OK, I don’t get it.
President Ronald Reagan addressed the classrooms of America in 1988, even taking questions from students and promoting his idea of lower taxes for all.
President George H. W. Bush had a televised address to students in October 1991, asking kids to write him to “tell him how to achieve his goals.”
President George W. Bush was reading to kids on Sept. 11, 2001.
Now President Barack Obama wants to do a televised address to the nation’s schools to promote staying in school and working hard… and the far right is outraged, OUTRAGED, that President Obama may be “indoctrinating” their kids into “socialism.”
Where was the outrage then? Where were the angry parents threatening to pull their kids out of school instead of being “indoctrinated” into some political cause? Where?
Nietzsche said, “The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher
regard those who think alike than those who think differently.” These people are afraid to open their minds, so they close their kids’ minds as well.
Here’s what I want to say to those people: Instead of plugging your ears, how about listening as well, then engaging your child about what was said. Discuss what the President said with your child. Talk about the parts you disagree with, as well as the parts you agree with.
But that would assume these people want to engage their brains and participate in their child’s education. All indications are currently otherwise.