Its bizarre when people at the extremes have such an influence on our school leadership. Very poor decision. As a child I went to school all over the country, including the south. I have to tell you the decision actually came across to me as racist. I was quite embarassed at my office lunch room, when it came out that my child was the only one who hadn’t seen the speech at school.

It makes me think that those of us moderate people in the middle need to make our voices heard more often. It just never occurred to me that our school district would block the president’s speech. I guess I need to start watching FOX TV news so I can keep up with the current controversies. But can I bear it?

Dear Superintendent,
I am writing to express my frustration by your decision to censor the President’s speech to the students of your district. I feel you may have kept one individual from a life long inspiration that can never be replaced. I would hope in the future that you would consider each and every individual student in your decision making process, and not the potential political reproach you may endure. I am proud to say my children are not at the short sighted, indignant, and ignorant hands of your decisions.

Regards,

CK

I have found two versions of the Speech Pres. Obama is going to give the one below and another version at the following link. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-ostroy/text-of-obamas-speech-to_b_278924.html I think the one the Huffington Post put out is probably the more accurate version of the speech verses the one below.

Published: September 7, 2009

The following was posted on the White House Web site today:

Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama

Back to School Event, Arlington, Sept. 8, 2009

The President: 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.

I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it’s your first day in a new school, so it’s understandable if you’re a little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now, with just one more year to go. 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.

I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn’t have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday at 4:30 in the morning.

Now I wasn’t too happy about getting up that early. A lot of times, I’d fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I’d complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and say, “This is no picnic for me either, buster.”

So I know some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But I’m here today because I have something important to discuss with you. I’m here because I want to talk with you about your education and what’s expected of all of you in this new school year.

Now I’ve given a lot of speeches about education. And I’ve talked a lot about responsibility.

I’ve talked about your teachers’ responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn.

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.

I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren’t working where students aren’t getting the opportunities they deserve.

But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.

And that’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.

Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide.

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.

And no matter what you want to do with your life I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You’re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.

And this isn’t just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you’re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.

You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You’ll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You’ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.

We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don’t do that if you quit on school you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.

Now I know it’s not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork.

I get it. I know what that’s like. My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn’t always able to give us things the other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and felt like I didn’t fit in.

So I wasn’t always as focused as I should have been. I did some things I’m not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.

But I was fortunate. I got a lot of second chances and had the opportunity to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams. My wife, our First Lady Michelle Obama, has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn’t have much. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.

Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don’t have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job, and there’s not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don’t feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren’t right.

But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying.

Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.

That’s what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.

Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn’t speak English when she first started school. Hardly anyone in her hometown went to college, and neither of her parents had gone either. But she worked hard, earned good grades, got a scholarship to Brown University, and is now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to being Dr. Jazmin Perez.

I’m thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who’s fought brain cancer since he was three. He’s endured all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory, so it took him much longer hundreds of extra hours to do his schoolwork. But he never fell behind, and he’s headed to college this fall.

And then there’s Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods, she managed to get a job at a local health center; start a program to keep young people out of gangs; and she’s on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college.

Jazmin, Andoni and Shantell aren’t any different from any of you. They faced challenges in their lives just like you do. But they refused to give up. They chose to take responsibility for their education and set goals for themselves. And I expect all of you to do the same.

That’s why today, I’m calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education and to do everything you can to meet them. Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending time each day reading a book. Maybe you’ll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in your community. Maybe you’ll decide to stand up for kids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you believe, like I do, that all kids deserve a safe environment to study and learn. Maybe you’ll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn. And along those lines, I hope you’ll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don’t feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.

Whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to really work at it.

I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work — that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you’re not going to be any of those things.

But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.

That’s OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, “I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

These people succeeded because they understand that you can’t let your failures define you you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.

No one’s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You’re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You’ve got to practice. It’s the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it’s good enough to hand in.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, and to learn something new. So find an adult you trust a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or counselor and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.

And even when you’re struggling, even when you’re discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you don’t ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.

The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.

It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.

So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?

Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you’ve got to do your part too. So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don’t let us down don’t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

I am a parent of the Bellevue School District and an employee. I stongly believe that the BSD should be airing live President Obama’s speech on education. I was shocked to learn it was to be taped and scrutinized first—we all should be applauding a president that finally sees the need to address the importance of education and is taking the time to speak directly to our children. It is time we as a nation respected ourselves more and stopped pandering to the fringe elements of our society that are determined to undermine valuing intellectualism –we should be celebrating all efforts to stress our children to seek to be the best educated human being that they can. Not airing it live sends the opposite message out. Instead of fearing a message on education from our president we should be celebrating it.

