Thee was a big stink made about Obama’s plan to make a speech to school children this morning; the first day of school for many districts. Most of the flap was over his original lesson plan for teachers that had the kids setting goals and seemed to leave the kids accountable to the president. Then there was a video that one Utah school had shown last week. That video highlighted a variety of celebrities pledging to do one thing or another and ended with a chorus of all of them pledging to serve the president. It’s really creepy.
Well, the speech is over and what ever version was used today was just fine. It was all about the kids taking responsibility for themselves. To work hard, persevere, be respectful of teachers and parents.
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 home – 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.
Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.
I have no beef with the words, the tone, the message – it’s great! I wish Obama would bring the same attitude and rhetoric to his policies.
I think there’s one important thing to be learned from the whole episode;
A big group of the American public don’t trust Obama; at least not enough to let him talk to their kids. Given the inconsistency of his message, I understand why.
Let’s see how he squares all this personal responsibility talk with his message to the joint session of congress tomorrow; speaking about government health care.
Tags: obama