Tuesday, September 8, 2009

On Tuesday, September 8, 2009, President Barack Obama will address American school children from a classroom at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. He will commend dedicated teachers, compliment supportive parents and charge each student with the responsibility for their studies while telling them that remaining in school will help each realize the opportunities of a good education. He even plans to end the classroom “pep talk” with “God Bless you, and God bless America.” This is a message that may be feared and restricted by school administrators, school board members and concerned parents.

Certainly it is a message to be feared when delivered by a man reared in a single parent household and supported by grandparents. With this background, Barack Obama studied sufficiently enough to graduate from Columbia University and Harvard Law School. He was the president of the prestigious Harvard Law Review and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004. While his words and message may be lost on many educational leaders, most of whom may not fathom the academic rigor of a competitive university or law school, one may only wonder how many young people in our schools may study just a little more, work harder and seek to realize a greater part of that great evolution called the American Dream as the result of his words.

The word appalling should appear foremost in the Tuesday, September 8, 2009 lexicon of educational “leaders” who have dutifully followed the punditry of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and others who claim a victory for conservative America by forcing school districts to decline participation, offer an “opt out” or require “parental consent.” Beyond this, it is more important for conservative America to make a statement by keeping their children out of school or away from this message than allow a Democratic President to tell their children that working hard in school and scholarship will allow them to realize the benefits of a good education.

As school superintendents and educators sort between the apples and oranges drawn in comparisons from similar addresses by Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush that were included in the school curriculums at the time, it is readily apparent that an address to students given by Barack Obama is different. It is considerably different when cloaked in the verbal apology of words that seek to shelter our students from the potential threats of socialization and politicization that President Obama represents. It may not foster the correct image that some may want of an educated person.

At a time when our schools and universities face ever greater challenges to educate individuals for competition in a world economy, President Obama’s message of education is compromised in the convenient naiveté of school administrators. The world economy is blind to political convenience or the sheltered innocence so desired by protective policies. The goal of education for our schools and universities must be to inspire and allow each student to achieve the highest level of learning and accomplishment possible. The critical question continues to be whether our educators and school administrators have the fortitude of character, wisdom and vision to allow that potential. When an address to American school students by our President becomes subject to parental permission slips, the failure of character, wisdom and vision is not found in our children.

As Respectfully As Possible -