According to Fox News,
The commissioner of New Jersey's Department of Education ordered a review on Friday following the posting of a YouTube video depicting school children singing the praises of President Obama.
Video of the students at the Burlington, N.J., school shows them singing songs seemingly overflowing with campaign slogans and praise for "Barack Hussein Obama," repeatedly chanting the president's name and celebrating his accomplishments, including his "great plans" to "make this country's economy No. 1 again."
One song that the children were taught quotes directly from the spiritual "Jesus Loves the Little Children," though Jesus' name is replaced with Obama's: "He said red, yellow, black or white/All are equal in his sight. Barack Hussein Obama."
There were apparently death threats sent to the principal; of course, such threats are crimes, and should be punished. But I would hope that those responsible for the school project are properly disciplined as well; public school classrooms shouldn't be used to sing the praises of any sitting (or recent) political figure, whether Bush or Obama or anyone else.
That's not a constitutional matter — there's no Establishment Clause for political speech, and of course schools do routinely glorify past political figures, whether Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, or what have you. They also rightly express a calm respect for current elected officials; when an official comes to visit, for instance, it's proper for teachers to give the normal praise offered such visitors, and for students to join in.
But that some degree of ideological indoctrination and glorification is inevitable in government-run schools, and is in fact one of the purposes of such schools (which have long been justified as means of assimilating children into American democratic culture), doesn't mean that it's proper to lead children in songs praising the current President or particular aspects of his political agenda ("Hooray, Mr. President we honor your great plans / To make this country's economy number one again!"). I would have thought that this was pretty clear, and it probably is to most teachers in most schools — but not, unfortunately, in this instance.
Incidentally, the 2006 "Congress, Bush and FEMA / People across our land / Together have come to rebuild us and we join them hand-in-hand!" schoolchildren's song to First Lady Laura Bush is pretty bad, too — not quite the same, even if it was organized as a public school activity (which I suspect would indeed be so), since it didn't involve such extensive praise of a particular current political figure, but also not the sort of thing that schools should be doing.
Jenifer Fox: What's Wrong With Our Schools?
We teach the same topics in our schools today that we taught over one hundred years ago. Where did these subjects come from? How did we choose what to teach?
Jenifer Fox: What's Wrong With Our Schools? Part II
True teaching talent reveals itself when the teacher struggles to engage students in the process, when he refuses to give up until he finds a way to bring about understanding and competence in the student.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-CgzVrY5KI
Check out starting @ 3:12 IN PARTICULAR!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfg8UEUsxUE
Check out starting @ 6:48 IN PARTICULAR!!
The sad thing is people don’t see through the ironic projections. While claiming ‘indoctrination’ of these children, there is clearly an attempt to ‘indoctrinate’ audiences into mass hysteria against everything Obama. Just what kind of society do we have now, where media personalities can attack private citizens and decide who can work at a specific job and who has to be fired based on a talk show hosts' personal beliefs? Are we now living in a “Mediacracy?”
I suppose if there were a lot of songs emerging teaching hatred, as in the Madrasahs, or if our kids were calling upon God to bless the leader in the way that British kids are, or if teachers were identifying specific extreme dogma and presenting it as more than their point of view, I would demur. Teachers always have a point of view.
When I was a kid I wasn’t always a big fan of the sitting president, but I did understand that he was my president too.
To me, this performance is just a teacher's attempt to put some words to familiar music. Questionable judgment on the teacher's part - yes - but done with good intentions. I believe parents probably should have had a chance to let their kids opt out of the performance. I know I would have, if they were singing the praises of W. Bush!
But his is hardly an INDOCTRINATION video, as Glenn Beck would have you believe. He loves this kind of thing, because it helps him feed his paranoid, conspiracy-theory masses.
Lighten up, and let's deal with REAL issues. A lot of kids love Obama, and it's been documented that when he says they should do their homeowrk, THEY DO IT! Let's leave it at that and stop the indoctrination NONSENSE!
In times such as these, when it seems that the world as we previously thought we knew it has taken us beyond our comfort zone and into a future we are trying to secure, our children are looking to us to be level-headed and fair-minded. They are looking for someone they can say they are proud to be a part of their lives. They are looking for someone they know will protect them, give them the right guidance and instruct them on what is wrong and right. We as adults need to each examine ourselves and ask honest questions as to whether we have been the best role models for our children. Have we instilled a sense of purpose or indifference? Do they see us at our best or our worst? Have we instilled in them hope or fear? Is the indoctrination that “we” set before “our” children truthful instruction or carefully chosen propaganda? As we embrace the successes of our lives we must also be accountable for the failures. And when we choose to see indoctrination as a means to truthfully train or instruct those in our circle of influence rather than a way to perpetuate and spread propaganda, it can be used in a positive sense, rather than just another dirty label or name given to someone we disagree with.