Well, because Sam gave me an e-mail address I went ahead and wrote… we’ll see how long I get to keep driving your kids around, er, heh heh… yikes!

Anyway, she responded, and included this official statement:

Thank you for your input; we always appreciate hearing from our parents
and community members. As indicated on our Bellevue School district
website, our curriculum department will be recording our President’s
speech. It is our understanding that the President will be advising
students to work hard in school, persist, and stay focused on achieving
educational goals. However, as of Friday, September 4th, none of us had
seen the script of the speech and we received multiple contacts from
parents and community members who were concerned that this was going to
be a political speech rather than just a motivational one. As a result,
and given the short notice, we decided to take the more cautious
response. Once the speech is recorded, teachers will be able to access
the recording and determine the appropriateness of the presentation for
their students’ age level and content. If the message is mainly
motivational, we will encourage teachers to share it with all students,
as it would then directly connect with one of our district-wide goals,
closing the achievement gap. The President’s speech will be posted on
the district website as well, for parents who might wish to view it and
discuss it with their children.

Personally and as a district, we support and applaud the President’s
effort to give a motivational speech to the students in our nation,
especially since it supports one of our primary goals of eliminating the
achievement gap. After we view the recording, if we determine it is not
a political message, we will strongly encourage all staff to view the
recording of the speech with students. It is not our intent to censor
anyone from viewing or using the speech in an instructional environment.
However, if any student or parent requests not to view or have their
child view the speech, we need to provide an alternative instructional
activity for that student.

Amalia

For those who wish to contact the superintendent, her address seems to be;

cudeiroa@bsd405.org

at least that is the format used by the school district – last name first initial @, although the superintendents address is not listed on the website. —insult deleted— dz.

Here is my letter to Cudeiro:

Superintendent Cudeiro,

I am writing to express my outrage over your cowardly decision to censor President Obama. The speech to America’s students scheduled on September 8th is a simple message of encouragement. The faux outrage ginned up by the extremist right wing fringe of this country is based not on fact or reason, but on hatred, racism, ad hominem attacks and obstruction. What message have you sent the students under your charge with your decision? That President Obama is not worthy of respect because he is of African descent? That he should be ignored, minimized and mocked because he is a “liberal? That when a small handful of “teabaggers” say jump, the Superintendent of Bellevue Public Schools says, “how high?” Beneath is a letter sent out by a much more level headed and competent Superintendent than yourself. Read it, you may learn something useful for the future.

Dear Parent:
The President of the United States, Barack Obama, duly elected by the people of the United States, will be addressing our Nation’s children on Tuesday, September 8. In so doing, our President, like his earlier predecessor, George H.W. Bush, will be delivering an important message to the young people of our great country that calls on them to do their best in school by working hard so they can be successful in their personal lives and in the global environment in which they will live and that will challenge them in every way in the years to come.
As Superintendent of Schools, I am pleased that the President of the United States will be taking time from his busy schedule to deliver this important message to our students.
I have instructed our building principals and classroom teachers at all school levels that I am fully supportive of having them integrate the message of the President of the United States into their lessons on Tuesday, or on any subsequent date. Toward this end, we will be televising President Obama’s speech, video streaming it, or recording it on DVDs for teacher use. I anticipate that our professional administrative and teaching staffs will incorporate the President’s presentation into classroom instruction in the best way possible to enhance this learning opportunity for our students.
As the integration of the President’s speech into our instructional practice will constitute a vital learning experience for all our children, it is my expectation that any child in any class where the President’s speech is incorporated into instruction will be a part of that instructional activity. Being a part of an instructional activity means that the child can participate fully or elect not to participate fully while remaining in the classroom, as would be the case with virtually any instructional activity.
Thank you for cooperation and understanding.
Sincerely yours,
Elliott Landon
Superintendent of Schools
Westport, CT

I am happy that the children of Westport, CT, have as their superintendent a true leader who is not cowed by a radical, violent minority seeking to tear asunder our civic institutions. How sad the same can not be said for the unfortunate students of Bellevue.