Thread: Obama & School

Now this is what I'm talking about



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090927/...us_more_school



Sensible, pragmatic, shows some thought that we actually compete with other countries. When he was elected this was one of the reasons I voted for him. Instead, he's been focusing on his significant weakness thus far and until now has really only shown a smattering or two of interest in early education.



I'm not saying this is a panacea but it's a step in the right direction. There are a lot of things to be done to fix our school system and getting kids into school more hours is one of them.

The Messiah Speaks:

WASHINGTON – Students beware: The summer vacation you just enjoyed could be sharply curtailed if President Barack Obama gets his way.



Obama says American kids spend too little time in school, putting them at a disadvantage with other students around the globe.



"Now, I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas," the president said earlier this year. "Not with Malia and Sasha, not in my family, and probably not in yours. But the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom."

No, the children need to stop wasting the time they spend.



They shouldn't be forced to learn "Barack Hussein Obama, mmmm,mmmm,mmmm", indoctrinated hero worship is a crime against humanity.



They shouldn't be learning about "Heather Has Two Mommies" or "Daddy's New Butt Buddy", they should be learning positive mainstream American values, like responsiblity, independence, and self-reliance, and doing the right thing, as part of their reading curriculum.



And they don't have to learn how to "save the earth", they can't save the earth. They need to learn science so they can tell when frauds like Al Bore are lying to them.



And they don't have to spend more time in the classroom, they need to stop having their time wasted.



Frankly, I suffered, I mean it must have been just miserable, through all those difficult years with an entire summer vacation. My report cards showed so many A's it looked like a caltrop field.



I will support the longer summer sessions under one caveat: The teacher's annual salary does not increase by a dime.





The Messiah Speaks:

Obama and Duncan say kids in the United States need more school because kids in other nations have more school.



"Young people in other countries are going to school 25, 30 percent longer than our students here," Duncan told the AP. "I want to just level the playing field."



While it is true that kids in many other countries have more school days, it's not true they all spend more time in school.



Kids in the U.S. spend more hours in school (1,146 instructional hours per year) than do kids in the Asian countries that persistently outscore the U.S. on math and science tests — Singapore (903), Taiwan (1,050), Japan (1,005) and Hong Kong (1,013). That is despite the fact that Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong have longer school years (190 to 201 days) than does the U.S. (180 days).

The article refutes the Messianic Nonsense.



Quality time, you stupid socialists, not more time in front the Mmmm,Mmmmm,Mmmmmm indoctrinators.

I'd be a lot happier if they would simply quit wasting so much time on all of this "feel good" crap that has nothing to do with preparing them for the "Real World" and get back to teaching the core curriculum.



How about we quit teaching little Suzy Rottencrotch how to put a rubber on a cucumber and instead concentrate on teaching her how to sit on a metal folding chair while holding a dime between her knees and do some Calculus!! Why don't we stop all of the "this minority, that minority and the other damned minority month" bullshit and teach the kids how to simply be AMERICANS!

[quote name='Freedom for All' date='27 September 2009 - 05:30 PM' timestamp='1254087007' post='28893']



No, the children need to stop wasting the time they spend.[/quote]



agreed. parents need to do a better job teaching their kids about the importance of an education.

They shouldn't be forced to learn "Barack Hussein Obama, mmmm,mmmm,mmmm", indoctrinated hero worship is a crime against humanity.

good thing thats not happening.

They shouldn't be learning about "Heather Has Two Mommies" or "Daddy's New Butt Buddy"

why, what do you have against the gay lifestyle? oh thats right, you're a bigot.

they should be learning positive mainstream American values, like responsiblity, independence, and self-reliance, and doing the right thing, as part of their reading curriculum.

actually sounds like good things for parents to be teaching them. do you hold parents responsible for anything??

eAnd they don't have to learn how to "save the earth", they can't save the earth. They need to learn science so they can tell when frauds like Al Bore are lying to them.

like all those scientists that agree with al gore?

I will support the longer summer sessions under one caveat: The teacher's annual salary does not increase by a dime.

of course, because you hate hardworking americans.

[quote name='JohnnyReb' date='27 September 2009 - 05:31 PM' timestamp='1254087119' post='28894']

I'd be a lot happier if they would simply quit wasting so much time on all of this "feel good" crap that has nothing to do with preparing them for the "Real World" and get back to teaching the core curriculum.



How about we quit teaching little Suzy Rottencrotch how to put a rubber on a cucumber and instead concentrate on teaching her how to sit on a metal folding chair while holding a dime between her knees and do some Calculus!! Why don't we stop all of the "this minority, that minority and the other damned minority month" bullshit and teach the kids how to simply be AMERICANS!

[/quote]



this is one of the most offensive posts i've ever read.



i'm italian. my whole family is italian. not too long ago, italians were considered minorities, and not just "white". minorities are what MAKE america what it IS. learning about all the different people that comprise this country is one of the most valuable things that should be taught to children these days.

[quote name='nickcuse' date='27 September 2009 - 04:56 PM' timestamp='1254088576' post='28898']
this is one of the most offensive posts i&#39;ve ever read.<br



Seems to be a lot of that going on around here.

[quote name=&#39;nickcuse&#39; date=&#39;27 September 2009 - 05:56 PM&#39; timestamp=&#39;1254088576&#39; post=&#39;28898&#39;]

this is one of the most offensive posts i&#39;ve ever read.



i&#39;m italian. my whole family is italian. not too long ago, italians were considered minorities, and not just "white". minorities are what MAKE america what it IS. learning about all the different people that comprise this country is one of the most valuable things that should be taught to children these days.

[/quote]

no kidding. is this going to allowed to continue?

