My Close to Home column this week (I'm published biweekly) in the Purcellville Gazette. Glad I had a chance to summarize this can of worms, which was spun so dishonestly by the media most people are beginning to realize we can't depend on.
I will mention that I have heard reports of the Obama speech being shown the first day of school - following orders from the White House rather than our local school administration - in a high school math class without giving students an opt-out choice. And I have heard of students being questioned/intimidated when they were informed and chose to opt out. (If you have any similar disrespectful reports, please email me.)
Some local teachers and administrators seem to have the idea that because we live in a more rural and traditional setting, our kids need to be "rescued" from their uninformed and backward parents. As my husband Tripp told one of these elitist thinkers last year, many of us have lived more sophisticated lives and have migrated here because we like what we see.
As to charges that we are prejudiced or uninformed, nowadays it is conservatives who are more informed as we are actually reading the source material and getting a grasp of the issues rather than spouting off talking points from the White House and the state-controlled media.
We are teaching our children to think for themselves, and one thing they are challenging is the racist presumption that if your skin is a darker color you should be in the Obama camp. They remember that Martin Luther King said we should judge a man not by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character. As a matter of fact, the number of black conservatives is growing as we are all crunched by Obama's disastrous financial policies and dictatorial demeanor. Our youth have a larger stake in this than starry-eyed aging Baby Boomers, as our kids will be the ones saddled with the debt, including caring for a dying generation that aborted one third of the wage earners who will be paying for their social security and overwhelming prescription drug demands.
Liberal principals and teachers need to respect diversity - rather than preaching their own narrow brand - and stop stereotyping parents with whom they disagree politically.
Close to HomeObama's Address to Students: What really happened?
"We will be showing the president's address tomorrow. Because of the controversy concerning this issue, parents may send a note opting their child out."
Parents who've been too busy working, looking for work, keeping the home fires burning and their kids equipped with back-to-school supplies to keep up with the news may wonder what in the world this was all about. And parents who do keep up with the news, but only through what used to be called the Mainstream Media (MSM), may wonder too.
Where there is a lack of information, confusion and misunderstanding seize the day. The name-calling begins. People who pride themselves on diversity and choice may forget that others deserve respect for their choices too.
This column will be my simple and humble attempt to fill in some gaps purposely left by the MSM on what is a much more complicated issue than they have led people to believe.
On August 26, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan wrote a letter directly to school principals across the nation to advise them that on September 8, President Obama would address the nation's school children en masse. He specifically said this was the first time in history this had been done.
Accompanying the letter was a curriculum for pre- and post-address activities for grades K-6 and 7-12. This curriculum was written by the President's staff and was exclusively focused on Obama: his bio, his quotes, his vision. Nowhere was any other significant role model mentioned.
It asked students questions like "What is President Obama asking me to do?" and "How can I help President Obama?" Teachers were to have students write letters to Obama telling him their goals. Teachers were to collect these letters and hold them for a later date to keep students accountable.
Many parents across the nation were concerned that this constituted a form of propaganda from an administration which has used celebrity branding to an unprecedented degree - even replacing the presidential seal of the United States with the Obama campaign symbol (for an interesting analysis see The Power and Danger of Iconography at YouTube).
Also unprecedented - and in violation of federal statutes - was the reach from the federal level to individual schools, bypassing the local administration and elected school board.
The short notice given for what many saw as a power grab with huge implications for the future - how often would a president who has demanded an inordinate amount of primetime TV demand access to our children in public schools?
A truly grassroots movement led to the shutdown in a number of states of the address on the opening day of school. Unfortunately, confusion set in when the MSM framed the story as Mad Conservative Parents Censor President's Speech, providing no background or intelligent discussion.
Though Arne Duncan had written that this was the "first time in history," he changed the language of his original letter and referred to a past event with Bush Sr. in 1992. He did not note that there was no accompanying curriculum to glorify Bush Sr. - nor that the Washington Post denounced him and Congress held hearings on the matter.
Because of the work of informed, activist parents, a few of the more egregious questions were modified. And we can be sure that the speech was more careful than it might have been had it slipped under the radar as originally intended.
There is the story in a nutshell. I applaud Loudoun County Public Schools for following a course of action which accommodates parents who hold different views. And I hope they draft some sort of plan for similar federal intrusions in the future.
Racism? Tell that to the black families who also opted their children out - and yes, there were some. There is nothing racist about parents concerned about a reach from the Executive branch of government into our local schools and of a president given to cultlike strategies into the hearts and minds of our children.
Please pass this on to any families with kids in public school. We all need to understand the complexities of this matter and the implications for the future rather than letting our emotions and White House talking points frame our response. It's our responsibility as parents to safeguard the minds of our children.
I am suggesting that the real racists here are those who try to squash all intelligent discourse with charges of racism. I am also challenging elitist educators to stop posturing as the instruments delivering our children from backwards parents. Stop claiming you support diversity when your actions say otherwise.
My Close to Home column this week (I'm published biweekly) in the Purcellville Gazette. Glad I had a chance to summarize this can of worms, which was spun so dishonestly by the media most people are beginning to realize we can't depend on.
I will mention that I have heard reports of the Obama speech being shown the first day of school - following orders from the White House rather than our local school administration - in a high school math class without giving students an opt-out choice. And I have heard of students being questioned/intimidated when they were informed and chose to opt out. (If you have any similar disrespectful reports, please email me.)
Some local teachers and administrators seem to have the idea that because we live in a more rural and traditional setting, our kids need to be "rescued" from their uninformed and backward parents. As my husband Tripp told one of these elitist thinkers last year, many of us have lived more sophisticated lives and have migrated here because we like what we see.
As to charges that we are prejudiced or uninformed, nowadays it is conservatives who are more informed as we are actually reading the source material and getting a grasp of the issues rather than spouting off talking points from the White House and the state-controlled media.
We are teaching our children to think for themselves, and one thing they are challenging is the racist presumption that if your skin is a darker color you should be in the Obama camp. They remember that Martin Luther King said we should judge a man not by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character. As a matter of fact, the number of black conservatives is growing as we are all crunched by Obama's disastrous financial policies and dictatorial demeanor. Our youth have a larger stake in this than starry-eyed aging Baby Boomers, as our kids will be the ones saddled with the debt, including caring for a dying generation that aborted one third of the wage earners who will be paying for their social security and overwhelming prescription drug demands.
Liberal principals and teachers need to respect diversity - rather than preaching their own narrow brand - and stop stereotyping parents with whom they disagree politically.
Please pass this on to any families with kids in public school. We all need to understand the complexities of this matter and the implications for the future rather than letting our emotions and White House talking points frame our response. It's our responsibility as parents to safeguard the minds of our children.
I am suggesting that the real racists here are those who try to squash all intelligent discourse with charges of racism. I am also challenging elitist educators to stop posturing as the instruments delivering our children from backwards parents. Stop claiming you support diversity when your actions say otherwise.