Should America’s youth have to wait for history to determine when and who they can celebrate? Do they need to wait for history’s permission to believe that the POTUS has a plan to help get America back on track? Should they now fear that the foundation of democracy of which this country was built will crumble under the messages they hear from our President and the songs dedicated to him. We are inspired today by great songs – secular and spiritual - that especially during our greatest challenges give us a sense of hope – “America the Beautiful”, “My Country Tis of Thee”, “Amazing Grace” and even “Jesus Loves the Little Children.” Has anyone ever used or heard the word “indoctrination” used to characterize any of these songs? While these songs may be near and dear to many Americans hearts, there are others outside our world who may consider them as indoctrinated (programmed, trained, propagandized) into our psyche. You see this too can be, all in the eyes and ears of the beholder. And that the President has proclaimed to be a Christian and as Christians we are commanded to be like Christ, Obama and all Christians should love all the children of the world just as Jesus does.
Was there an absence of political correctness? Should the words have been “Blue states and “Red states” instead of “red, yellow, black or white”? More constitutional? “Bill of Rights” instead of “equal rights”? Secular rather than spiritual genre?
They witness the disparagement and disrespect hurled at the office of the presidency endlessly fed to them via the Internet and TV. And we have the audacity to question why the youth of today are so disrespectful? Then our children get an opportunity to hear from a president who advises them on how to be better students, encourages them to be and do their best, and challenges them to assume accountability for their own actions, rather than this being looked upon as a positive message it is called “indoctrination”. And faster than they can get to Webster’s Dictionary or go to Askdotcom to look that word up they hear it again – this time in relation to a song sung by third graders now playing on UTube. When third graders sing a song that’s characterized as “singing the praises” of a president (past or sitting) is likened to “ideological indoctrination and glorification” rather than a celebration of what’s already been done and hope for what possibly could come, do we have to wonder why their heroes of today are celebrities, con artists and cartoon characters? When American youth hear of death threats being sent to a principal for any reason, let alone because it centered on a US president should they be afraid that what they say, feel or sing may bring harm to them? Will they be caught up in the fear factor and choose fear rather than hope?
Educate them (sometimes throwing in a song that features a current president), inspire them, give them hope for the future and hopefully they will grow to be upstanding and productive citizens. Under educate them, misinform them, kill their dreams and defer their hope and the outcome could be another home-grown terrorist by way of the criminal justice system. Our children are looking and listening to us who are supposed to be the adults in this country and what they are hearing and seeing is not conducive to healthy growth for this future generation. They see the attention being given to the rudest and loudest in our society. So this tells them, in order to be noticed, they must act in kind. They hear the malicious name calling, see the disruptive behavior in town hall meetings and hear about and see some proudly displaying their rights to bear arms in questionable places and venues. They see signs that label a sitting president as Hitler, a fascist, socialist, communist, non-citizen, un-American, baby k!ller, etc. Is it any wonder that the imitation of this type of behavior leads to the schoolyard bullies and even worst, schoolhouse shootings? They attend hate rallies rather than pep rallies, tea parties instead of slumber parties, and wear the signs of their parents that they sometimes can't even read or fully understand. Why are we then surprised when one day the bully in the sandbox becomes the terrorist in our own backyard?
Real education encourages independent critical thought. If such were prevalent in America, we'd have vigorous, wide-ranging debates which might shake the entire foundations of many government policies and practices. Leaders might roll back the PATRIOT act, disengage from the Middle East, propose radical curbs to the powers of the Federal Reserve Bank, legalize drugs ( as was done in Portugal a few years ago), and so forth.
Our monolithic political culture is vulnerable to shared blind spots, like an insufficiently diverse monoculture ecosytem. The major threat today is the collapse of faith-based fiat paper currency. Politicians and commentators are locked into one single economic paradigm, diverging only to debate between different flavors of freshwater and seawater Keynesianism and implementation details of a policy which is fundamentally unsound. Our experimentation with currency based on nothing but faith and power is near an end -- and our schools go to great lengths to weed out any habits of mind which might lead the way to a solution. All praise the temple priests!
Daniel Boone was a man,
Yes, a big man!
With an eye like an eagle
And as tall as a mountain was he!
Daniel Boone was a man,
Yes, a big man!
He was brave, he was fearless
And as tough as a mighty oak tree!
From the coonskin cap on the top of ol' Dan
To the heel of his rawhide shoe;
The rippin'est, roarin'est, fightin'est man
The frontier ever knew!
Daniel Boone was a man,
Yes, a big man!
And he fought for America
To make all Americans free!
What a Boone, what a do-er,
What a dream come-er true-er was he!
Because Jesus was the first Savior of the world and is not allowed to be praised during the holiday season by the singing of Christmas Carols in schools either'
Jesus is YOUR savior of the world not everyone's in the USA. and Christmas is not celebrated by everyone. We are supposed be a secular nation..
"Separation of church and state " is part of our constitution. No where in there is separation of school and president...
OMG, all my grade school teachers were subversive, socialist thugs working to try to TAKE over the country....
In this song all the kids are saying is Obama tells us to take a stand, equal pay for equal work,and other GOOD things that should be learned .
That is no more indoctrination than a President making an inspirational speech about staying in school. This happened in February and ALL the parents were sent home the lyrics in advance..
This smacks of more right wing OBAMABASHING
Can you tell me where you got the info?
Obama supporter here, not a basher
BTW, this is not unique to Obama. Check out this youtube clip from a Nixon documentary (2:44 minutes into the video).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TP_oOJiuvW4&feature=PlayList&p=6AE90595B49D8C31&index=16
Personally I do not think we should not hero worship ANY president. But the wingnuts are laying on the outrage a bit thick here, no?