In a sweltering classroom on the third floor of Park Hill’s Smiley Middle School, about 40 students in an American history class on Tuesday watched the TV intently as President Barack Obama told them to take their education seriously.
The controversial speech that was not controversial played on cable television and on the Internet throughout the nation’s classrooms after days of partisan bickering about the event.
Obama spoke from a Virginia high school, telling the nation’s students to take responsibility for their education and stick with it, even through tough circumstances.
The lead-up to the speech ignited a partisan debate, with some families threatening to pull their children from school rather than let them listen to the speech, which they feared would be politically manipulative. That suspicion was partly fueled by the administration’s lesson plans that encouraged students to “help the president.” The White House later revised the materials.
Colorado school districts mostly left the decision to show the speech up to principals or teachers — and many schools chose not to air the broadcast because it would interrupt their class schedules. Some said they would record the event for possible viewing later.
Schools that showed the speech gave students another educational option if they didn’t want to see it.
“A teachable moment,” said Smiley history teacher George Bandy after Obama’s talk. “It’s awesome that kids get a chance to hear from the country’s leader about education.”
Obama’s focus on education rang true to Bandy’s class of mostly African-American students — many of whom said afterward they were going to heed the president’s advice.
“It made me want to focus more,” said Paurteyee Smith, 13. “We need to stop playing around, and we need to learn. Education is important.”
Smith said his parents have offered the same type of message but felt it was more meaningful coming from the leader of the free world.
“I thought it was cool he was speaking to the students,” said Rochè Fisher, 13. “He made a very good point: that it is our education and we need to stand up and fight for it. I need to work hard because sometimes I get distracted.”
Alayjah Baca, 13, said Obama’s words encouraged her because she has felt overwhelmed at times by her studies.
“I wanted to give up on school,” she said. “Everyone is coming up to me saying education is important. But he inspired me.”
Elsewhere in more conservative school districts, the controversy mostly subsided after the speech.
In Republican-heavy Douglas County, district officials were compiling information about how many schools showed the speech and how many absences were reported. That information was unavailable at press time.
Many Douglas County schools posted online messages to parents saying they were not showing the speech but encouraged parents to view it at home with their children.
“I’m glad it’s over with,” said Donnell Rosenberg, whose two children attend a charter school that did not show the speech live. She taped the message and will let her kids watch it later if they want.
“I only saw part of it, and it was absolutely fine,” Rosenberg said. “My objection remains the same: I have a problem with the supplemental materials.”
Well-known Colorado Republican Bob Schaffer, chairman of the Colorado State Board of Education, still believes the message was political.
“There’s little doubt that the target audience wasn’t kindergartners through fourth-graders; it was sophomores on up who will be voting in the 2012 election,” Schaffer said.
Schaffer said Obama stepped over the line by commandeering the attention of the nation’s schoolchildren with a “very warm and self-serving political message.”
“This was an arrogant abuse of power, an abuse of the executive office,” Schaffer said. “Barack Obama should remember he is commander in chief, not Captain Kangaroo.”
Jeremy P. Meyer: 303-954-1367 or jpmeyer@denverpost.com
