If you could ask President Barack Obama anything, what would you ask? (Tell us at editor@DiversityInc.com.)
Americans are finally getting their questions answered by President Obama, who held the first-ever presidential live Internet video chat on March 26, in which he allowed webcast viewers to ask questions.
"It makes sense--he's keeping with the times, following suit, or even leading the way," Alex de Carvalho, an adjunct professor at University of Miami's School of Communications, told reporters.
Watch the video below to find out why hosting an interactive web chat is important to Obama.
More than 100,000 questions were submitted, with the idea that Obama would answer those that were most popular, reports The New York Times. Approximately 3.6 million questions were sent leading up to the live chat.
Readers' Comments
Your opinions and thoughts...
Posted Monday Mar 30, 2009 by
Guest;
I want to ask President Obana why he keeps talking about teachers on T.V.
My students watched him on T.V. and wanted to turn it off when he started saying he was getting rid of bad teachers. There theory was if teachers are bad give them remedial help do you get rid of bad students no, you keep them in schools and let them destroy the learning environment.
My concern when is anyone going to make parents responsible for their kids in school. Why should a school be penalized when parents do not do their part. For example, parents do not make their children attend school regularly, do homework, buy school supplies, pay their lunch debt, buy gym uniforms, take to the doctors when sick, or even the free clinic etc. I think its time parents are held accountable for what they send to school.
I would like to tell Obama to stop beating teachers up. We take whatever gets of that bus and try to teach that child and mold them into a productive citizens.
I am also concerned with these short cuts to certifications that he is creating to increase Science and Math teachers. What he is creating is a population that is seeking employment until the job crisis is over and then they leave, or many quit the first week and you end up with long term subs in the classroom. Its' not fair to the students.
I along with my fellow teachers work very hard and probably spend half my check each pay in my classroom. I am fed up with this new mess Obama is saying. He has really made me regret my vote for him.
You think his interest would be to get the special needs back in their classrooms so we can get our kids ready to compete with ASIA in math and science. Teachers are stuck with these kids, behavior plans, I.E.P's with no assistance many times. The solution from administrators is flex grouping. What a joke? Its not fair to the gifted student, above average, average and below average to be stuck with behavioral kids, down syndrome kids. These kids should be in a class learning survival and basic functional kids. They should not consume a teachers individual time with needing assistance for this and that. It is 30 kids in a room so why should this kid get the majority of time. There not in the majority of classes. Schools need to teach not babysitt for full inclusion. If you are not going to send the funding for a resource teacher and a special educator then don't send the kid. If teachers wanted to teach Special Education they would have majored in that subject.
That is one area we have not mastered and need to follow Asia and place these kids back in the Special Education classes and create more trade schools and alternative schools. Everyone does not belong in the general population. Everyone is not made to attend college. When is America going to realize that we have a lot of people unemployed because we have stopped building trade schools in high school. Does anyone care about American Public Schools or are we going to keep using the Teachers as scapegoats.
.
Posted Monday Mar 30, 2009 by
Guest;
Maybe he talks about teachers because they allow our students to succeed with papers written like your letter. Please proof read in addition to using spell check. If more teachers presented themselves as professionals, more students could become better teachers.
.
Posted Monday Mar 30, 2009 by
Guest;
First of all I hope this person is not an English teacher or teaches children how to spell or type. Poor gammar, poor spelling in this comment is scarey if that person is teaching our children. I agree with President Obama on some level that there are teachers that need to be weeded out. But I believe the programs for the special needs should stay in place. I am just shocked though at the spelling and grammar in that comment and wonder if perhaps that person is not one of the teachers Obama is wanting to weed out. I also agree that the parents should be held more accountable for their child's behavior and manners. But it is sad to me to think my child would be taught by this person that does have such poor grammar and spelling skills. Did they proof read it before they sent it? Proof positive someone needs to do some weeding. Move forward President Obama!
.
Posted Monday Mar 30, 2009 by
Guest;
All during his campaign, he kept talking about bring our jobs back home to America. Quite outsourcing the jobs, but since he has been in office, I never once have heard him mention this topic again. Was this just a ploy to get elected to the White House? And by the way, both my husband and I voted for him.
.
Posted Monday Mar 30, 2009 by
Guest;
My question to ask the President is this: Why is that people who have worked hard all of their lives in this country (America) and contributed to the Social Security/Medicare system, who are now elderly and disabled and receiving Social Security Disability, which provides Medicare, yet $96.00 is deducted from their Social Security Disability check each month, can't even qualify to receive a decent amount in Food Stamps to feed themselves? I realize the Food Stamp amount depends on the number of dependents you have and your income. Nevertheless, I think it's scandalous when your income is fourteen thousand per year which is well below the poverty level can only receive $14.00 per month in Food Stamps for a family of one.
.
