The Durham Public Schools has no official position on President Obama’s unprecedented live-stream speech to all public-school children on Sept. 8. They’re leaving it up to individual schools, according to Communications Coordinator Michael Yarbrough. In response to this email I sent earlier today:
I wanted to find out what DPS’s position was on the Obama speech on Sept. 8 that is supposed to be piped live into all public school classrooms.
Will it indeed be piped into all DPS schools? What if parents don’t want their kids to see it? Have parents been told about it? Has this ever happened before with any other president? (I already know the answer to that one.) How is this justified on an educational/curriculum basis?
I received this response from Yarbrough:
DPS does not have a position … at this point it is a school-by-school decision.
I emailed back to ask if “at this point” meant that DPS’s position may change, and he said no.
Meanwhile, there’s an effort nationally to boycott the school speech:
Spread the word. Pass the link around. And see if the President’s face is still smiling, when he realizes he’s talking to half-empty classrooms. Do make it a teachable moment — one where the would-be teacher does the learning.
