Obama message in local schools

Libby Middle School kids and various other Libby and Troy students watched President Barack Obama’s address to schoolchildren last week – a speech that initially drew fire from conservative groups and parents.

The White House released a transcript of the 18-minute address the day before the president delivered the speech to quell fears of parents who believed Obama would use the platform to push his political agenda.

The president urged students to try hard in school, listen to their parents and teachers and to overcome disadvantages to succeed. 

“It (the transcript) is completely benign and a-political,” said Troy High School principal Jeff Ralston on Tuesday morning last week before it aired. “There’s nothing wrong with the speech.”

Troy junior high and high school teachers could show Obama’s speech in their classrooms if they wished, Ralston said, and to respect the wishes of concerned parents, students could opt out by working on their homework in the library.

Libby High School principal Rik Rewarts said last week that he knew some teachers planned to tie the speech into their curriculum. Students in Advanced English, for example, were going to use the transcript of the speech to look for parallelisms and other literary devices.

Libby Middle School students watched the address as part of an assembly on Friday, tying the president’s message of overcoming obstacles to succeed with how the school is helping students with failing grades.

Principal Ron Goodman planned the assembly on Friday, instead of watching the address live, for a few reasons.

For one, he said it allowed parents time to read or watch the speech for themselves before it was presented to the kids. Also, once he knew how long the speech was, he could plan an assembly around it.

“We did it in a way that works for us,” Goodman said. 

Assistant principal Keith Ivers handled the sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade assembly, while Goodman led the fourth- and fifth-grade assembly.

Ivers prefaced Obama’s speech by mentioning that there had been concerns that the president was using the address “for some dire political reasons,” but that it was actually about “the value of education and, specifically, how it was important to his life.”

The parents of three or four students excused their children from the assembly.

The speech focused heavily on personal responsibility.

“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,” he said.

Obama pointed out that education is an important investment in one’s future.

“You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job,” he said. “You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.”

Due to a technological glitch, the middle-school group missed the last four minutes or so of the speech, but Ivers summarized the president’s message and explained what the school is doing to help students succeed.

In the first quarter of last school year, 22 percent of Libby Middle School students had at least one failing grade, Ivers said. The school implemented a mentor program for those students, and by the end of last school year, the number of students with a failing grade dropped to 13 percent.

This year, Ivers said, if a student continues to have trouble in school even with a mentor, the school will work with the parents and put the student on an academic plan.

“We don’t want to allow yourselves to become one of those likely dropouts,” Ivers said after Obama’s speech. “… The more education you have, the more you are able to do.”