Posted Monday Mar 30, 2009 by
Guest;
Some of the things that you should be made aware of is that our government mandated all the American auto makers to come up with the electric cars back in the 1990's. GM constructed a new car from the ground up that would be green and electrical. In the beginning they only leased the cars and didn't push to sell them. When the leases were up, they told the leasees that they could not buy these vehicles. GM decided to crush all of them after they decided they didn't like them, because they were to efficient and rarely had break downs or needed parts. The auto industry heavily relies on the service and parts replacement departments as about 40% of their income.
Our government had given GM alone, over 13 million dollars in tax payers money to create the cars and now the auto makers were going to destroy them. Our state government also poured in additional millions of dollars of our tax money into building unified plug in outlets. This was so that any auto could charge at any station, meaning that any brand or make of car could go to any charger instead of having to find a Ford one for the Fords, a GM one for the GM's, etc, ...
When it was discovered that GM was about to crush their 80 perfectly good new cars that were invented and produced with our tax dollars, the tax payers initiated a protest in front of GM's plant. The tax payers went and found 80 buyers for all of the cars and offered to pay GM over $1.9 million dollars, but GM declined the offer.
Little was done to prevent this atrocity. The cars were later taken away and crushed. If GM is not capable of handling appropriately a few MILLION dollars, how can you see it fit to give them BILLIONS of dollars? The auto makers took away our freedom of choice and forced us to keep buying these high pollutant cars to help the oil tycoons like our ex-president and others, to boost their sales and keep them filthy stinkin' rich.
The U.S. buys 60% of our oil from countries in which we have our soldiers fighting and getting killed. In essence, we are paying for their bullets and bombs to kill our people.
So in conclusion, I'm now wondering why our new president, Mr. Obama, considering giving this company any stimulus packet? These auto makers did not make any good decisions or use any common sense over the last two decades and this is why they are in trouble financially now.
How can they be trusted to use wisely now 14 BILLION dollars, when they were unable to successfully utilize properly, over 15 MILLION dollars?
PLEASE RESPOND!
.
Posted Monday Mar 30, 2009 by
Guest;
Dear Mr. President,
I just wanted to say that I am proud that you have become the President of the United States and that I was able to witness this event in my life time. My question is, with the new stimulus program that has been pasted, are single mothers who own their own homes with financial hardship going to be allowed to take out a partial claim for money owed on the mortgage as well as be given a loan modification to be able to keep there home? I am being told by my bank that I can only do one or the other; that I can not do both. I am also being told that since I have an FHA loan, that I can not have my loan extended to 40 years at a lower fixed rate to reduce my monthly payments to an amount that I can afford. Can you please explain to me under this new program, as a single mother, what am I entitled to? I do not want to loose my home and any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you very much for allowing me this opportunity to ask my question and I look forward to hearing from you soon.
I want to ask President Obana why he keeps talking about teachers on T.V.
My students watched him on T.V. and wanted to turn it off when he started saying he was getting rid of bad teachers. There theory was if teachers are bad give them remedial help do you get rid of bad students no, you keep them in schools and let them destroy the learning environment.
My concern when is anyone going to make parents responsible for their kids in school. Why should a school be penalized when parents do not do their part. For example, parents do not make their children attend school regularly, do homework, buy school supplies, pay their lunch debt, buy gym uniforms, take to the doctors when sick, or even the free clinic etc. I think its time parents are held accountable for what they send to school.
I would like to tell Obama to stop beating teachers up. We take whatever gets of that bus and try to teach that child and mold them into a productive citizens.
I am also concerned with these short cuts to certifications that he is creating to increase Science and Math teachers. What he is creating is a population that is seeking employment until the job crisis is over and then they leave, or many quit the first week and you end up with long term subs in the classroom. Its' not fair to the students.
I along with my fellow teachers work very hard and probably spend half my check each pay in my classroom. I am fed up with this new mess Obama is saying. He has really made me regret my vote for him.
You think his interest would be to get the special needs back in their classrooms so we can get our kids ready to compete withASIA in math and science. Teachers are stuck with these kids, behavior plans, I.E.P's with no assistance many times. The solution from administrators is flex grouping. What a joke? Its not fair to the gifted student, above average, average and below average to be stuck with behavioral kids, down syndrome kids. These kids should be in a class learning survival and basic functional kids. They should not consume a teachers individual time with needing assistance for this and that. It is 30 kids in a room so why should this kid get the majority of time. There not in the majority of classes. Schools need to teach not babysitt for full inclusion. If you are not going to send the funding for a resource teacher and a special educator then don't send the kid. If teachers wanted to teach Special Education they would have majored in that subject.
That is one area we have not mastered and need to followAsia and place these kids back in the Special Education classes and create more trade schools and alternative schools. Everyone does not belong in the general population. Everyone is not made to attend college. When is America going to realize that we have a lot of people unemployed because we have stopped building trade schools in high school. Does anyone care about American Public Schools or are we going to keep using the Teachers as scapegoats.