The wall
We don’t need no mind control
Parents across the country have reacted harshly to President Obama’s plan to address America’s school children on Tuesday. MSNBC reports that the White House now plans to release the speech a full day in advance, perhaps in an attempt to assuage fears.
Fears of what? Obama’s speech is intended to “challenge students ‘to work hard, stay in school and dramatically reduce the dropout rate,’” according to the White House. But the lesson plans sent to local schools with tips like asking students to write letters on what they can do to “help the president” led talk show host Glenn Beck to claim the White House was pursuing “indoctrination.”
Does the president have the right to address the nation’s school children?
The politics on this issue are difficult to separate from the principles. Obama is everyone’s president. Intuitively, some arrangement by which individual students can opt-out of watching the speech seems most plausible. After all, the president usually reserves the prerogative to take to the airwaves when he sees fit.
Many of the objections center on the suggested lesson plans and materials, which some critics consider overtly political activity.
On the one hand, people from across the ideological spectrum have criticized declining civic engagement in America, and an open invitation to provide ideas to help Obama would appear as a ready antidote (or, at least, treatment). On the other hand, if the instructions were solely to provide ideas on how to help the president, then perhaps students are left too little room to be critical or disinterested. Unless, of course, their advice on how to help Obama is to suggest he take a hike (a level of sarcasm America’s elementary students may have difficulty embracing).
The deeper question, however, is the extent to which school students are defenseless audience. Practically, they’re a captive audience while at school. Yet their inability to resist goes deeper. One reason children are rarely tried as adults is because there’s a wide consensus that they can’t make the same decisions and distinctions as adults. Their sensibilities are less mature and their experience more limited. Even those students who might feel uncomfortable at the sentiments, requests or proposals of the president may find too much social or institutional pressure to endure the address and subsequent activities.
Our schools stand in loco parentis — in the place of parents — during the school day, and we expect them to act in the best interests of the child. In a case such as this, where there may be no reasonable expectation that the school would ward your children in the same way you would, perhaps the best compromise would be to let concerned parents take their kids out of school, at least for the speech.
But this is a right to remove one’s child from school, not a refusal of the president’s right to address school children. Despite their “captivity,” it’s hard to imagine a functioning democracy where the president has no capacity or authority to address the nation and any of its citizens.
-Sam
Related posts:
- Education back on the table
- No one reforms my kid’s education
- Who decides what’s best for children?
- Father knows best
- Is having a child a right?
ShareComments
Leave a Reply
