Join the conversation

Parents! Draw your children in close! Shield their ears and eyes! President Obama's speech is now available, and the danger of indoctrination has never been higher! Here's a snippet. (Warning--make sure your children aren't reading this!):

"But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed."

Stalin himself never said anything so horrifying.

Those that have politicized the President's address to students and sought to block students from seeing it should be ashamed and should seek some form of idealogical de-programming therapy. Can we all take a few steps back? The polar icecaps may be melting but the ideological ones are freezing solid.

Hm... we should seek de-programming therapy. This shows me the level of respect some public school staff have for the decisions of the parents. What happened to all that mushy tolerance stuff I hear about? I guess parents only receive that from public schools if their kids are gay. If the parents or children have a different political viewpoint, I suppose open derision is ok.

But my kids? They need to be "tolerant" of everyone else's viewpoint while you scoff at theirs.

I am no fan of President Obama's policies, but this flap over talking to our school children one time is ridiculous. He may be doing this because he is having problems with many of his policy proposals and needs a shot in the arm, but his message was something that all children need to hear on a regular basis. Unfortunately, our society seems to have reached a level where many are expecting so much to be given to them. Our children cannot be infested with that philosophy and expect to achieve.

Mrs. C...

Two points.

1.) Assuming that children should stay in school is political? What, is that a terrible message to send? Where would you have them be? On the street? It's great to homeschool, but that's not an option for most parents. NO ONE understands the message "stay in school" as some kind of compulsion. Gosh, it's motherhood and apple pie stuff!

2.) Obama is "sickening" because he invokes his Christianity here and tells people overseas about his "Muslim heritage?" WHY? So what if he tells people about that? Would you have him repudiate it? I'm a Christian of Jewish heritage, and I'm proud of both! I can understand where many of my Jewish friends are coming from--and they know that--but it doesn't make me any less Christian.

1) YES, telling children to stay in school is political. Homeschooling is an option for almost everyone, but that's probably irrelevant...the whole idea that children must be "educated" is political.

Remove the compulsion, and you at least have a real choice. And do you know what? Quite a number would choose public education anyway, but the kids that are there would be ones who WANT to be there, or whose parents would reasonably be invested in the system. Only think how much better that would be for everyone.

Really, if education were no longer compulsory tomorrow, I can't envision a mass exodus from public schools. Not that it should matter if there were! I think we need to back away from seeing children as state property and the state deciding how they ought be raised. When it's mandatory for public-schooled children to get eye exams from an optometri$t before third and fifth grades, what does that say about lawmakers' trust in parents being able to decide when Johnny gets an eye exam?

Then, what I've just typed probably *looks* very political. I'm really in favour of eye exams. I just don't like to be told *exactly* when they must be given!

But really, I don't want my GOVERNMENT officials telling me to have my kids stay in school. Or eat apple pie LOL. And this isn't so much a problem with public schools per se as it is a problem with governmental interference in about anything you could imagine.

Incidentally,

2) What sickens me about Obama using the "Christian" label is that it is obvious political pandering. If he's so "Christian," why doesn't James Dobson (or whoever... pick your favourite Christian of influence) think he's the greatest thing since sliced bread? Most conservative Christians dislike him and see him as worse than a phony. In fact, I think that's a prerequisite for church membership in some places: belief in the Trinity and dislike for Obama. (LOL, only half kidding!!)

You sure didn't hear him talking about his "Muslim heritage," bowing before the Saudis and stating that we have more Muslims here than in many majority nations during the campaign, did you? Me neither. He used Jesus when he called himself a Christian during the campaign, pimped his name out if you will, for political purposes. And I find that sickening.

If you are Jewish, BTW, my understanding of Scripture is that we are grafted onto YOUR branch, not the other way 'round. Jews are the only ones who don't have to change their religion to become Christians; it's just that they realize that Yeshua is Messiah. You get to be Jewish AND Christian. But see, for me, I'm recognizing that atheism and Christianity can't exist in the same person. So I had to drop the atheism.

