What are Conservatives Really Afraid of When the President Talks to Schoolchildren?
by PunditMomYesterday, I wrote a post at my blog that was something of a rant about the right wing's campaign to keep kids home from school on September 8 when the President is scheduled to broadcast a web event to talk with them the importance of education, working hard and staying in school.
Brainwashing! Indoctrination! Filling our children's heads with lies! The invectives came fast and furious from the ultra-conservatives with the announcement of the school-time speech and some schools are actually going to ban the talk.
It seems pretty innocuous to me, nothwithstanding all the fear that some are trying to generate about a supposed plot by the President to use this talk to turn our children into liberal converts.
Really? Do people actually think this is part of an EE-vil plan? I'm sure that those who are behind this effort to take their children to the zoo instead of sending them to school know better, but they want to use this as another way to create more fear about Barack Obama.
I'm not the only shaking my head in disgust over the faux tumult. As Julie Pippert points out at MOMocrats blog, there was no similar outcry by progressives when George W. Bush spoke to our school children about guns and drugs. I'm with Julie on this point -- why this outcry? Why now?:
I'm also not comprehending why people are so outraged and concerned about the President addressing kids about committing to education. Of all the benign and potentially useful messages, this rates pretty high. I'm a lot less concerned about the possible messages here, than say the strange messages my kids have come home from school with about sex, drugs, music and religion (yes at public school). I'm also well-prepared to discuss this with them. I've read through the letter from the US Department of Education about this, and scanned the suggested classroom activities and discussion points.
For the first time, I've got a heads-up about a message being delivered to my kids as well as potential activities and discussions they'll have about it.
I feel more and better informed than EVER BEFORE. I feel more a part of this than EVER BEFORE.
Cynematic, also at MOMocrats, raises an important aspect of this debate -- this isn't just a boycott over a difference of opinion. This call for a right wing day of truancy is costing us all money, money that our schools can't afford to lose:
But this is why the boycott has me steamed: my kid goes to a public school in California. Like many other states, our state's budget is stretched thin. Public school dollars are based on attendance. In our case, when a kid's absent from school for sickness or any other reason, our school loses $47/day. Per student.
...
[I]f this boycott becomes widespread, it amounts to a one-day systematic de-funding of your public schools and mine.
That hurts your kids and mine.
Down to Earth Mama, a former public school teacher herself, says:
Conservatives stood up, crying foul. Several started a tea party movement to keep their children home on September 8th, calling it an indoctrination of youth into the socialist agenda. They are likening this to the recruiting of Nazi youth. They are complaining that Obama is subverting their authority as parents to sell his health care and big government plans, that he is recruiting them to be his army.
...
But I can argue, so what? So what if he talks about health care. So what if he talks about community organizing. So what? Are you so insecure enough in your influence over your own child that you are threatened? Do you not want your children to learn? Do you disagree with the pep talk? Because, in all honesty, I would use it, regardless of what I saw, regardless of who was giving the speech, a republican or democrat, as a learning opportunity.
If this is what right-wingers really believe, I'm scared. If, as I suspect, it's not what they really think and that they are the ones trying to brainwash the easily persuaded that Barack Obama is sending subliminal signals to our children, then isn't that as evil as they claim the President is trying to be?
When progressives tried to criticize George W. Bush, many in the GOP said we were being unpatriotic. But the Fox News crowd wants us to believe that their criticism toward Barack Obama is merely an effort to protect their children from mind-control.
My question to all parents is this -- when was the last time you were able to control the mind of your child of pretty much any age? If a speech about staying in school and working hard is propaganda, and it convinces even one child to keep on studying, then that's propaganda I can live with.
I'd like to think if I close my eyes and ignore these efforts they will go away when people realize the nonsensical extremism at work here.
But I know better than that.
BlogHer News & Politics Contributing Editor Joanne Bamberger writes about politics & current events from a progressive mom's point of view at her place, PunditMom.
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Comments
Gah!
I said it before and I will say it again. if your kids can be brainwashed by one Obama speech, maybe you are a sucky parent!
Politics & News Contributing Editor
Queen of Spain
I can't even imagine ....
... any "brainwashing" techniques working on PunditGirl!
PunditMom
aka Joanne Bamberger
BlogHer News & Politics Contributing Editor
I know a lot of parents from all corners
who claim to foster critical thinking skills in their children and who open discussion, but as soon as their kids come to opposite conculsions than them, there's trouble.
My whole beef with this is that the ed.gov questions are heavy on "repeat back to me what you heard, and with a mere nod to analyzing the message or motives, tell me how you're going to act on it."
This is all fine and dandy when it's a message we want our kids to hear; not so fine and dandy next time the message from on high - be it church or state - is not a message we agree with. Or actions we want them to follow-up on.
And that I teach my kids to question the questions and am able to debrief them on the messages they hear is fine. For my kids. But taking ten steps into the lives of kids living in situations in which parents don't have the time or personal resources to offer that kind of educational support is the scary making part. It does no good to point out "wow, they must suck as parents." That's punishing kids for what is beyond their control. Without learning how to question the questions and the motives behind, these are the children who are easy prey for psychological bullies of all sorts - political, religious - all through their lives.
