‘He’s Our Man, Yes We Can!’: Pro-Obama Song Taught to Kindergarteners at TX School
Kindergarteners at a Texas elementary school were sent home with lyrics to a pro-President Barack Obama song that included such lines as “Barack Obama is the man” and “He’s our man, yes we can!” The song, part of a Black History Month program, was forwarded from a parent at Tipps Elementary School in Houston to Joe “Pags” Pagliarulo, a nationally syndicated radio host and frequent fill-in for Glenn Beck. Included with the lyrics was an apparent memo to kindergarten teachers that said kindergarteners would be “required” to learn the chant for the program [all spelling errors below are original]:
After receiving the lyrics, Pagliarulo sent the following email to Pam Redd, principal of Tipps Elementary School:
Listen to Pagliarulo discuss the song during his radio program:
The Tipps Elementary principal’s office would not comment on the matter, directing all inquiries to the communications department at the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District. Kelly Durham, the district’s assistant superintendent for communications, defended the song during a telephone interview with The Blaze and called it “an instructional activity to honor Black History Month.” The kindergartners will be perform it during an evening school program, she said. Durham said each grade level was assigned a different historical figure to profile, and the kindergarteners got Obama — an appropriate figure because “he’s the president of the United States.” Durham said she knew one other grade level had been assigned Rosa Parks, but did not know who the remaining grades received. She disputed the characterization that it was a “requirement” for kindergarteners to learn the song, saying all students were given permission slips for their parents to sign before they were allowed to take part. “As a parent, you would have the right to say I don’t want my child participating in this,” Durham said. She said she didn’t know whether the permission slips detailed what the activity would involve, and said she hadn’t heard whether any parents disagreed with the song. Of the school’s 194 kindergarteners, only 25 will be participating in the program — a number Durham said is typical for an evening school activity, and not necessarily reflective of parents’ feelings on the subject matter. “They [parents] understand that President Obama is the president and he’s the first African American president and February is Black History Month,” she said. Durham said she did not know who wrote the chant or whether it was approved by a school administrator before it was distributed to students. She told The Blaze the version used by teachers was “different” from the one sent to Pagliarulo, but said she did not know how. Addressing the song on his show, Pagliarulo called it a clear case of “proselytizing” and indoctrination. “Am I suggesting mentioning the first black president of the United States should not have been included in the program? No,” Pagliarulo told The Blaze. “What I‘m saying is having your kids and mine bow down to his majesty and propping him up as ’the man‘ and ’yes we can‘ and ’thinking out of the box‘ and ’answering every call‘ and pretending that’s somehow a lesson in black history is historically wrong and not the job.” This post has been updated with additional comments from the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District. (h/t Joe “Pags” Pagliarulo) © 2012 TheBlaze LLC http://www.theblaze.com |