obama with mic jan 18 2008Tomorrow our president is going to address the students of our nation. However, a significant portion of our children will not hear what he has to say. Many parents are pulling their children from their classrooms because they’re afraid that our president is going to indoctrinate our children. Many schools are not even showing the speech because parents have thrown a fit and they are afraid of the backlash. They’re afraid that our president’s views on abortion, health care, marriage and other policies might defile our children.

I’m not really sure I know how I feel about this. The first thoughts that come to my mind are not good ones. I understand that people don’t agree with our president’s policies and stance on moral issues, but is this behavior a little juvenile? The majority of parents and people making a stink about this are conservative families who are still sore about loosing the election last November and here’s a good way to stick it to ’em!

Before you judge me or this post, read on.

Here is what the speech is about.
Here is pre-speech and post-speech activities and discussions for K-6th graders.
Here is pre-speech and post-speech activities and discussions for 7th-12th graders.

So tell me, where is the socialist agenda? Where is the health care agenda? Seriously. It is a freaking speech from the president to the kids. The speech is meant to encourage kids to step up, take ownership of their education and make learning a priority. This is a good thing. Many kids will not forget this moment, where they felt the president was talking to them. So many kids dream of one day being the president, this could be a great motivator educationally. If this was really about the speech or it’s content, then I’d understand… but I don’t think it is. It’s about what we feel about him and it’s an opportunity to speak out.

However, I do feel that it is our right as free people to protest, to speak up and to practice our freedoms. If this is your way of protesting, of showing the president “I don’t approve” then so be it. I can actually respect that. However, I’m not convinced that this is what all the commotion is about. People have turned it into something much more dramatic, saying that they’re afraid of how our president is going to brainwash our children with his socialist agenda. That, in my opinion, is ridiculous. Certainly we has parents have the influence in our children’s lives to teach them right from wrong and how to know when they’re hearing something that doesn’t line up with what we know to be true. Here’s a great post on how a conservative family might approach this situation.

Personally, I feel that this has given conservatives a black eye (if we didn’t have one already). This wasn’t a protest of people communicating to their government that they don’t approve, this seemed much more messy and ugly than that.

These are just opinions that don’t really matter. 🙂