Obama Addresses Our Children

Last Tuesday, September 8, 2009, President Obama gave a speech addressing America’s school children. The speech was broadcast in public schools and watched by both teachers and students in kindergarten up through high school. In the speech, Obama called the students to action. “I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. Don't let your family down or your country down.”

When hearing of the planned speech, many parents were outraged, claiming that Obama didn’t have the right to take up the class time for what they thought would be an effort by Obama to get children behind him, to believe in his “socialist” views. Some parents even took their children out of class that day so they wouldn’t have to hear the President’s speech.

On the other hand, many believed this planned speech to be a good idea. After the speech took place the public generally agreed that the speech was a good thing because it encouraged the children to both stay in, and try their hardest in school.

After the speech was given many Republicans believed that this speech was just a stepping-stone. While they agreed that this speech was mostly harmless and was acceptable for students, they claimed that this was just the beginning, a test to see if Obama could indoctrinate the children to his way of thinking in future speeches.

When asked what he thought of Obama’s speech to schoolchildren, Professor Hiller responded in two parts. “When the speech was announced I was greatly surprised by the amount of offence people took to the idea of the president addressing our schools.” Hiller, like many, didn’t expect such uproar from concerned parents. Hiller continued, “I think the reason there was such backlash is due to the fact that many don’t believe Obama to be a legitimate president, whether it’s because of race or otherwise.” In regards to the speech, “President Obama did a fine job of articulating the dominant views of what education should be in society, the problem now is, who, if anybody, agrees with his point of view?”