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View Full Version : Obama talks down to kids, waaaaaay down



maeyako
September 7th, 2009, 08:44 PM
So I've just read Obama's speech to our nation's grade school children (unlikely to the college students... very unlikely) and I just thought I'd make a few choice corrections to his speech that would be more... true and factual and the like.

(link to speech is here) (http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/09/07/obama.school.speech.pdf)


Hello everyone – how’s everybody doing today? I’m here with students at Wakefield
High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we’ve got students tuning in from all across
America, kindergarten through twelfth grade. I’m glad you all could join us today.

This is what he should say:



Hello everyone – how’s everybody doing today? I’m here with students at Wakefield
High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we’ve got students tuning in from all across
America, kindergarten through twelfth grade. I’m glad you all had to join us today.


Me = 1, Obama =0


I imagine there are some seniors out there who
are feeling pretty good right now, with just one more year of forced schooling to go until you become a free person no longer being controlled by your parents and the government.

OH BURN if I must say.


And no matter what
grade you’re in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could’ve
stayed in bed just a little longer this morning.


And no matter what
grade you’re in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer and you were somewhat freer, and you could’ve
stayed in bed just a little longer this morning or not come at all to the virtual prison you've been condemned to go to.

Again, truth truth.


I’ve talked about your parents’ responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and get
your homework done, and don’t spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with that
Xbox.

SPOILERS: not all "minors" play video games all day. Ignorant bastard.


I’ve talked about your parents’ responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and get
your unnecessary and pointless homework done, and don’t spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with that
Xbox.


Maybe you could be a good writer – maybe even good enough to write a book or articles
in a newspaper – but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English
class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor – maybe even good enough to
come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine – but you might not know it
until you do a project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a Senator or
a Supreme Court Justice, but you might not know that until you join student government
or the debate team.


Maybe you are a good writer – maybe even good enough to write a book or articles
in a newspaper – but you might not know it until you try to get your works published. Maybe you are an innovator or an inventor – maybe you came up with something great but don't know how to market it yet. Maybe you would be a mayor or a Senator or
a Supreme Court Justice, but you cant until you reach 25 or 30.


And no matter what you want to do with your life – I guarantee that you’ll need an
education to do it.


And no matter what you want to do with your life – I guarantee that you’ll need to be 18+ to do it.

HUZZAH!


You’re going to need a
good education for every single one of those careers.


You’re going to need to take out loans for thousands upon thousands of dollars with no hope of ever actually being hired or getting caught with some drug or drug paraphernalia and if you're poor poof goes any chance at paying for college!

And that's really all I'm going to do.

You get the point.

And yes, I voted for Obama.

SciVille
September 7th, 2009, 09:25 PM
Win! :lol:

Brendan Perez
September 7th, 2009, 10:44 PM
Sad.

Simplistic solutions, strawmen and condescension are the only things our supposedly well educated president can deliver to a room full of students.

I like the new strawman aimed at video games. It's been getting quite a bit of play. I'm also not sure what Obama has against the xBox. It's always the whipping console of choice when he's building one of his strawmen about video games contributing to the nation's educational problems.

Maybe Sony and Nintendo contrbuted to his campaign?

I used to think these kinds of speeches were simply politicians being clueless, now I wonder if there's not also streaks of cowardice mixed in.

Addressing issues like that of schools no longer being or seeming relevant or the issue of schools becoming more single paced (single minded?) and boring and discouraging as many students as it leaves behind would be worthy topics. So instead, a captive audience got some insults, shallow discussion of sanitized non-controversial topics and well worn cliches and politicians and Obama supporters patted themselves on the back for this "accomplishment".

George Bush was an inarticulate simplistic idiot. Obama is shaping up to be an articulate simplistic idiot. Is that change we were supposed to believe in?

Got Liberty?
September 8th, 2009, 06:46 AM
He's acknowledging the Xbox as the premier game console it truly is.

