St. Tammany Parish High Schools and Obama's Speech
Part of a transcript of a WWL TV news report I heard earlier today while sitting in the Jury Pool lounge:
Not all schools embraced Obama’s speech, as some were beset with criticism from concerned parents.I assume this report concerns only public high schools, because apparently some of the Catholic High Schools showed the speech. Nevertheless, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if all Public High Schools in St. Tammany Parish refrained from showing the speech live. It is the Northshore, after all. Well, to whichever schools didn't show the speech live, I say fie on them. Let them look small, petty, paranoid, and imbecilic.
All six St. Tammany Parish high schools and Terrebonne Parish schools did not air the speech live, opting to record the speech because it interfered with lunch. Students were given the opportunity to watch it later.
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5 comments:
I don't think there is anything petty, in and of itself, about not showing the recording live. I think it would be petty for a school to boycott the speech altogether, but if schools make a viewing avaialble to students (either mandatory or optional) at a later time or date, I see no problem.
Eric - I would have thought you would have taken issue with the other adjectives I used! "Petty" seems to be the least inflammatory of them all. In any case, I would usually agree with you if it weren't for the hype surrounding the whole situation. I don't think you can extract a school's decision from the larger debate. And in that context, I do think it is petty. Think of it, Eric: they didn't show it live because it conflicted with lunch? Come now, Eric, that's the perfect time to show it because it poses the least interference with actual classtime. Folks can eat their chips and sandwiches and watch the speech at the same time without problems. It's a Presidential address to students, after all. Schools take time out of the school day regularly to accommodate visitors and guest lecturers. Heck, I remember getting out of class when I was in elementary school to go see a magician put on a magic show in the school cafeteria. That schools would not show a presidential address live does strike me as petty. Is there anything wrong with it? No. Is it petty? Yes.
"I don't think you can extract a school's decision from the larger debate."
Oh, I very much disagree. Schools shouldn't be making their scheduling decisions in reaction to a political donnybrook. They should be making them based on what is best for students, and I can see where Obama's address on the first day back to school after a long weekend might not be the best time for many classrooms. Scheduling the speech for a better time is not a political statement, unless groups of small, petty, paranoid, imbecilic partisans want to turn it into one.
Our school checked with teachers (who lean just as Democratic here as they do in any other school system) and decided based on their input the best time to show it is in the school theatre auditorium this Friday afternoon, just before school lets out.
"they didn't show it live because it conflicted with lunch?"
I can't speak for every school, but this would make perfect sense at our school, which shares one cafeteria between the elementary, middle, and high school, and has to implement carefully staged lunch windows to make sure innocent kindergartners aren't sharing a lunchroom with raunchy Seniors. And besides, I'm sure our cafeteria is not the only one that doesn't have an adequate viewing system for the entire student population.
"Schools take time out of the school day regularly to accommodate visitors and guest lecturers."
Yes, but rarely if ever are all schools across the entire country expected to make time for such an event at the exact same instant, and then be attacked as political partisans (and worse) if they refuse to becasue they have other priorities.
"That schools would not show a presidential address live does strike me as petty."
Even if they show it at a later date and all students are required to see it? Granted, I don't think students should be required to listen to the President give a motivational speech against their will (or the will of their parents), but even if we set that aside and agree that they will be required to view it, I don't see why the timing of it is such a big issue for you.
You know, Eric, you're right. I have no objection to showing the President's speech at a later date. Perhaps it's the "political donnybrook" nature of this whole thing, which was started by Obama opponents by the way, that is conditioning my reaction.
So, though I do think the decision to not show the speech live is petty, it's because I believe that such a decision did not come out of a dispassionate and apolitical decision-making process. And my belief is, admittedly, formed by my own subjective political considerations of the motivations of school officials that came out of the hue and cry from those who worried the speech would be socialist indoctrination. I could very well be wrong in my belief. But I could also be right.
You write: "Scheduling the speech for a better time is not a political statement, unless groups of small, petty, paranoid, imbecilic partisans want to turn it into one." I would say that scheduling the speech for a better time may not be a political statement, but it certainly could be a political statement. And your categorical assertion that a school's scheduling decision isn't a political statement presumes an objective and apolitical intentionality that the uproar over his speech simply does not support. Reaction to the speech was political and partisan, which means that the natural assumption would be that what schools decided to do about it would likely be driven as much, if not moreso, by politics and partisanship than not. If the rightwing hadn't turned his speech into an ideologically partisan socialist indoctrination fearmongering screech fest, none of us would be worrying one way or the other about when, how, and even if schools showed the speech.
"I would say that scheduling the speech for a better time may not be a political statement, but it certainly could be a political statement."
Well, if it is, it's a pretty lame one. On that we can agree. "We hate you so much, President Obama, that we're not going to listen to your speech until later, but we're still going to listen to it! Neener neener neener!"
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