Obama's Education Speech to our children

So I am no politician by any means but this strikes me as odd. We have had presidents in the past address the youth of this country (Reagan, Bush Sr. ) but has done so on a live public broadcast. The schools would tune in for it as well as the parents at home. This way the parents would be able to discuss what the president talked about. Either helping the child to understand what he was saying or possibly disagreeing with what was said and explaining why the family felt that way.

I am really wary of sending Savannah to school on Tuesday. I do not know what will be said to my child. She is 5 years old and at a very impressionable age. Even though I did not vote for Obama I still want her to respect the current president. So I feel if she comes home and says the president said this, then she will totally believe it. But I will only be hearing what she heard through the mind of a 5 year old. Does that make sense?

The idea of forming a 'Youth Brigade' reminds me of someone not so long ago that said, "Give me a child before he is seven and he will be mine for life." That was Adolph Hitler. Since I was a history major and study a lot on WWII, Hitler was a very charismatic man. He was easy to believe and trust in the beginning. He made beautiful promises of a better nation. I am afraid our country might be falling into the same pattern. As a great man from the same era once said, "Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it." (Sir Winston Churchill). I feel that there are many who might be forgetting our worlds past history.

Back to the education speech. I am not sure if he will go into his Youth Brigade or not, which was passed in March of this year. But as I am just finding out about this now. Here are a few things which these 'youth' will have to abide by. See HERE for the Congressional House Record.

SEC. 125. PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES AND INELIGIBLE ORGANIZATIONS.
`(a) Prohibited Activities- A participant in an approved national service position under this subtitle may not engage in the following activities:
(1) Attempting to influence legislation.
(2) Organizing or engaging in protests, petitions, boycotts, or strikes.
(3) Assisting, promoting, or deterring union organizing.
(4) Impairing existing contracts for services or collective bargaining agreements.
(5) Engaging in partisan political activities, or other activities designed to influence the outcome of an election to any public office.
(6) Participating in, or endorsing, events or activities that are likely to include advocacy for or against political parties, political platforms, political candidates, proposed legislation, or elected officials.
(7) Engaging in religious instruction, conducting worship services, providing instruction as part of a program that includes mandatory religious instruction or worship, constructing or operating facilities devoted to religious instruction or worship, maintaining facilities primarily or inherently devoted to religious instruction or worship, or engaging in any form of religious proselytizing.

I do have a real problem with #7 most of all. I am not sure if he will be addressing any of this in the speech, and it might very well be just about staying in school, which is a great thing to tell the children of this country. But knowing he has all this other stuff out there and passed, makes we weary. Needless to say I will be calling our elementary school first thing Tuesday morning to see if they will actually be showing the students and if they are allowing an opt-out for children whose parents do not wish for their child to view it. Okay I will get off my little political soapbox.

Okay so after a bit more research I was able to find that the DVUSD (Savannah's district) will not be airing the speech to any elementary or middle school students. And high school only if it pertains to their world/american history class lessons. Oh that is a sign of relief. They also figure since we have been 'back to school' for 3 weeks.

As someone wrote to the Examiner earlier today I totally agree with his acticle. It is worth the read. Click HERE to read