Normally I am not surprised by things that get people’s hackles in an uproar when it comes to politics. This nation has become so polarized between Left-Right partisanship that things have taken on a master level of a playground battle of “I know you are but what am I?”
So when (mostly) the Right started going into convolutions over President Obama’s speech on Tuesday directed towards K-12 school children, at first I could not figure out what the big deal was. Then I started reading more about it and the more I read the more uncomfortable I became. Did I believe this was our equivalent of Stalin trying to brainwash our youth in believing that the only path to happiness was through the State? Of course not. But on a philosophical level, it just did not seem right the way it was set up.
Let me first go on record in saying that I am all for the President of the United States speaking to children especially on the importance of education. But this was turning into being much more. This speech actually came with a set curriculum designed by the Department of Education that teachers were supposed to use in conjunction with the speech.
From the reports that were leaked, not only was this a “welcome back to school” talk, but also a plea for school children to take on their part in civic responsibility for such things as global warming. Maybe that alone might not have been that bad, but one of the curriculum assignments for the elementary grades was to write a letter to themselves on ways that they could help the President make this a better country. And K-3 teachers are supposed to engage their students in talks about why it is important that we always listen to President.
Frankly I believe that the topic of civic responsibility would make for a great classroom discussion for the upper grades and debate the merits of the options the President talks about. But children from yournger grades are not cognitively able to use critical thinking skills. These young children are taught to simply follow whatever authority figures say – and no authority would be higher than the President – so they would have to take everything he says as the way it should be.
This is what I have concerns with.
Of course as soon as these things were leaked out, the curriculum was quickly changed to try and calm people down. At this point, I have no doubt that what the President will be saying on Tuesday will be incredibly watered down and to focus solely on the importance of education and staying in school. Then of course when it turns out to be non-controversial, the Left will be able to crow about how the Right was just blowing things out of proportion not taking into account the original plan. But we will see.
So from where I am sitting, the controversy was not that the President was speaking to school children but rather that it came with a set curriculum designed around the vision and philosophy of the President. Whether that vision is good or bad does not matter because it sets what could be a scary precident. I wonder if the people who are in favor of President Obama's speech would feel the same way if President Bush wanted to speak directly to students on his vision what makes a good citizen. (I think we all know the answer to that one)
The sad part is that I have no doubt that a lot of what will be said on Tuesday will hold a lot of merit and cover things that we could all get behind. But the very fact that there is a polarized controversy goes to show why this speach is probably a bad idea because now the actual message is going to get lost. This uproar show why the Framers did not want a Federally run education for this country. What is taught in our classrooms is and should be a local concern decided by each state and the by the individual community through their school boards.
Because this has caused so much controversy is why we need to shield our children from the ugliness of politics as long as we can – I just wish we were all that lucky.
[Photo taken from http://www.whitehouse.gov/ where you will also find more specifics on this speech]
