The words from our Pledge of Allegiance, “One Nation, Under God, Indivisible… “ keep going through my head.
What could be more divided than a country where some of their students have been prohibited from seeing their president speak to them in school? While I’d rather not point fingers at any particular political party, whoever individually or as a group is responsible for fighting against the President’s speech to the school-age children of our nation, in my humble but accurate opinion, are un-American.
Why do I say this?
Here in America, we have a choice. We have fought for the choice to practice religion however we like. We can choose to vote, every single American, male and female, all races, creeds, and colors. We can choose to live in a city, in the country, in a tree if we want. The point here is we are free to choose. Without the freedom to choose, we live in a dictatorship.
When the President announced he would speak to the school-age children in America, it was inherent that all children could choose to watch this broadcast, or not. The parents of these children could instruct their children to watch, or not.
But here in south Utah County, Utah, at the Nebo School District, this choice is not available. The School Board members, in their myopic, Limbaugh-Hannity crazed thinking, have decided that ‘since the district couldn’t get notes out soon enough,’ the entire district won’t be broadcasting the speech. This means that no child, no educator, no staff person can watch what millions of other citizens in our nation will be watching live. There is no choice in Nebo School District.
Why couldn’t they have offered a two-room solution—those who want to watch go to the library, those who don’t go to the cafeteria?
What bothers me also, is the district has not posted anything about this unenlightened decision on their website. To my knowledge, they haven’t published this information anywhere. How many parents are going to be sending their children to school on Tuesday, thinking their children will have the opportunity to listen to their President speak, and will find out, after the school day is over, that their child didn’t participate as millions of other school-age children in this nation have?
Yes, there is the Internet. Yes, our kids will still see Barack Obama encourage kids to stay in school, study hard, and make the most of their educational opportunities. They won’t miss out in the long run the blessing that our President is investing in our children’s educations.
But the underlying message that the President’s speech is somehow wrong, bad, evil, indoctrinating, even brainwashing, is what really has me in a lather. The underlying message that if you don’t agree with Obama’s politics, it’s okay to ignore this very worthy message. And further, that you don’t have to give him the respect that elected officials deserve in this nation, whether you agree with his health care reforms or not.
Bottom Line: If you send your kid to school, you obviously care that he or she is getting a publically funded education. You care that your child is learning to read, write, do math, science, etc. So when your President decides to reiterate your own message to your children to stay in school and learn the information given to them by their teachers, it may be wise to actually support this worthy message. And to teach your children that elected officials deserve our respect.
As a side note, in this great state of Utah, only one district has actually decided NO broadcast, Nebo School District. Several of the districts are choosing the opt-out possibility, and they must have time travel perfected, because they, miraculously, were able to send a note out to the parents on time.
I am ashamed to live in Nebo School District, I am ashamed of the message they are sending to the bright students and hard-working school teachers and staff who make their living here. I am calling for a walk out of all teachers and students who feel that the district has made a poor choice.
Make this a Stay Home Tuesday, for the sake of Education. Talk about ironic.
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Sorry to say, you are not the only district not watching the speech. I teach in an inner city district in Houston and we are not broadcasting the speech. We actually are focusing more on what our actualy job is- teaching our subjects. They are recording the speech and we can choose to show it later if and when it fits in with our curriculum. Our first jobs as teachers is to teach, and the speech just might not fit in with our curriculum. I'm not sayng that the speech is a bad thing, but that it may not the right choice for everyone to show it. The school board, principal's and teachers are ultimately the ones that make the choice on showing the speech or not. For someone that is so concerned about freedom and choice you seem to forget this. Now, the parents have the right to choose not to send their kids to school that day, but that is a choice they will have to live with the consequence of. The conseguence being that their students will be missing out on a day of education. But as you stated that is their choice. I just wanted to clarify that the "red" state you are living in isn't the only place not showing it.
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ReplyDeleteYou're upset because individuals didn't get the chance to choose whether or not they would listen to Obama's speech in the schools. Now we see what happens when government makes the decisions instead of individuals. It makes even the democrats angry. Now you see why Conservatives advocate limited government.
ReplyDeleteWe don't know what's in the speech. We just know that all the schools were supposed to watch it, and that curriculum was given out before the speech was even finalized. I prefer to READ what I'm teaching about before I use curriculum to teach it. I have a choice as a teacher, and the government shouldn't tell me what to teach, particularly when it seems this is about a personality cult. One of the original curriculum questions was "How can I serve the president?" Last time I checked, the President of the United States was a public servant, not the other way around. I'll show it to my students when I know what is really said. I don't air anything, video, audio, or text, without previewing it first!
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