Evil Presidential Speechifying – The Response

A letter sent in response to our interim and regular principal (reviewed and approved and CCed to my lovely wife):

I am very disappointed in the message you sent regarding plans around President Obama’s address to school children. While in general I think the approach of reviewing materials in advance, etc., is a good one, given the manufactured controversy over the President’s message, his plans, and his administration.

I appreciate [our school] being sensitive to parental concerns. But I feel the extraordinary steps being taken here —

a. an explicit message from the principal promising …

b. that the message will not be shown live, but that it will be reviewed to determine whether there is “good alignment” with [school]’s goals,

c. that teachers “may” show the message if they want, at some later date, and

d. that parents will have advance warning to determine if they yank their kids out of school for it (which tells me it won’t be shown between 9/24 and 10/8) [Those are the “District Enrollment Count days, when we’re urged to make sure our kids are in school.]

— all of these steps serve to legitimize the lunatic ravings of some that the President is trying to “indoctrinate” kids with “subliminal messages” of some sort. It’s disrespectful of the office of the President, it turns parental involvement in the education process into parental veto, and simply tells people who want to impose their ideology upon the education of all students that they simply have to kick up a fuss to make it so.

Will we be offering similar by-school public review and classroom opt-in/out for “controversial” matters in science — astronomy or biology or discussion of evolution? Or history? Or reading of materials by authors some parents might dislike?

As I said, I am disappointed. [Our school] normally demonstrates educational leadership and quality. What seems to be being taught here is fear and divisiveness.

It is our intent to record and watch the address with our daughter that evening. It’s unfortunate that she will not have had the chance to already watch it at school, and share it with her friends and teacher.

Regards,

Dave Hill ([school] parent)

P.S. Finally, does anyone proofread these messages before they go out? Misspelling the President’s name “O’Bama” and the word “speach” in the subject line also fail to deliver the message of quality education that I’ve come to expect from [our school].

It will be interesting to see what response occurs, if any.