[quote name=&#39;nickcuse&#39; date=&#39;27 September 2009 - 05:56 PM&#39; timestamp=&#39;1254088576&#39; post=&#39;28898&#39;]

this is one of the most offensive posts i&#39;ve ever read.



i&#39;m italian. my whole family is italian. not too long ago, italians were considered minorities, and not just "white". minorities are what MAKE america what it IS. learning about all the different people that comprise this country is one of the most valuable things that should be taught to children these days.

[/quote]

You have GOT to be kidding? You&#39;re ITALIAN? WHOOP-DE-FRICKIN-DOO, SO AM I (and Irish, and Scottish, and Native American)! The only time an Italian is a "minority" is if he&#39;s in Harlem or Compton. Outside of that, you&#39;re not a minority, you&#39;re an AMERICAN. Now, if you&#39;re so damned concerned with being an Italian, MOVE BACK TO ITALY and leave America for AMERICANS.

"Hyphenated Americanism" Speech - Excerpts

Former President Theodore Roosevelt, October 12, 1915, in an address to the Knights of Columbus, Carnegie Hall, NYC.



"There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalized Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an American at all. This is just as true of the man who puts "native" before the hyphen as of the man who puts German or Irish or English or French before the hyphen. Americanism is a matter of the spirit and of the soul. Our allegiance must be purely to the United States. We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds any other allegiance. But if he is heartily and singly loyal to this Republic, then no matter where he was born, he is just as good an American as any one else.



The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English-Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian-Americans or Italian-Americans, each preserving its separate nationality, each at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality, than with the other citizens of the American Republic. The men who do not become Americans and nothing else are hyphenated Americans; and there ought to be no room for them in this country. The man who calls himself an American citizen and who yet shows by his actions that he is primarily the citizen of a foreign land, plays a thoroughly mischievous part in the life of our body politic. He has no place here; and the sooner he returns to the land to which he feels his real heart-allegiance, the better it will be for every good American. There is no such thing as a hyphenated American who is a good American. The only man who is a good American is the man who is an American and nothing else.



For an American citizen to vote as a German-American, an Irish-American, or an English-American, is to be a traitor to American institutions; and those hyphenated Americans who terrorize American politicians by threats of the foreign vote are engaged in treason to the American Republic.



Americanization



The foreign-born population of this country must be an Americanized population - no other kind can fight the battles of America either in war or peace. It must talk the language of its native-born fellow-citizens, it must possess American citizenship and American ideals. It must stand firm by its oath of allegiance in word and deed and must show that in very fact it has renounced allegiance to every prince, potentate, or foreign government. It must be maintained on an American standard of living so as to prevent labor disturbances in important plants and at critical times. None of these objects can be secured as long as we have immigrant colonies, ghettos, and immigrant sections, and above all they cannot be assured so long as we consider the immigrant only as an industrial asset. The immigrant must not be allowed to drift or to be put at the mercy of the exploiter. Our object is to not to imitate one of the older racial types, but to maintain a new American type and then to secure loyalty to this type. We cannot secure such loyalty unless we make this a country where men shall feel that they have justice and also where they shall feel that they are required to perform the duties imposed upon them. The policy of "Let alone" which we have hitherto pursued is thoroughly vicious from two stand-points. By this policy we have permitted the immigrants, and too often the native-born laborers as well, to suffer injustice. Moreover, by this policy we have failed to impress upon the immigrant and upon the native-born as well that they are expected to do justice as well as to receive justice, that they are expected to be heartily and actively and single-mindedly loyal to the flag no less than to benefit by living under it.



We cannot afford to continue to use hundreds of thousands of immigrants merely as industrial assets while they remain social outcasts and menaces any more than fifty years ago we could afford to keep the black man merely as an industrial asset and not as a human being. We cannot afford to build a big industrial plant and herd men and women about it without care for their welfare. We cannot afford to permit squalid overcrowding or the kind of living system which makes impossible the decencies and necessities of life. We cannot afford the low wage rates and the merely seasonal industries which mean the sacrifice of both individual and family life and morals to the industrial machinery. We cannot afford to leave American mines, munitions plants, and general resources in the hands of alien workmen, alien to America and even likely to be made hostile to America by machinations such as have recently been provided in the case of the two foreign embassies in Washington. We cannot afford to run the risk of having in time of war men working on our railways or working in our munition plants who would in the name of duty to their own foreign countries bring destruction to us. Recent events have shown us that incitements to sabotage and strikes are in the view of at least two of the great foreign powers of Europe within their definition of neutral practices. What would be done to us in the name of war if these things are done to us in the name of neutrality?



One America



All of us, no matter from what land our parents came, no matter in what way we may severally worship our Creator, must stand shoulder to shoulder in a united America for the elimination of race and religious prejudice. We must stand for a reign of equal justice to both big and small. We must insist on the maintenance of the American standard of living. We must stand for an adequate national control which shall secure a better training of our young men in time of peace, both for the work of peace and for the work of war. We must direct every national resource, material and spiritual, to the task not of shirking difficulties, but of training our people to overcome difficulties. Our aim must be, not to make life easy and soft, not to soften soul and body, but to fit us in virile fashion to do a great work for all mankind. This great work can only be done by a mighty democracy, with these qualities of soul, guided by those qualities of mind, which will both make it refuse to do injustice to any other nation, and also enable it to hold its own against aggression by any other nation. In our relations with the outside world, we must abhor wrongdoing, and disdain to commit it, and we must no less disdain the baseness of spirit which lamely submits to wrongdoing. Finally and most important of all, we must strive for the establishment within our own borders of that stern and lofty standard of personal and public neutrality which shall guarantee to each man his rights, and which shall insist in return upon the full performance by each man of his duties both to his neighbor and to the great nation whose flag must symbolize in the future as it has symbolized in the past the highest hopes of all mankind."