President Obama's 2nd Back to School Address to Students Elicits No Controversy

At 1:00 p.m. today President Obama's second annual Back to School address will be available for broadcast to students across the country.  Like last year, teachers in New Canaan public schools will decide whether to broadcast the speech live based on its relevance to their lesson plans.  Unlike last year, School Superintendent Dr. David Abbey has not received any emails complaining about the event.

"I've received one email this year," he told Patch. "Just one. It's from someone who supports what we're doing."

In advance of Obama's Back to School speech last year, the Republican Town Committee called the speech "political gesturing," and invited supporters to contact the Board of Education to voice their concerns about the speech, which some did. The ensuing controversy was covered by local and national media.

Today's speech will be broadcast live in common areas at the high school, the cafeteria, the library and the entrance to the entrance to the school, Abbey said.  At Saxe and the elementary schools each teacher will decide whether, when and what to share with students.

"We treat this like an important current event," Abbey said. "Anytime the president addresses the students is a noteworthy event." 

How they use the speech and when they use it will be up to each teacher.  Most classrooms in the district have Smartboards that allow teachers to capture the broadcast live, or save it to use in the future.  "Teachers will make the decision.  It is their role and their responsibility.  We have a curriculum and we trust our teachers to make decisions," Abbey said.

Abbey watched last year's speech with a middle school social studies class.  "The teacher taught a lesson around the speech," he said.  

Elementary schools did not show the speech live last year.  Instead, they developed age-appropriate lesson plans that referred to the speech, Abbey said.

The president will deliver his remarks at Julia R. Masterman Middle-High School in Philadelphia.  The White House released a text of the president's remarks "as prepared for delivery," which is available online.

"Last year's speech was wonderful with respect to two of the themes he addressed," Abbey said.  "The two themes are students taking responsibility for their education and each student has individual gifts unique to the individual student.  Those themes resonate with me and are consistent with what we teach our students."