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September 1, 2009
Teacher-in-Chief
Via Drudge, it seems President Obama is going to address all pre K to 6th grade students on September 8th. Hm. On the one hand, I'm guessing he'll speak a lot of platitudes about working hard, opportunity, reaching for the stars, etc. In and of itself, probably pretty harmless. But the concept of sending out a talking points sheet is a little weird. Here's one of the talking pre-speech discussion points:
Why is it important that we listen to the President and other elected officials, like the mayor, senators, members of congress, or the governor? Why is what they say important?I wonder if the difference between "listen" as in "do what they say" and "listen" as in "analyze what they say" will be discussed. I doubt it, especially since most kids don't have the critical thinking skills to figure out the difference. Instead, it will simply be an authority figure talking at them. Ahh, the irony that the "question authority" generation has gone here....
This address to our captive school children is all part of the kick-off for the new "Get Schooled: You Have the Right" campaign, which also an appearance by the President on a back-to-school special.
"Get Schooled"?
Really?
Bureaucrats trying to be too cool by half, if you ask me. And it seems to be an extrapolation of urbanity nationwide, where the cultural relevance of "getting schooled" may not be completely grasped in the hinterlands. Setting aside the poor grammar usage exhibited by naming an education initiative after a bit of slang, don't these guys know that once you co-opt slang you remove all of its inherent coolness immediately?
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This is an interesting issue. I actually think that the President using the pulpit to give a encouraging message to school children is inherently a good thing. The President SHOULD be seen as a non-partisan figure, leader of our country; leader of the Free World. It’s a more recent and sad in my opinion development that the POTUS is also sen as the leader of his political party – even to the extent that that role may be first and foremost. Having said this, the problem I have is with the hypocrisy of this. Can you imagine the uproar is President Bush had wanted to do this? It has been acknowledged that school age students did listen to Ronald Reagan’s speech as he left office in 1988. That was back when the President transcended politics – and likely the beginning of the end of that. I think it’d be a positive thing to have that back. I think the elected President of the United States SHOULD transcend politics and be allowed to use the greatest pulpit in the free world without partisan rebuttal (i.e.: State of the Union). But the reality is that the POTUS is very much a partisan figure and I’d be more accepting of this if this speech were given by a person less partisan – like maybe the First Lady?
Posted by: msteven at September 1, 2009 8:57 PM