obama school speech

With President Barack Obama's oft-debated education speech finally given to students on Tuesday, the Westport school district left it up to teachers to determine how to incorporate what the president discussed into their regular lessons.

"It's a professional decision that the teachers could make in every classroom," said Superintendent of Schools Elliott Landon, who said he watched the speech live in his office. He thought the theme of never giving up and not getting discouraged would resonate with young students.

"I can't imagine any president of the United States utilizing the speech for political motives," said Landon. "Any time a president speaks it's political. The fact that he's speaking to a group means he's concerned about that group."

According to the prepared remarks of the speech, Obama spoke about the difficulty of being raised by a single mother. He addressed students who might have difficulty obtaining a higher education and importantance of learning in school to get a good job and make a difference.

"What you're learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future," Obama said.

In a memo issued to parents on Sept. 4, Landon
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expressed his support for teachers to show the speech through a TV, stream it through the Internet, or show a recording on a later date.


He also noted that students who did not wish to participate did not have to.

James D'Amico, chairman of the social studies department for grades six through 12, was at Coleytown Middle School when the speech was given and said he didn't see any teachers showing it live. With the text of the speech released to the public a couple days ago, he believes the "reactions beforehand actually made the speech more important than it actually was."

D'Amico appreciated the message of the speech, yet he noted that it seemed more geared toward underprivileged students, which doesn't really resonate with the majority of students at Staples High School. As the department chair, he said the speech has "come in handy as an analytical tool of American politics. It's one of those teachable moments."

By looking at the reactions before and after the speech, he believes it's an interesting commentary on the political environment since the content of the speech was positive and apolitical.

"I think it's important that people listen to opposing views," he said.

At Staples High School, students could watch the speech in the library media center or the cafeteria. D'Amico said that one of the lunch rotations coincided with the speech, so many students probably watched it then.

According to Kris Bienkowski, principal of Bedford Middle School, she had not received any complaints leading up to the speech.

"We recorded it," she said. "Our teachers are going to preview it and "¦ it's going to be up to the social studies department how they want to teach it."