*sigh* If people are going to have off the wall theories about why Obama is talking to kids I wish they would have interesting off the wall theories.

Ex. Obama is looking for next generation super soldiers and he will be playing recruiting messages that only someone with peak human hearing would catch. Or Aliens have disguised themselves as students and Obama's speech gives the Secret Service a chance to meet with them to discuss global domination.

In all seriousness, I believe there is no hidden agenda.

I don't believe there is, but the suggested curriculum activity of asking the kids to "help" the president may have been ill conceived, as there are millions of Americans who, while they share Obama's goal of improving educational opportunities, differ vehemently on his tactics. Someone who believes strongly that the solutions to our educational problems lie in state and local initiatives is not likely to take kindly to a heavyweight authority asking his children to help the president accomplish big government federal solutions.

The fact that the White house felt obliged to change those curriculum instructions obviously indicates that the point was well taken. Instead of asking how they can help Obama achieve his goals, the children are to be asked how they can achieve their own goals. It is likely closer to what was intended from the beginning.

One thing is clear, like it or not, there are a whole lot of folks who don't like or trust Obama. But isn't that the way it's always been? Who really cares about the children anyway, it's just another chance for the Republicans and Democrats to take shots at each other.

I think it is ridiculous that parents are so against their children listening to the President's speech. What harm do they think this will do to their children? This never would have been an issue if it was Bush or Reagan, but since it's Obama it's a big deal.

I do not think there is a "hidden message" in Obama's proposed speech. The parents are over reacting due to media propaganda whose job is to sensationalize everything so that they can keep up the ratings. They should be thankful that a president is trying to focus on some of the changes needed for education. The children will be the one to suffer because they will behind in school for missing class for a whole day due to a possible less than 1 hour speech. Parents need to be accountable and set priorities and examples for these kids. Even if they don't like the messages of the President they can use the time to show how to disagree with dignity. Have an open discussion with the kids about how they felt about the message at the end of the day it is about the education of the kids and how they respond to the President's message. Maybe even the parent's will learn a message from "mouth of babes."

It is certainly a sad state of affairs when our nation is so divided. So many people putting so much effort into tearing each other down. Our President should be respected and supported. I did not vote for Barack Obama, nor do I share many of his political opinions. I disagree with many of his decisions, especially based on the speed of which they have been made and the amount of money being borrowed to fund them.

I did vote for George W Bush and also disagreed with how he grew the federal government, among many other things.

I have a hard time commenting on the video without actually seeing it. I'm no proponent of a nationalized system of education. I hope what the president says is motivating and uplifting. We need more encouragement and vision in our education system.

Is President Obama using this video to spread his agenda? Possibly. Is that a socialist agenda? I hope not. Is it an agenda of working together and helping each other? I hope so. Does this require government involvement? I hope not. Should our young people listen to the President of their country?: Yes.

I expect there will be many who find offense in the presentation. I expect I will take issue with some of what is presented. I don't think this is avoidable. Overall, I like the idea of our President speaking to our youth.

Back to the original question. Is there a secret motive? Without seeing it I will say no. Is there a political motive? Hopefully not. With President Obama express his ideology? Almost certainly to some extent. If this is based on common goals such as unity, potential and hope, then we should be better for it.

BILL CLINTOON FOR THE GODWIN AWARD!

and bonus points for cheapgamer for the alien conspiracy theory.

Maybe he's talking to children so he has an excuse to dumb down his language, thereby making it easy for the bottom rungs of uneducated society to understand him.

parents who'd keep their kids out of school because of this should be ashamed. Remember the good ol' days when people would encourage their kids to do well in school so that maybe, if they did exceptionally well, they could grow up to be President? (well, the boys anyway, ...sigh...)

Who'd want their kid to grow up and become POTUS these days?

either way, of course,
it's really just a political move.

I guess there are two ways of viewing this, one is you are a conservative and only Republicans should be respected or give speeches, therefore Obama is trying to indoctrinate the kids to his radical far left socialist agenda, He and his Ilk ( you knew I was going to work Ilk in there) want to indoctrinate the young so they will become socialist members of ACORN ( one of the biggest threats to America in the CONservative mind) and further push his radical agenda starting with Socialized medicine, when the CONservative mind knows that the government cant run anything but the private sector can charge 50$ or more a day to feed troops and these same CONservatives never complain about how big business cant run anything when they gouge the taxpayer or make a defective product, and don’t forget the banks that bought up funny money loans, you know that ones that originated with companies like Countrywide and then were bought up by regular banks, loans with no stated income or ability to pay which we are all paying for now, but the CONs don’t rant about how these private companies cant be trusted. I just hope the next time they need Police, Fire or some other government service they reject that socialism, why should I have to pay if you house catches fire, put your own fire out, and the next time you are robbed, raped or someone in your family is murdered solve your own crime its anyone else’s responsibility.

The second view is this is what Presidents do, and what Obama is trying to do is engage the nations young, I guess the real issue here is if you have a D in front of your name you don’t have the right to do this and if your Name is Bush or Reagan ( who I voted for the first time I could vote in 1984) you do have the right, if you are a Democrat in the conservative mind you are not to be respected, when your candidate severed in Vietnam the other parties convention attendees will mock his service by wearing Purple band aids, when your guy does not serve in the case of Bill Clinton but tells you he did not agree with the war he will be attacked but guys like Cheney and Limbaugh duck out of service and laugh at others misfortunes, as a matter of fact if you look at all the GOP presidential footage from 2008 you will find Mitt Romney got a kick out of buying up companies and firing workers so he could have more.
There is no answer here, I personally believe that Obama like Reagan and Bush has the right to do this. But if you are CONservative you will not like Obama and there really is not much that Obama can do to get you change your mind. CONservatives just don’t like him and will not, when they nit pick over handshakes, pointing out that there are Muslims living in the United States and reminding Muslims that when you attack us you attack your own kindred, when they quibble over a birth certificate, when they question your taking your wife to New York but did not mind their guy having a ship moved out of sight of the San Diego Skyline so he can declare mission accomplished, (by the way he did not fly that plane) and none of these people complained about the cost or the White House changing their story, how can anything the Right says be seen as legitimate criticism.

These same people keep on talking about ACORN and yet cannot tell us why the mortgage problems are the worst in California, Arizona, Nevada, and Florida, when if ACORN is largely responsible then the problems should have started in places where ACORN is the most active like the Northeast and Chicago and other Cities in that region.
Again because it bears repeating the real issue here is who is giving the speech, in the CONservative mind there is nothing that Obama can do to make them happy besides getting Impeached that’s how they think, if the economy falters is because of Obama’s policies, if it gets better it is in spite of his policies, with that type of thinking you cant win. If you had a D in front of you name and told a CONservative it was a sunny day they would look for any cloud, or keep you engaged in discussion until one rolls in and then tell you its not sunny. that’s how they operate.

I could have given a briefer answer but the conservative movement has changed from the days of Goldwater to where it is all about opposing you just for the sake of opposing you.

there is no secret agenda, just a president doing what presidents do.

I do not have children, but if I did I would be very fearful of obama's agenda.
This reminds me of a history course in college...the history of Germany.
Hilter knew he had to control the minds of the young people. He set up classes, summer camps and marches. You may know the results, he created World War II. I believe obama and his liberal ilk want to do the same as far as capturing the minds and allegiance of the young people so they will do his bidding. No other President has done this form of assault on the minds of the young people. This is a pure propaganda play. This is very dangerous and should not be tolerated!