What Should Be in Obama's Lesson to School Children

With all the controversy surrounding the address to children on Tuesday, we all know what Obama will say. This will be an "I told you there would be nothing controversial in the speech" speech. He'll tell kids to work hard and stay in school.

But what should Obama say?

He should tell them the truth. He should tell them about the America he is trying to create.

He should tell them that they don't need to study in order to get a good job in order to have a nice home or a nice car. The government will take care of that. The government will provide them with homes and food and transportation. Besides, he's trying to do away with cars, anyway.

He should tell them that they don't need to work hard to get a good job in order to provide for their own health care. The government will take care of that. There's no need to bust your butt and work hard for your health's sake. In a society as "rich" as ours, we should just give health care to everyone.

He should tell children that they don't need to work hard and get a good job so they can get ahead in life. The government is going to tax success. The government is going to take away from those who succeed in life in order to give the wealth to those who have made poor choices and haven't prepared themselves for success.

He should tell children that they don't need to work hard and stay in school so they can provide for their families. The family unit is an outdated construct of a Judeo-Christian society. Today, people can just live together and raise children without any structure or value system. It doesn't matter if you are homosexual or transgendered or screwed up in some other way. Just ask the government for help and they will give you whatever you need.

Instead of being honest with children, though, he's going to give them a "work hard and stay in school speech." That's because we need more taxpayers to pay the debt the government is running up trying to pay for everything for everyone.

Rethinking Course Recommendations

The Obama administration is rethinking its course recommendations for students ahead of Obama's address to the nation's school children next week. Rewriting its suggestions to teachers for student assignments on how to "help the president."

White House aides said the language was supposed to be an inspirational, pro-education message to America's youths, but its unintended consequences were evident.

Among the activities initially suggested for pre-K to 6th grade students was to "write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president."

Another assignment for students for hearing the speech was to discuss "what the president wants us to do."

This suggestion about writing letters has since been changed to: "Write letters to themselves about how they can achieve their short-term and long-term education goals. These would be collected and redistributed at an appropriate later date by the teacher to make students accountable to their goals.

There has been a firestorm from parents who are outraged and refusing to allow their children to participate in Obama's speech.

The reasons are varied. It is unlikely that the speech would have been a blip on the radar without the advance "teaching points." Other presidents, including Reagan and George W. Bush have also made speeches to school children. However, there was no advance teaching points designed to focus on the president, his message and how children should respond to it.

Some parents are concerned mostly about the wording of the teaching points. Others are concerned because of Obama's policies.

There is no doubt that six months into the presidency, Obama has become one of the most polarizing presidents in our nation's history.

Frankly, I'm pleased that the right is mobilizing. This is just a small thing, it seems. But people who have never been politically active before are now standing up for what they believe and no longer letting the left set the agenda. It's about time.

High School Teacher Fired for Being Conservative

Early in May, Lawrence High School of Lawrence, Kansas fired government and history teacher Tim Latham. Latham charges that District 912 fired him because he is a conservative and many of his students have since rallied to his defense. Some 200 of them joined a FaceBook page in support and four appeared at a school board meeting on June 8 to advocate for their favorite teacher.

One reason given for the firing is that Mr. Latham did not show Obama’s inauguration live in his class and another is that staff members disparaged him for supporting Republicans during the late presidential race, most especially then vice presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin.

On June 8, an advocacy group, Kansas 9.12 Project also attended the school board meeting and spoke on Mr. Latham’s behalf.  According to a press release from the Kansas 9/12 Project, school board members admitted to the teachers union that they had not properly followed union rules to dismiss the teacher.

Meredith Richey, member, Kansas 9/12 Project, said it had come to the attention of the group that a teacher within Lawrence Public Schools was given a non-renewal because of a difference in political opinion. She asked the board of education to investigate this and possibly reconsider the non-renewal or check into how teachers are released so this is not a pattern in Lawrence. She said different opinions should be tolerated and she believes this is worth exploring.