get across to our children of AMERICA!!!! It’s as simple as that folks!!!!!!
September 4th, 2009 at 1:17 am
ED THE PALMBEACHER.. it is hard to comete with the level of stupidity you are spewing there. Comparing President Obama to Hitler, really?, you are going to compare a man trying to inspire kids to reach for greatness and think of the country before them selves to a hitler, a man that killed 6 million people. thats the great thing about freedom of speech, it allows us to determine quickly that people like you are idiots, and should not be listened to.
September 4th, 2009 at 9:38 am
To JOE THE MECHANIC…Uh MORON, perhaps you have been smelling cleaning fluid to long!! I was referring to the SIMILARITIES, as to how government works its ways of thinking into the minds of its young people…Starting by TELEVISING their speech into every classroom is how it starts!!! How do YOU know what is going to be instituted in their speech….NO JOE, you leave the teachings of our students to our CERTIFIED TEACHERS, for if they they try to pass their somewhat undesirable teachings to the students, they are held responsible by the district that hired them!!!! It all starts by so called innocent simple ramblings of stay in school, don’t use drugs, etc etc and then as time goes on, into more one sided political or whatever they wish to get across as their personal agenda!!!!!
September 4th, 2009 at 9:42 am
And while I am at it JOE THE MECHANIC, Hitler’s rise to power was being at the right place at the right time…His way of thinking was “Lie to the masses, tell them what they want to hear, its easier to get people to believe a huge lie than a small one” Get to the masses and with the right tone, the right words, can get ANYONE TO GO ALONG WITH YOU!!! And what better place to start than with the young minds of a country!!! Once he starts talking, who is going to stop him!!! And Germany, Russia, China, etc are all PROOF OF THAT!!!!
September 4th, 2009 at 9:49 am
I wonder why that PARENTS can take their children to whatever religious church they choose for their children, make their decisions based on the best of their ability as PARENTS, yet have to be allowed to let their children be subjected to TELEVISED IN SCHOOL TEACHINGS FROM THE COUNTRYS PRESIDENT!!?? I guess if you are REPUBLICAN, INDEPENDENT, NON POLITICIAL, you are forced to listen to ones DEMOCRATIC perspective…If CATHOLIC, DO YOU HAVE TO LISTEN TO JEHOVAH’S WITNESS??? If OBAMA or any PRESIDENT wants to give a speech to its young america, HAVE IT AT A TIME AFTER SCHOOL AND ONLY IF THE PARENTS AGREE WITH THIER POLITICIAL VIEWS!!!!!
September 4th, 2009 at 9:57 am
I can see little johnny and jane leaving their classrooms now!!!! “OUR AFRICAN AMERICAN, CHRISTIAN (OR MUSLIM, OR UNITARIAN), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENT TOLD US THIS AND THAT” Next thing you know “Seig Heil Obama” and goosestepping across the Whitehouse Lawn…Anything is possible!!
September 4th, 2009 at 10:46 am
To ED THE PALMBEACHER… I don’t think your references to Hitler are appreciated. You would probably be better served if you were to present an intelligent argument instead of resorting to the same ignorant rhetoric and idiotic comparisons that have been propogated for the last 6 months. You should have paid more attention in school, and thus would be able to write more effectively.
September 4th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
The article points out that there is precedent set for presidents addressing school children: FDR brought it to the modern era with Marconi’s radio and “fireside chats.” President Obama is the first to use all forms of media: cable, radio, Internet and social networks to effectively communicate, and that method will likely be imitated by political operatives of majority and third parties in the near and distant future of this country.
For those that are concerned: the text of the presentation will be released Monday, yet schools in various states (sadly, Texas being one) are either not going to allow the broadcast, or parents in those states are going to keep their children from school.
It reminds me of the lessons our kids are supposed to learn from playing organized sports: “you can’t win them all”; “be a good sport.” Sadly, the only persons not following that advice are the parents that voted McCain/Palin.
If this were John McCain, I doubt you’d see parents that voted for Obama complaining or holding their children absent from school. That by the way is an unexcused absence that counts against the student and proves/solves nothing. The homework assigned that day will still be due, so to miss a day when the leader of the free world wishes to address “education” is a bit oxymoron.
