I have written a number of posts for this blog urging President Obama to use the power of his bully pulpit to promote self reliance, education, and accomplishment. We need a cultural shift in this country toward these three values. This president appeals to young people and those that consider themselves disenfranchised in ways no other leader in this nation ever has. President Obama combines a unique combination of speaking skills and credibility with his target audience. He can deliver this message in a way that will cause people to respond like never before.
I believe that his ability in this area is so great that anything less than a 100% dedication to promoting an agenda of self reliance, education, and accomplishment, is a waste of one of the greatest opportunities this nation has seen.
The President announced that on September 8, he will speak directly to the nation’s schoolchildren about the value of education. This is wonderful. I urge more of this.
I have to point out here that it is tragic that our nation’s school children need to hear a speech like this. Teaching children the value of education should be parents’ job. Unfortunately, like so many other parental responsibilites, this job is not being done. As a result, the children of responsible parents will be the ones sacrificing for the failures of others. As my wife pointed out, this speech will take time out of our children’s school day, which is already tightly scheduled. Teachers and administrators will be forced to rush through material or skip something to meet this new demand on their time. That’s fine for the many kids that need to hear this speech but not at all okay for the others.
One of my children’s schools has made what my wife and I believe is the correct decision for our school; they elected not to show the President’s speech in school. The White House has wisely set up alternatives for children and parents to see the speech outside of school, hopefully together. This is something our school superintendent pointed out as a possibility. I doubt that the kids that need to hear this speech will hear it anywhere but in school. The Principal’s decision satisfies me but it will anger plenty of parents that disagree. In fact, this entire issue places school administrators and teachers at the center of a major controversy brewing over the speech.
The President’s critics are furious about this speech. They are howling that the President is going to brainwash our children into health care advocates and socialists. They are also terrified that the President wants to encourage kids to take part in his public service programs.
Calm down folks.
If President Obama says anything that you disagree then tell your children you disagree with the President. Turn it into a healthy discussion on the freedom of ideas. If you can’t do that, then the wrong ideas are already in your kids head and it’s too late.
As for the promoting public service; if this were a Republican president promoting the voluntary military, then conservatives would be applauding and liberals would be screaming. If the President does encourage your child to participate in public service, guide your kid toward activities that will help people learn to help themselves. Remember the line, teach a man to fish and you will feed him for life?
What should be more of an American value than education? Education is fundamental to self-reliance and accomplishment. This President can deliver that message to people that have never heard it before and will never hear it if not from this President.
It is tragedy that kids don’t get this message at home, and it is inefficient to use valuable school time to deliver the message. Unfortunately, it may be the only way that a lot of America’s children get a positive message about education.
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I was stunned that there seemed to be so much anger about a president who wanted to encourage children to work hard in school to obtain the benefits of a good education. What on earth is going on here? The discourse has become strident and completely overblown. The president, like no other, is directly encouraging people to be more self reliant, responsible, and dedicated to self improvement and public service. He must be a socialist!!!????? What?? He must be trying to brain wash our children!!! WHAT??? Please!
The president is using his influence to inspire and motivate children to learn–many school administrators are quite willing to use assembly time for this purpose. There are others, I’m sure who see the speech as politically motivated, which is a bit cynical but probably not entirely incorrect. In our polarized society there are those who would thwart this administration in trying to accomplish anything. The bigger issue may be the highly scheduled nature of our schools. There’s no time for one speech early in the school year, kids have to eat their snack while they work because there’s no time, and God forbid they actually have time to run around outside or they’ll never perform on the tests!
The mindset of “conservative” (for want of a better word) America is an Orwellian nightmare. I am really confused by their interpretaion of the Constitution (isn’t it’s design meant for it to evolve), the horrors of anything considered “socialist” (isn’t our system a social experiment of sorts since it never existed before) and their desperation to not be “One Nation Under God”. If, as I believe, their radicalism is based on the fundamental differences that have existed since day one of our country’s existence, then say so. Bring it to light and deal with it. Thinly disguised euphemisms, code words and phrases, slight of hand gimmicks, don’t work anymore. What do they truly mean by “Return America to it’s “original” intent? That makes some of us nervous.
Let Broward County, Florida be the shining example. “If your children fail to watch the “Message” they will be disciplined! Since 1966 the SAT scores in this country have declined under the tutelage of the union controlled Public School venue.
His speech to “promote self-reliance, education, and accomplishment” is another obfuscation: Self-reliance as long as it is on the government, education – you will learn what we tell you to learn, and accomplishment – what we choose for you to accomplish.
“This president appeals to young people and those that consider themselves disenfranchised in ways no other leader in this nation ever has.” – Division, class and economic envy.
“President Obama combines a unique combination of speaking skills and credibility with his target audience.” – The King has no clothes, no plan except to circumvent decentralized authority and individual choice and responsibilities.
“If President Obama says anything that you disagree then tell your children you disagree with the President. Turn it into a healthy discussion on the freedom of ideas.” – Dissenting opinions will, by and large, not be tolerated in the public school arena.
“It is tragedy that kids don’t get this message at home, and it is inefficient to use valuable school time to deliver the message. Unfortunately, it may be the only way that a lot of America’s children get a positive message about education.” – Much like Al Gore’s unbiased opinion about “Global Warming” (“An Inconvenient Truth”) Make no mistake, there is an agenda centralized authority and limited freedom of choice.
R. Nicoll Pratt, Jr. MD, “I was stunned that there seemed to be so much anger about a president who wanted to encourage children to work hard in school to obtain the benefits of a good education.” – their education. No school choice. No school vouchers. No choice. Only minion acolytes to worship at the alter of secular truth.
The King has no clothes, only a cloak!
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