Sensoring the President??

I consider my blog to cover pretty "safe" subjects. I've never really gotten into anything too controversial, as I've never felt this specific blog was the correct venue to express my views on those subjects.

Until now. (You knew it was coming, didn't you?)

Next Tuesday, President Obama plans to address the children of the nation in a speech. He has encouraged all children and schools to watch. Parents, however, have a different view. While some very much support their children watching a speech from the president, others don't want their kids to watch the president because they are afraid of what his message might contain.

As a teacher, my email was bogged down today with the correct "protocol" in handling this situation. The White House will release the text to the speech 24 hours before it is given. If we wish to view it in our classroom, we need to make the justification that it has valid curricular ties. Even then, if parents would not like their children to view the speech, they may opt out.

I did a little googling and confirmed my notion that this isn't the first time a president has addressed the children of the nation. Did those past presidents receive the same response? I don't care what your political views are - isn't part of getting an education exposing you to history and, gosh, maybe even a little politics? Isn't that reality?

Has our helicoptering style of overprotective parenting really come to this? We can't trust our children to watch the PRESIDENT? We sit in fear of what our nation's leader could taint our child's minds with? Seems very much against everything we stand for here in the USA.

For me, the scariest reality of this all is the message parents are sending to their children. Some send this message very vocally, while others send it through their actions:

Intolerance. We don't want our kids to listen to the opinion of a person whose views might differ from ours.

Disrespect. We don't honor our nation's leader, we turn our head the other way, and cease to acknowledge his opinion exists. We teach them that even though we elected a man through a fair system, that because "our choice" didn't win, we don't need to support him.

So how do you teach a class full of kids tolerance and respect if it's not something they see practiced at home to our nation's leader? Beats me.



Okay, I'm off my soapbox. But something about this struck a chord with me today.