LIHU‘E — President Barack Obama’s speech to the nation’s students on what was the first day of class for many of them was largely not aired in Hawai‘i, the state where he was born and went through much of his
LIHU‘E — President Barack Obama’s speech to the nation’s students on what was the first day of class for many of them was largely not aired in Hawai‘i, the state where he was born and went through much of his schooling, education officials said this week.
State Department of Education spokeswoman Sandra Goya said Wednesday that because the speech was aired at 6 a.m. Hawaiian time, it could not be shown live in schools across the islands, and said the state followed past practice in not taping it and rebroadcasting it statewide.
Asked if preemptive complaints from parents seeking to protect their children from “indoctrination” factored into the decision, Goya said, “We got calls from both sides, but certainly our decision was based on past practice.”
Obama, in what opponents worried would be a controversial address at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Va., encouraged students to work hard, stay in school, and wash their hands to prevent the flu from spreading.
“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,” Obama said.
“We need every single one of you to develop your talents and your skills and your intellect so you can help us old folks 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,” Obama said.
Goya said the text of the speech and Web video of it were made available to the schools on the Department of Education Web site, which links to the White House Web site. She said teachers were given the option to work the speech into their lesson plans.
“The good thing about the technology today, it’s there for everyone to see and parents can view it with their children. Kids are very tech-savvy too so they can probably watch it on their iPhones,” Goya said, laughing.
She said one of the reasons schools were given limited information was because the state did not receive any formal notification of the speech, finding out late last week when media outlets began inquiring about plans to broadcast it.
“Knowing earlier could have allowed us to inform our schools instead of communicating with them on Thursday,” Goya said.
A representative of Waimea High School that asked to remain nameless said that the school did not broadcast the speech live due to the six-hour time difference and the address being aired while students slept or got ready for school.
Attempts to reach Kaua‘i and Kapa‘a High Schools early this week were unsuccessful.
For more information, visit doe.k12.hi.us and www.whitehouse.gov.
