Wilson County Schools Has Decided to Be Part of the Problem
The Wilson County School District, my family's school district, has decided that its schools will not be showing the president's speech to students next Tuesday:
Yep. If you're not familiar with this controversy, here's the gist: President Obama plans to give a televised speech to school children about the importance of education and setting educational goals. Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush made similar speeches in the 1980s and early 1990s. Shouldn't be a big deal. But many of the president's political opponents have decided that such a speech amounts to indoctrinating the nation's youth with leftist politics and is a first step toward establishing a program akin to the Hitler Youth.
I tried to e-mail Wilson County Schools director Mike Davis to voice my disappointment, but the district's server has been down since yesterday afternoon. To be fair, Davis says that the reason for not showing the speech is not political:
It's not like the president is asking for a full school day or even an afternoon. I can't imagine that this speech would detract from teaching content standards anymore than would a pep rally or say-"no"-to-drugs convo. But whatever.
Some Middle Tennessee school districts are directing administrators not to show a back-to-school address by President Barack Obama next week after parents complained that it was foisting a political agenda on children, a sentiment echoed by Republican critics.
Wilson and Williamson counties have directed schools not to dedicate time to the speech, while others are allowing parents to have their children opt out of watching the address.
Yep. If you're not familiar with this controversy, here's the gist: President Obama plans to give a televised speech to school children about the importance of education and setting educational goals. Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush made similar speeches in the 1980s and early 1990s. Shouldn't be a big deal. But many of the president's political opponents have decided that such a speech amounts to indoctrinating the nation's youth with leftist politics and is a first step toward establishing a program akin to the Hitler Youth.
I tried to e-mail Wilson County Schools director Mike Davis to voice my disappointment, but the district's server has been down since yesterday afternoon. To be fair, Davis says that the reason for not showing the speech is not political:
At this time we feel it is more important for your teachers to protect our instructional time by focusing on teaching the content standards.
It's not like the president is asking for a full school day or even an afternoon. I can't imagine that this speech would detract from teaching content standards anymore than would a pep rally or say-"no"-to-drugs convo. But whatever.
posted by Tinley | 9:49 AM
2 Comments:
Send the kids or don’t send them…either way, they will find out what was said…with the media and people talking, it will get out…
I didn't really say anything about making a decision to send or not send kids to school. My concern is that my school district has decided not to show the speech at all. And while I'm sure that the speech will be easy to find on the Internet and that clips will run on cable news channels, I don't imagine that too many school children will spend an evening at home watching CNN or listening to a presidential address on the family computer.
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