I am Disgusted!

Ok so this is a quick post on the fact that a lot of schools (Jake's school included) has decided to ban President Obama's speech to children next week. I respect the fact that there are a lot of people who disagree with President Obama's policies and the changes he wants to make. This is not an issue/post about politics. I respect every one's different view points, I don't think I can say that enough. Keep in mind that both Bush and Reagan made speeches to children about staying off drugs and other similar topics. Also, neither of those speeches were banned from schools.

This whole issue is DISGUSTING to me. We are teaching kids to disrespect the president and that what he has to say is not important. The topic of this speech is staying in school and how important it is to have an education. Obama's goal is to have the highest college graduate rates in 2020... what a horrible goal. What is socialist about that goal? He is not going to talk about current issues, just encouraging children to stay in school and about personal responsibility to get an education. The assignments that are recommended (not required) are to write a letter to the president about how the child was going to help him (for example: stay in school and become a doctor to keep America healthy... not I'm going to tell my parents that the health care system needs to be changed). Keep in mind this was "how are you going to help the president meet his goal of the most college graduates in 2020" funny how that part is left out. Since people didn't like that, they changed the assignment to the kids writing a letter to themselves about their goals, which I think is a great idea! What parents would go against that?

I understand people think I'm disgusted because I am Democrat and voted for Obama, but that isn't the case here. I think that this is a great speech considering 30 percent of 9th graders don't graduate from high school. How is encouraging students to graduate from high school and go to college socialist??? I am just beyond disgusted that the President is being banned from schools. President Obama is the first half black president (keep in mind he is half white, but half black is different from any president we've had). In the 1950's if Obama had said he was going to be President someday, he would have been ridiculed and laughed at. He is proof that you can be anything you want to be here in America. What about that is a bad role model for children? No one is saying the children or their parents have to agree with his policies, but what parent would not agree with a need to motivate children to get an education and stay in school?

I really hope this changes and that the speech will be allowed to be seen by all students in America.


Here is the article where I found some of my information.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/06/AR2009090601157.html