Tuesday, September 15, 2009
I agree with everyone having different opinions and ideas. I am pleased for you that you felt it was a good teaching moment. I also believe that there will be many more this school year.

I am in disagreement as to how this "teaching moment" was handled. I am a firm believer in parents involvement and this is one of the reasons our children attend St. Barnabas. The mixed communication of whether the speech would be aired to all students created an environment which excluded the parents.

The school newsletter stated that it would be shown to 7th & 8th graders only. Based upon what Mrs. Perkins stated in the newsletter and in a personal email to me, I was led to believe it would not be necessary to communicate the need for our children to not watch it. I understand that Ben was excused, however, Rick and I did not let our children know this was going to happen because we thought it was NOT occuring. We had planned all along to watch it with our boys that night....we knew the media would show it over and over again...they always do.

Mrs. Chastain the biggest gift a parent can give you, as a teacher, is our trust. You can be the best teacher and relate wonderfully with my child; however, it is a tragedy when that trust is broken. Unfortunately, the airing of the speech after Mrs. Perkins shared that it would not be creates a large mistrust.

I know there are many parents who feel like Rick and I. I felt it necessary to publically share, because experience has proven communication via email and newsletter was not so successful.

As I said in my email to you and Mrs. Perkins, I love our school and have the utmost respect for all the staff. I am disappointed that a subject that was very important to the parents was not taken seriously.

posted 9/15/2009 10:50 AM
Jane Dias

posted 9/17/2009 9:58 PM
Autumn Chastain frogoli@hotmail.com

ORIGINAL POST Mrs. Chastain's Second Grade Blog Obama Speech to Children On Tuesday, we watched the speech for children given by President Obama.  Mrs. Perkins mentioned it in the school newsletter, and we only had a handful of students who had written notes from home about not watching it.  Before the speech I talked to the class about how it is perfectly fine to have different opinions and ideas.  I told them that our great country was founded by people who disagreed with the ideas of others.  We discussed that our President deserves some level of respect, but that as individuals, we should think for ourselves.  After the speech, we talked about what he meant and what the main idea of his speech was.  The students pretty much thought that the President was just trying to tell them to work hard in school.  Overall, it was a good discussion and a good teaching moment.  « back | comment »

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