Ralph
September 8th, 2009, 06:49 AM
I really get tired of Obama's frequent insults to the people he represents. His ridiculing of children, the mentally disabled, and "the online audience" all have got on my nerves. He has actually been the most outwardly insulting president I can think of since Bush Sr.

oppdis
September 8th, 2009, 03:36 PM
TL;DR.

And tearing up someone's speech like that regardless of who they are is nothing more to me than trying to be an attention whore.

-oppdis

Galen
September 8th, 2009, 04:07 PM
Obama didn't say anything any different than what teachers have been saying to students for decades. There's nothing new here, folks, move along.

TrustNoOne
September 8th, 2009, 04:10 PM
It's not that he's doing anything new. He's just too popular and hopefully this will wake a few people up to what an arrogant fuck he really is.

MiNi
September 8th, 2009, 05:40 PM
In a way, aren't we all "forced" to get out of bed in the morning for something?

Even if it's not direct in the case of compulsory schooling, it can still be simutaneously difficult and nessecary. I had to wake up at six every morning over the summer to get ready for work. The debilitating lightheadedness I've been going through for a while now didn't help. If I didn't work over the summer, I wouldn't have $4,000 extra to pay for college. If I hadn't gotten up over the past five years to do odd jobs as well, I wouldn't have saved enough for me to get away with just doing a work-study session this semester (at the expense of living at home, which may I add, still sucks.)

The compulsion of schooling could be ended tonight and getting up in the morning to earn that diploma, which essentially is needed, will still be an unpleasant task. It's important to realize that although some things shouldn't be nessecarilly mandated, such things can still be utterly essential without a radical restructuring of society that is unlikely to take place in my brief lifetime.

Got Liberty?
September 8th, 2009, 06:03 PM
I wake up an hour earlier than you, commute 1.5 hours each way, and STILL it. :nah:

MiNi
September 8th, 2009, 06:08 PM
I never said I didn't enjoy my college classes.

Got Liberty?
September 8th, 2009, 06:33 PM
Oh, sorry. I skimmed a bit thar. Post modified.

Confuzzled
September 8th, 2009, 07:44 PM
Actually, I didn't think this was a bad idea. Like someone said we are all "forced" to get out of bed and do something every morning. Do you think I want to go to work and come home smelling like fast food? Do you think I want to go to college and not get paid and bust my ass?

Galactic Ruler Xenu
September 8th, 2009, 08:55 PM
Bill Gates dropped out of college and that's why hes a sorry ass poor bum.

Be cool, stay in school.

http://fumingpew.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/nicolas_cage_knowing.jpg

ba3
September 8th, 2009, 09:52 PM
You lost me reading your post when you started complaining about school.

You can actually have fun their if you talk to others and do other activites than whining in the corner.

Join Football?

Got Liberty?
September 8th, 2009, 10:38 PM
Football? Really? Those types are the ones to whom many hard knocks on the head don't matter.

Ralph
September 8th, 2009, 11:12 PM
LOL because everyone can be like Bill Gates and become a billionaire without college, and if they can't it's just because they're lazy. Don't go to college, pull yourself up by your bootstraps, and you too will be rich. Just make sure not to have any formal education. Learning information in a school setting is a real poverty trap. :rolleyes:

Agnapostate
September 8th, 2009, 11:24 PM
It's not, but there are more libertarian means to human capital acquisition than compulsory schooling...or structuring the labor market so that that kind of schooling is necessary, for that matter. :\

Ralph
September 9th, 2009, 09:18 AM
Definitely. I do find it disappointing that so many jobs want a degree, even if the degree has nothing to do with that particular medium-level job.

Got Liberty?
September 9th, 2009, 11:54 AM
"Sorry, but we hired the astrophysics BS to wait these tables. Try back later."

oppdis
September 9th, 2009, 02:15 PM
I HOPE that a degree in Computer Information Systems is used for what it was meant. :(

-oppdis

Agnapostate
September 9th, 2009, 02:36 PM
"Sorry, but we hired the astrophysics BS to wait these tables. Try back later."

I knew someone with an astrophysics BS from UCLA working as a math tutor at a junior college until a few weeks ago.

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