My main concern with all this is that now this speech has a lot of publicity and some people will go high and wide to support it as being overwhlemingly positive and meaningful, as will others try to discount it. People will try to find proof of the positive outcome, and others will look for the opposite. What will happen next is a resounding high-five in the full light of the media and the speech will go down as a historic motivational and inspirational moment for all children and many people will feel as if something truly important has been accomplished because so much media attnetion was given...
and then tomorrow a plane will crash or some celebrity will divorce another celebrity and many people will move on. Except, of course, the teachers on the front lines. And the kids.
I'd feel much better about all this if the questions and lesson plans offered more in the way of asking kids to exercise their meta-cognitive skills, as well as their "repeat back what was said" skills. I think that this speech could bear the scrutiny, and in these times of great division and divisiveness, it would have been an exercise in "questioning authority" in all the best and least paranoid ways possible.
Halushki.com
The solution is simple
Teachers (and parents) should come up with their own lesson plans if they are not satisfied with the ones posted as resources.
~~
This So-Called, Post-Post-Racial Life
http://postpostracial.wordpress.com/
What questions ...
... did you find offensive? I agree -- I don't want 'repeat back to me' exercises. The whole reason PunditGirl goes to the school she does is because it's known for getting kids to be critical thinkers -- and that's what I want, even if she someday becomes a Republican. ;)
I believe that the
I believe that the President's speech will have a great impact on children who look up to him as their role model and this is a positive thing. African-American males are in serious trouble in this country and every opportunity we can provide for them to get a new perspective on the importance of education is important.
TurningObama'sSuccessintoGainsforBlackBoys
I'm not really sure what is really going on with conservatives in this country because frankly, I find it difficult to understand their issues and their mentality of fear and extremism. I find it particularly repulsive that so many conservatives feel that is perfectly alright to compare a sitting President to Adolph Hitler or worse, liken him to the devil. If, as a parent, you feel that you do not want your child "indoctrinated" by the President's speech, that is your right. It is also my right to tell my high school age son that I don't want him to accept free school supplies from military recruiters in school. If he chooses to do so, that is his choice and I must respect his decision.
A local school system here in my state has decided to allow parents to let their children legally stay home from school that day. Other school systems are not showing the speech.
What infuriates me is that level-headed, intelligent people are allowing themselves to be bullyed by right-wing extremists.
AllThingsToNoOne
Amen
It's one thing to have everyone get a voice, but when the voice is tinfoil hat worthy, don't we get to tune it out?
Politics & News Contributing Editor
Queen of Spain
You get to tune out the voice
but not the human behind the voice. Living in that kind of fear is living in a sort of desperation that only begets more desperation and pain and fear. Telling people not to be fearful doesn't work. Ridiculing people into not being fearful doesn't work. Hating them into not being fearful doesn't work.
As a person who lives with my own fears and anxieties, I know that only compassion and empathy for my humanity ever give me a place to release my fears, to say them outloud and just to have them heard and understood, helps the most. But when people are constantly telling me that "it's silly" or "you're being stupid" then that is a threat to a human's very identity, and even an identity that causes pain is safer than jumping into some unknown.
I think we get nowhere by backing people into corners, even when they are hissing and spitting. Well, we do get somewhere. We get all out war. As as I tell my kids, "she started it" rarely works, or is rarely true. There has to be another way.
I may never agree fully with my real life friends. But if I name called back everytime they overstepped a line, the relationship would end, and I would no longer have the opportunity to have meaningful discussions with them. Again, we don't always agree, but that I give them an ear from the other side without fighting back or explaining away their fears...well, sometimes that's enough for them to let go of the fears, little by little.
Halushki.com
I agree ---
-- that people don't like feeling that they've been backed into corners. That's one reason I have a love/hate relationship with politics. I am desperately trying to figure out a way for women who have views across the political spectrum to come together in a productive way (hey, the guys aren't doing so well!).
In today's fire-tossing world of shouting head politics, how do we get back to the time when people COULD be bi-partisan and talk about things like talking to kids, budgets, health care, wars, etc., without resorting to partisan shorthand?
Since we are both girls from the same part of America, I would love to start that dialogue and have it spread from Central Pa. to the rest of America.
Concern about extremisn
I share your concern about the extremism being expressed in these efforts. My husband, who had family members die during the Holocaust, is especially worried by the increasing comparisons to Hitler -- comparisons that seem to happen as a knee-jerk reaction and without real thought into what those words mean. But when school systems give an official sanctioning of staying out of school because the President wants to talk about the importance of education, I start to worry about who is running our public schools -- educators or those who want to be fear-mongers.
PunditMom
aka Joanne Bamberger
BlogHer News & Politics Contributing Editor
Why all of a sudden are some
Why all of a sudden are some of these parents concerned about who is speaking? I worked in schools for years and we very seldom had parent input about guests. No one ever said anything when a politician came to speak.
