Citizenship

So with all the recent hysteria over President Obama's upcoming speech to school children, I have felt compelled to express my thoughts somewhat publicly. I consider myself a relatively rational person, so I educated myself on the opinions of those both for and against President Obama's speech. Upon completing my research, I felt that I least understood where those who were opposing the president were coming from. I do believe that the Obama administration made some mistakes in the timing of this speech, as well as how it was originally intended to be given. However, some ideas are so extreme, it causes me to wonder where our country has gone wrong. Well, I do have an idea, but that is another post for another day. All I have to say is two words, Rush Limbaugh. If you want a more specific explanation, this Wall Street article does a good job pointing out both the positive and negative, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204731804574389590915908388.html.

Now I must confess my own bias, I am an Obama supporter. And given that he was handed the presidency in arguably one of the most difficult periods of our nations history, I think he is doing quite well. However, my opinion on this issue has absolutely nothing to do with Obama himself, instead it has everything to do with citizenship. The nature and structure of our REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY requires its citizens to be educated and active. Without this we get corrupted officials, bad policy, and an inefficient system. Sound familiar? Part of becoming educated is listening to government officials, whether you support or agree with them or not. Actually, if you do not support your leaders it is imperative that you do listen to them. For it is in their rhetoric that you can prove that they should be removed from office or at least not re-elected. It is also vital to listen to our leaders in order to show respect for the office they hold. If you support the Constitution, you should in turn respect the offices it lays forth. And what better place to teach this important aspect of citizenship than in the schools. Inviting the students to listen to the president allows them to start establishing good habits of citizenship. Now if your one of those people who believes that Obama is going to send subliminal messages to students through his "stay in school" speech, take the opportunity to discuss the speech over dinner. What a civic thing to do, discuss politics. That is if staying in school is a political issue.

My opinion on allowing students to watch this presidential address in order to help establish good habits of citizenship was reinforced after a conversation with one of my students Friday morning.

Me: "Remember, if you would like to watch President Obama's speech you need to have a permission slip signed by your parent to excuse you from class."

Student: "Wait, you mean Obama is a real guy?"

Me: "Yes. He is a real guy and he is the president of this country. He is your president."

Student: "So he is coming to our school, just to speak to us?!"

Me: "No. He is giving an Internet address which you will watch in the auditorium."

Student: "Oh, okay."

Yup, you did read that right. I have a 7th grade student who didn't even realize until 24 hours ago that Barack Obama was a real person. Nor does he have any understanding of the office of the presidency. So, I really do not think this student is going to be harmed by President Obama's speech. He is going to spend the entire speech grasping the concept that this guy is real, so he'll miss the whole subliminal message thing. Although, if President Obama can brainwash our kids into staying in school, I'm glad I voted for him.