White House Backs Off on Lesson Plan

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.”