“We are a country of laws, and not men,” is paraphrased from “Thoughts on Government, Applicable to the Present State of the American Colonies,” written by John Adams during the spring of 1776, where he fully states: “there is no good government but what is republican. That the only valuable part of the British constitution is so; because the very definition of a republic is ‘an empire of laws, and not of men.’”
The presidency is an office we as citizens SHOULD respect, regardless of the occupant in the office. Who, if you’re keeping statistics, he represents 1/44 or 2.27% of the total population of presidents, 97.72% of the time; it’s been white males from Washington to Bush. It is highly likely to revert back to that established paradigm in 2012 or 2016.
I will admit, the president is an effective politician and persuasive speaker, but I have no evidence of his expertise at hypnotism. To paraphrase Charles Barkley “you ARE your child’s role models,” and the most important persons in shaping their maturity and character.
September 4th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
After seeing the menu of classroom activities,I as a parent am comfortable enough…. with the speech to students now. I can’t stand Obama or his socialist policies. I am disgusted with what he’s doing to the country. I am disgusted with the lemming mentality of people who do not understand what these policies really mean and don’t see deeper into the issues.
I also am an intelligent person who appreciates the opportunity that my children will not be looking at another worksheet and they will listen to real life issues. I can discuss with them at home how we disagree with the president. He is our president no matter how much I can’t stand him, my children should be able to watch a speech that involves education and think critically about it. Great learning process.
I survived liberal professors in college, I was a female chair of the college Republicans. Hearing them spew liberal agenda and criticize my views only made me stronger and more equipped to fight the agenda.
September 4th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
Honestly, I hope in the first sentences of his speech, Obama mentions re-education camps and uses an Orwellian phrase like, “Double-Plus Ungood,” just so I can hear conservative nutjobs’ heads all around the country explode. Then the adults – both conservatives and liberals – will be left, and they can sit down and hammer things out without the morons calling Obama a Nazi in one breath and a Socialist in the next. Read your history people – the two are diametrically opposed philosophies that unfortunately make convenient name-calling soundbites for people too stupid to argue rationally.
September 4th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
Oh, AVP0713, I love debating morons like you!!! Perhaps if I used examples like Julius Caesar, who supervised studies AND their recreation and games of his young people, instituting HIS personal agendas into their brains…Or Pakistani’s leader Musharraf, who gave orders to teach children in his way of thinking as to what is necessary in everyday life….North Korea Kim Jung, who demands all children be taught whatever HE deems necessary, and TURKMENISTAN (former USSR)SAPARMURAT NIYAZOV, who among many of his crazy laws, either detained or fired teachers for not praising him to their students, as if a godlike creature…No Mr.AVP0713, using the Term Hitler as an example of extremeism and craziness may not fit well with your far superior intelligence, the FACT remains, is that politicians, no matter what office they hold, cannot be allowed to push their agendas on our young people, for once it starts, therre will be no limit as to when it stops!!!!!
September 4th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
Yeah, what Ed the Palmbeacher said! I remember when that Fascist Nazi-bastard Ronald Reagan spoke to kids through a national television address! Then the first Bush, having studied (as veep) the nefarious ways of the Demon Reagan, did the same thing when he was president!
September 4th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
[...] politicians to lead them I will do so. Obama should stay behind me when it comes to my kids.
September 5th, 2009 at 11:06 am
to ED THE PALMBEACHER: wipe the spittle off your face and grow up. Your open-throated screaming and ranting doesn’t make you right, only loud and obnoxious. Your ridiculous claims equating Obama to Hitler, Ceasar, Musharraf, Baby Kim, yadda-yadda-yadda only show how pathetic your mind is. In my America, we are a nation of Laws, consensually enacted through engagement in political debate.
Screaming vein-bulging name-calling hate-mongers are not engaged in that consensual process. Their (and your) behavior is un-American.
January 18th, 2010 at 7:01 pm
I was looking for articles on hypnotherapy, believe it or not, when I came across your good post which got me thinking and lead me to what I was looking for. Strange world isn’t it.