Duncan: 'Silly' to keep kids home to avoid Obama speech

[RamboLiberal]

Source: CNN

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said Sunday that parents threatening to keep their children home Tuesday to avoid President Barack Obama's planned nationwide speech to school students were being "silly."

Appearing on the CBS program "Face the Nation," Duncan said the 18-minute speech would be posted Monday on the White House Web site so people can read it before its scheduled Internet broadcast to schoolchildren on Tuesday.

Duncan emphasized it is up to school officials whether to include the speech in the day's activities, and that the message of the speech was to encourage children to finish school.

"That's just silly," he said of anyone planning to have their kids stay home because of the speech. "They can go to school. They can not watch."

The speech is about "the president challenging young people," Duncan said in response to protests by conservatives that it would be used to force the president's political agenda on students.


Read more: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/09/06/duncan-silly-to-keep-kids-home-to-avoid-obama-speech/

[Greenpeach]

1. I think instilling racism...

...in your kids is something worse than just "silly." Call it what you will, but that's what it is and that's what they'll get.

[Hissyspit]

8. Doesn't matter. Arne will be forced to resign in a week anyway for calling some Americans 'silly.'

[Mithreal]

10. in our dreams... nt

[Hissyspit]

11. Well, I was making a different point, but I concur with yours.

:D

[riderinthestorm]

2. My daughter's school won't be showing the speech. So my daughter's staying home to WATCH the speech.

I sent an email to the school supt asking if George HW Bush's speech and Ronald Reagan's speeches were broadcast at the school (I know for a fact that they were but just making a point), and said that I'd be keeping my daughter home from school that day to watch the speech. Lose, lose for the school.

[madrchsod]

4. in my state if a child does`t go to school it costs the district money

i was on the "5 yr plan" in high school. i was short 5 credits short of graduating and i had to go another year and take 5 classes so the district could be paid.

i hope your school does`t get paid.

[JimWis]

18. Now that is really turning the tables. Good for you. What a great

idea.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

3. Wouldn't this be contributing to the delinquincy of a minor?

[madrchsod]

5. it will be contributing to the intelligence of a minor.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

6. If they go, yes...

What I meant was: Wouldn't it contribute to the delinquincy of a minor if parents kept their kids home from school because of bullshit like this? Truancy is against the law, is it not?

[madrchsod]

7. technically yes it is....

[Blandocyte]

13. "My daughter is sick today"

Sick of racist dumbasses and won't be in till tomorrow."

[GoddessOfGuinness]

14. Ordinarily I'd say a counterprotest would be in order...

...but frankly it sickens me that these assholes would use their children to spread their poison.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

9. it should be played on the school announcements every day

how unpatriotic of the speechers

[llmart]

12. Well, it's not like education is a big priority.....

for these kinds of people anyway. If it was, the parents wouldn't be so ignorant themselves!

My in-laws fit into this category. I don't believe they ever read a book in their lives.

[Igel]

15. So does my wife.

Then again, she has a Ph.D. and is a tenure-track professor.

She not only reads books, she also writes them, both fiction (and hopes to get them published) and, in her field, non-fiction (and has gotten them published).

Her big concern now is that our kid's kindergarten might not be doing a good job, after two weeks. My response was that it won't be able to but that Arne wants to hold the teacher responsible: overwhelmingly poor, minority, with parents who haven't gone to college and, in many cases, haven't graduated high school and from families where all the parents work. I pushed for home schooling.

[mbperrin]

16. Here's the text of the speech to be given tomorrow:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/MediaResources/PreparedSchoolRemarks/

Anyone who's offended by this is just too stupid to survive.

[bemildred]

17. Apparently the Mighty Wurlitzer is mighty scared of the President speaking directly to the people.nt

[oct2010]

19. maybe they would like to have ×shco do the = time message ?

Would that appease all the parents on both sides. Of the aisle?
:sarcasm:
They just wish uncle Dick would have thought of this eight yesr ago. Everybody would have loved the new childrens program is my guess

[Occulus]

20. Now we know who's next to resign.

Prediction: MASSIVE poutrage at a Democrat calling a parent 'silly'. Duncan's resignation will follow.

For the record, I'd like to be wrong about this.