Obama's 'I' message to students [updated]

*Scroll down for updates.

Got this from Barbara Curtis, who quotes Sunshine Simmons:

According to Christina Erland Culver, who is the former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Education, said that the material accompanying the President’s address is not so good.

In an interview with Fox News, Culver stated, “That’s where they kind of got into a slippery spot. Federal statute denies any authority to the Department of Education to provide any kind of curriculum or anything that can be passed down to the state, and that’s part of the statute forming the Department of Education. So they kinda got themselves into this mess because they didn’t really understand some of the key legal roles ore the dos and don’ts at the Federal Department of Education.”

Oops. But I don't imagine that will matter in the least.

Text of the president's school sermon for tomorrow can be found here. Slog through it if you like. I did. I wonder who got paid to write it. But what I'd really like to know is why? Why give the address at all?

The speech can't help but be age-inappropriate because it's foolishly aimed at grades K-12. I wonder what 5, 6, or 7 year-olds will make of the president's urgings for them to stay in school:

But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying.

Most small children have a well-developed sense of justice and will find this assumption, that their attitude is 'bad,' offensive. And do little ones really need to hear about his broken home, deadbeat dad, and devoted-but-grumpy mother?

This is just dumb:

Maybe you’ll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn. And along those lines, I hope you’ll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don’t feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.

Um, it's generally not up to small children to decide whether they're too sick to go to school. Parents usually make the call on that one.

He presents himself as the person responsible for their classroom and supplies -- since when? At the end he delivers a stern talking-to to his charges. Some of them may wonder what they've done wrong. He embellishes his sermon with six more first-person singular pronouns:

Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you’ve got to do your part too. So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don’t let us down – don’t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.

Grand total of I, I'd, I'm, I've, and me: 60 by my count.

*UPDATES*

*Alternate text discovered, here. Heh.

**From commenter Larry's blog:

I don't know about you, but I got an education so that I could be successful, or at the very least, support myself (and future family) to enjoy the lifestyle that I wanted to live. And not be dependent upon society and the government to supply my needs. I got an education so that I could be a responsible individual contributing to society, not so that I could sacrifice self-interest and become subordinate to society. These comments make it sound like that individual success has to be put at the service of the entire nation, or else it's worthless.

Sounds like Larry is talking about that enlightened self-interest that Dear Leader thinks of as greed. This is what they should be showing in schools:



Be still my heart.

Dan Riehl nails it:

What is he, Social worker in chief? Give it a freaking rest. He should have better things to do with his time than try and make the children like him. Especially considering he isn't doing so hot with the adults these days.

I beg to differ with fellow-bloggers at the Western Experience on this trivial point:

Kids should just think it is cool that the President took the time to talk to them, a memorable moment if you will.

Maybe I was born a cynic, and maybe my own numerous progeny are cynical, too, because not a one of us would find this cool or memorable. It might be cool if a president came to my own school. Then I could understand feeling a connection, if I was naive enough not to suspect I was being used. But a piped-in speech would have been just another boring assembly for me. (Do schools still have assemblies?)

***Here's some thoughtful commentary on the speech, with this additional news blast:

I'd still like to know what the 20 White House officials will be adding to his speech as they visit local schools across the country tomorrow. There's no way for parents to know since those visits won't be taped and no transcripts will be released. Why in the world are the administrators of departments, such as the EPA, visiting schools to talk about Obama's education speech? And how much is this costing taxpayers in this time of extreme debt and recession?

She provides a list of the twenty.
h/t: Barbara Curtis

****Mickey Kaus agrees with me on that last paragraph, which made him gag:

Those are all the people who are trying to help--families, teachers, and Barack Hussein Obama? He's "working hard to fix up" classrooms? I hope not! He has two wars and a health care bill to worry about, and a whole lot of other politicians and bureaucrats whose job it is to refurbish up school facilities. Is he Superman? Obama's willingness to cut out all the other players does suggest an unnattractive solipsism and egotism at best and ... a troublesome cult-building instinct well, let's just leave it at that.

Comments welcome.
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