I'm afraid all the rhetoric and fear is because of race. All the furor further legitimizes the racism still practiced and voiced in many parts of this country. This agenda is being pushed by right wing pundits and main stream news because they feel they have to report. Maybe if all the silliness was just ignored it wouldn't be seen as legitimate.
that's a really good point
Maybe we should be thankful parents are taking an interest in their children's education
Politics & News Contributing Editor
Queen of Spain
exactly!
well said.
Wouldn't it be great ...
... if this level of interest in what's going on in our schools kept going and moved to other areas like, say, why so much money keeps getting cut from school budgets?
Also, I have to wonder -- if it were a Republican president doing this exact same speech, would we see the same level of outrage?
PunditMom
aka Joanne Bamberger
BlogHer News & Politics Contributing Editor
I caught a little bit of the
I caught a little bit of the ridiculous uproar around this speech about setting goals *gasp!* on my husband's facebook page. Some friend posted about it, and her friends went crazy, posting about how it's THEIR job to teach their children about sex and politics, and they would be keeping the kids home that day, just like when they teach the kids about AIDS.
So many scary things in that declaration.
I believe highly in parent's right to have a say in what their children are taught in public schools, but really?! Setting goals is part of Obama's hidden agenda? God forbid he wants our society to be successful. OH NO!
I asked my husband why parents didn't have a problem in 1956 when Eisenhower started what would end up the Presidential Fitness Challenge.
HIDDEN AGENDA! HIDDEN AGENDA! OMG! Physically fit citizens are healthier! Live longer! Need less from their government! Let's boycot!
This gum-flapping is ridiculous. Let your kids go to school on September 8th, you can undo any good Obama does about setting goals as soon as they get home.
Education. Fitness
What's next, a debate over a Presidential announcement to conserve energy? I guess as long as Obama doesn't suggest we all don cardigans a la Jimmy Carter, we'll be OK! ;)
PunditMom
aka Joanne Bamberger
BlogHer News & Politics Contributing Editor
Hahaha
The weather just turned chilly here and I was thinking I needed a new cardigan.
it's happening here
Apparently my school district is going to allow parents to "opt out". I am stunned! If you're that damn concerned your kids shouldn't be attending public school in the first place.
Kate
I blog at http://www.aftercancernowwhat.com
I'm with lelawill
I think that there is a very real fear on the part of some white people that their children are going to grow up thinking that it's normal for a black man to be president, and not some bizarre historical anomaly that will never happen again, which is what they're hoping.
Scary
That is a very scary thought. As the white mom of an Asian daughter, I want to celebrate the fact that we finally have a president who isn't a white man. While I admit I am glad he is in office because I'm a Democrat, it's not secret that I am not Obama's biggest fan. I have issues with how some things are being approached, but I would like to hope that we can all be glad that our nation's government is starting to more accurately reflect the country's real demographics.
PunditMom
aka Joanne Bamberger
BlogHer News & Politics Contributing Editor
That is patently absurd.
That is patently absurd. And liberals are calling conservatives crazy. Why is it always Democrats/leftists/liberals that invoke race?
I don't care a wit about the man's skin color, it is his ideology I find disturbing.
Missy
I'm Bewildered
Not only did President Bush do something similar, but President Reagan did as well. Where was the outrage and demands to take kids out of school then?
I find myself cringing on behalf of those crying foul.
Actually, there was outrage
Actually, there was outrage and claims that Bush was addressing students as a campaign strategy. This is nothing new. The far left and the far right are always going to find ways to make waves.
Link TextBlack Belt Mama
It's really crazy...
It's crazy AND kind of scary. As I posted on Twitter today, I'm no fan of Republicans, but it still took me a few years of George W. Bush being in office to go from indifference to rage (basically, an unjustified invasion of a sovereign country was enough to do it). It seems like these right-wing loonies went straight to rage about two weeks after the inauguration. Of course there will always be irrational people, but what's scary is the level of vitriol in evidence, not to mention how fond of guns many of these same wingnuts are.
It makes me kind of depressed, actually.
Short fuse
I've noticed the short fuse too. Sad and scary.
Nordette Adams is a BlogHer CE & you can find her other stuff through Her 411.
I don't agree with the craziness
But, I did have concerns with the wording of the original questions contained in the lesson plan. They have since be re-written, and now I'm fine with them.
mamalang
Its not that bad
Its my opinion that the media has taken a few extreme parents and have made it look like its a huge problem. I am in a very conservative state (Utah), in the most conservative county in Utah, and I don't know one parent who is making a stink about this. Mostly, we are excited for the President to speak. I think the media is once again making mountains out of molehills.
It is that bad
I live in North Carolina, a state that actually was carried by Obama and an opt out form was sent home with my third grader.
I'm not sure when we decided that we no longer expected children to respect the office of the President.
Kate
I blog at http://www.aftercancernowwhat.com
It is Bad
Of course I live in the same state as the woman who leads the charge on www.hallpassonthat.com
One of my co-workers was celebrating that they got that propaganda out of their schools. When I commented about the experience I had with Reagan back in 1988 - he said what Reagan did was education. Um, yeah.
MSM
I agree and that's one problem I have with the MSM. If there is something extreme, they give it voice and make it sound like there's a huge movement when there isn't.