Again, as JO noted, Obama's first speech to the children was different and has been amended due to the uproar.
As is now acknowledged by his Education Secretary Arne Duncan on MSNBC:
Hours before Obama was to make an appearance that has been tinged by controversy, Duncan acknowledged that someone in the administration erred in suggesting students compose letters saying how they can be supportive of the president's policy goals.
Interviewed on MSNBC Tuesday morning, Duncan conceded that guidance passed out in connection with Obama's appearance at a school in Arlington, Va., "was not worded perfectly correct." But he said the focus must be on young people, not "all the adult talk." Duncan said the most critical issue is to reverse what has become a 30 percent high school dropout rate .
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090908/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_obama_speech_duncan
Duh.
So, as was pointed on on previous threads, the angst was never about Obama's New Message, which is *Stay in School.*.
As I have pointed out, with the number of drop out Ex-JWs who bemoan their lot in life because of a lack of education--(dropping out to Pioneer), I think this is a great message, even coming from the Socialist Obama. I would have no problem having my kid hear *this* message--the stay in school one, that is.
Again, this is different from his initial message noted above by the President's own Secretary of Education which was *How can you be supportive of the Presidents Agenda*.
I don't want my children being supportive of a Socialist agenda.
Interestingly, one of the reasons cited for so many schools NOT showing his speech is the lack of cable and / or broadband connections in every classroom. I never considered that personally and it brought to light one of the little things that people don't consider when denouncing why schools aren't showing this live.
The cost to wire all those classrooms for live feed is tremendous and, apparently, many school systems just don't have the money for *that*. They are wired for sound, but not for live video.
That bit of information was on NBC news last night.