Today at 12:00 Eastern Pacific time, President Obama made a speech to students urging them to "set your own goals for education" and to stay in school. However, schools in Wheaton sent a message (which can be found on the blog An American Studies) out to the parents in the district saying that the president's speech "will not be broadcast to students" because the district did not have "an opportunity to preview his presentation and we do not have time set aside during the school day to watch the speech".
First of all, why would it be nececary to preview a speech, made by the president, for an audience of kindergarten through 12th graders? I suppose it is understandable for one to question the content of a speech before it is made, however I find it extremely unlikely that President Obama would say anything innappropriate. President Obama, to my memory, has never sworn in any of his speeches, so why would he start in front of a group of kids?
Was it so risky that the nature of the speech might be inappropriate that it wasn't worth broadcasting a speech that might teach a very helpful lesson? With anything that might have questionable content, two things should be considered; a) how important is the lesson being taught? and b) how questionable is the content? If the content outweighs the lesson, then it would make sense to not show the material. However, if the lesson outweights the content, why in the world would you not show it? Also, who should be the one to decide which is more important?
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