Un-Liberaled Woman

I read the President’s speech to school kids today. My verdict – trust me, I already no you don’t care or probably don’t agree – that overall it’s probably what most administrators should be telling students themselves. I don’t think it’s a perfect speech – that’s not possible.

But here are two key passages from the speech that I think are vital:

“And no matter what you want to do with your life, I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse, or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You’re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.”

‘But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at homes – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying.”

To me this is a fine speech to give to kids. There are things I don’t think are necessary – ‘I hope you’ll wash your hands a lot’ – but to me, there are no major issues of the speech. That said, I don’t have kids so if I were in that position I might feel differently. AND, I think the bigger question throughout this entire issue is:

Why do government (public) schools have to rely on the President to relay this message -about working hard and getting your homework done – that they should already be responsible for promoting to our children in the first place?

Answer – because our government school system is broken, broken, broken. But that’s another topic for another day. The silver lining is that at least the message is getting out there – put down the Xbox and pick up the calculator.

And for those who are chastising parents who have opposition to the President’s speech and are electing to not have their kids in school that day. Where was your outcry when this statement was made?

“The Department of Education should not be producing paid political advertising for the president, it should be helping us to produce smarter students. And the president should be doing more about education than saying, ‘Lights, camera, action’.”

- Richard Gephardt (Democrat), then the House Majority Leader on George H.W. Bush’s speech to school children in 1991

I’m not putting that up there to get down in the hypocrisy hoe-down. But honestly, people need to quit yammering about parents who have elected their free choice in THEIR kids’ attendance to school today. Most of us who went to college skipped school to nurse binge drinking hangovers and didn’t think twice about it. Now all of a sudden a parent is active in their son/daughter’s education and because we don’t agree with their choice it’s okay to label them as bad parents. Who are WE to judge them in the fucking first place! Most of us aren’t even parents ourselves.

Do I agree with them pulling their children out of school? No because I don’t really have a problem with the speech. But I do respect their choice as parents. Most of the parents I know who are taking their kids out of school are using the time to teach their kids about government and other lesson plans they believe are vital to their kids well being and education. How do I know this? Because I participated in this thing called communicating and asked them.

Most of these parents are some of the most active, involved parents I have ever met. Yet, I keep seeing and hearing others treat these people as if they have the parenting skills of Britney Spears speeding down the LA freeway with her infant child sitting on her lap with no seatbelt. Please, give me a break.  Even Britney thinks it’s humorous in the photo op she provided for this post (FYI – that’s a tongue-in-cheek remark for those who didn’t get it).

SIT DOWN with your cries of chastising these people as intolerant and take the time to inquire about why they are choosing this path, what they plan to do with their children while they are out of school, etc. Today on the radio I even heard The Drex Show state that the actions of these parents might be racially-biased. Parents take kids out of school for much more vapid reasons, yet we’re choosing this to get on parents about??? Come on. (Rolling MAH eyes.)

The President was fulfilling his duties of the office by giving this speech to kids on the first day of school. I wish every President – both Republican and Democrat – would do this more often because kids need all the guidance they can get especially those who don’t have involved parents.

In a world where the likes of Paris Hilton (shudders) is for SOME reason idolized, I think the office of the President (regardless of his policies that I don’t agree with) is still a good role model for children. As long as teachers are not using it as a stepping stone to preach their own politics in the classroom, I don’t really have a problem with it. But I wish that people would be respectful of those who choose and don’t choose to participate in these events. The only thing the negativity brings is fuel to our overbloated egos, making judgments where really we have no business spouting off our mouths.