Mmm... CAN you "drop" atheism? When atheism presupposes there's nothing to "drop?" Well... you know what I mean.

BTW, there are many people who don't like the "stay in school" message. Maybe you don't hear too many of them, though. :]

http://spunkyhomeschool.blogspot.com/2009/09/get-homeschooled.html

There we go! Spunky. She's sort of a middle of the road kind of person. :]

I'm sorry, but I was completely appauled by the uproar. I understand that originally the lesson plans called for children to answer ridiculous questions pertaining to what they can do for Obama. But isn't it our responsibility as an educator or as a parent for children to see something like this and let THEM decide. Aren't we being a bit hypocritical if we're making decisions for our kids? Wouldn't that make us an "oppressive" microcosm of our own government? Wouldn't that make US Hitler? I do believe it's very important for children to make decisions on their own; as a future educator I believe it's my responsibilty to inform the uninformed so that the uninformed can have a true right to hold an opinion without citing either fox or msnbc as the ultimate source of truth. I can understand taking your younger children out of class, but i still feel it's important to watch a speech of such magnitute being delivered by an extremely charasmatic individual in an extremely tansitional period in our society. What does that teach children when you disregard a message from the PRESIDENT? To me...it would seem as if the presidency is irrelevant; his opinion does not matter. What opportunity does that leave kids for interpretation? To think critically? All it really does is pass an unbelievably unfair judgment upon someone trying to make a change in an incredibly partisan world. Disregard blue or red and provide an opporunity to learn and an opporunity to be inspired if you CHOOSE TO BE, because most kids won't understand policy if you don't let them try. And I think we're forgetting that this speech is for our KIDS, not for us. And indoctrination? Really? If you want to talk about brainwashing, consult VH1 or MTV...goodness. I surfed past the MTV Video Music Awards the other night, and...wow. I'd rather have my kid emulating a president who emphasizes hard work and self-reliance then Lady GaGa who dresses like clothes are going out of style. I understand the parental need to protect, but I'll never understand the parental instict to deny an opporunity to learn. When we do this, we inevitably create little partisan versions of ourselves who will never give bipartisanship a chance because Mom and Dad hate Republicans and think that they don't care about anyone and want police the world, or Mom and Dad hate Democrats because they're whiny socialist hippies. Either way, the status quo will remain the same until we let kids learn about politics on their own. This is why kids are less and less involved- their opinions have been formed for them. What fun is that? When I teach, I hope kids get another opportunity like this; to learn from a President and choose their own destiny because THEY want to, not because someone else does. No more spinning, let kids be kids, let them involve themselves, and let a dang president talk to kids about BASIC FUNDAMENTALS FOR SUCCESS IN OUR SOCIETY. Kids are smart if we let them be...so...let's give them the opportunity.

Mr. B, respect for an office an individual holds does not necessarily translate into respect for his opinions. It also doesn't translate into a carte blanche to speak to my children at any given time. I highly doubt parents are like Hitler when they refuse to let their children see a presidential address. (Are you kidding??) Last I checked, parents are not government. Short of severe physical abuse, they ought not be accountable to anyone for how they raise their own children. You'd think that most educators *should* be supportive of parents opting out of this exercise. Seems to me that ed. staff like to throw that "parental involvement" phrase around and pretend they'd love to see it. They just don't like what it really looks like when it shows up at the schoolhouse door.

I hear you, Mark, that politicians and others are using situations for their own gain. I get the emails from groups all the time trying to get me to panic and send them money. :p

But I think my point in response to this post that "hard work" and "responsibility" are hardly codewords for "socialism," just as criticism of the president or his policies ought not be considered code for "racism" or "hate." The speech *as released* is not problematic, but I am not alone in thinking this either was not the first draft, or that the people who wrote the helpful "what can you do for our Great Leader" curriculum got a bit carried away. Either way, it is a source of concern.

Grant you there are the extremists. Among them are the folks who think parents who opted their children out of the speech are unfit parents.

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/mark-finkelstein/2009/09/05/harwood-parents...

Best wishes back! Thanks!