Politics / Barack Obama White House Backs Off on Lesson Plan Teachers won't ask kids to say 'how they can help the president' By Nick McMaster, Newser Staff Posted Sep 3, 2009 5:45 PM CDT Copied Heather Renehan, second left, poses with her daughters, from left, Sami, Jessi and Ally, at their home in Richmond, Va., Monday, Aug. 17, 2009. (AP Photo/Steve Helber) In response to criticism over a speech President Obama plans to deliver to schoolchildren Tuesday, the White House will make the text of the speech available for review by teachers and school officials a day earlier, the Dallas Morning News reports. The administration also changed a widely criticized part of the proposed lesson plan designed to accompany the speech: it originally suggested pre-K through sixth-grade students make lists of “how they can help the president.” The new plan now calls for them to discuss how they “can achieve their short-term and long-term education goals.” (More Barack Obama stories.) Report an error