President Address to Students

Next week President Obama is going to deliver an address to students across the country. I just found out about this on the news today. I'm slightly astonished, but not overly surprised, to hear that there is a bit of outrage about this. From what I've heard, it sounds like a speech that most students should be hearing from their parents and educators anyway.

“The goal of the speech and the lesson plans is to challenge students to work hard in school, to not drop out and to meet short-term goals like behaving in class, doing their homework and goals that parents and teachers alike can agree are noble,” spokesman Tommy Vietor told FOXNews.com yesterday. “This isn’t a policy speech. This is a speech designed to encourage kids to stay in school.”

If the President sticks to those goals, then it seems to be a laudable speech to make to students at the beginning of the school year. The questions that teachers have been given for follow up are questions that students should be asking after reading any book or hearing any speech or given any facts for the most part. Questions like "What's being asked of me?" or "What does this mean?"

Those who are up in arms fear that the President is going to try to indoctrinate their kids with socialism, at least from what I've read and heard. My question is why do we have so much fear over views that may be different than ours? If we're afraid of what the President might say to them, then why do we let our children have exposure to anything out there--other people, the news, books, etc.? I mentioned this earlier when talking about Anders going to Kindergarten, but if we as parents are doing our job, what fear do we have? Do we not trust our children to listen and make their own good decisions? Do we not discuss with our children the things they are learning?

I don't agree with everything the President does--I don't agree with everything any politician does. We used to watch space shuttle launches on television when I was in school. I didn't grow up to be an astronaut or work for NASA. I think there's a little too much insecurity on the susceptibility of students to be influenced by anything that comes their way. Politics has become too much of an arena for us to be fear-mongers instead of an arena for discussion and learning from each other. I don't think it's healthy for children to be given the example that they should run from problems or things they disagree with, but rather given examples of healthy ways to discuss opposing views. Instead of running or hiding, let's start getting more involved as parents.