To Any Parent Who Phoned the School or Wrote to a Teacher Protesting Obama’s Upcoming Speech to School Children:

Do you truly believe our President has the ability or the agenda to “brainwash” American students through an Internet broadcast on the topic of education? Do you know he is not the first President to speak specifically to school-aged children? Did you (or your parents) protest when Ronald Reagan or Bush 41 did it?

Your complaints about our elected President trying to involve our children in the democratic process and encourage them to value education are alarmingly ignorant, culturally biased, and insulting. Because of your numbers and your threats to teachers and administrators, all you’ve managed to do is teach MY children about the unproductive and hateful nature of partisan politics. We had ENOUGH of that during the Clinton administration.

There needs to be a new War in this country and that is a War on Partisan Politics. STOP THE MADNESS!

I wonder, is it the conservative talk show hosts that prompted your actions or seeded your opinions? Talk about propaganda! (Have your child look up the word “propaganda” in the dictionary because clearly, YOU don’t know the meaning.)


According to Education Secretary Arne Duncan, in the September 8 speech “the President will challenge students to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for their learning. He will also call for a shared responsibility and commitment on the part of students, parents and educators to ensure that every child in every school receives the best education possible so they can compete in the global economy for good jobs and live rewarding and productive lives as American citizens.”

Scary stuff, eh? Good God!

Because of the controversy and the number of calls (on both sides of the issue) our school district (TVUSD) has stated on its website that it will remain “apolitical” and therefore has made no directive to stop teachers from broadcasting the speech. “If there would be reason to have this event be a legitimate part of a classroom curriculum, teachers will notify their principals no later than 9 a.m. Friday, September 4 and parents will be notified on Friday if their teacher will be using the address as part of their curriculum on Tuesday.” An Opt-Out form will also be available for parents who don’t want their children to participate, and these students will not suffer any academic of behavioral consequences.

The Junior High Principal followed with a message reading “no Emily Gray teachers will show the address on Tuesday, September 8. After the initial broadcast and after viewing the material, should teachers determine the broadcast to be of educational value in their curriculum, they will notify parents of their plan to show the broadcast.”

Well, I, as my daughters’ most important and consistent teacher, am going to view it and record it, and show it to them. Anyone, particularly an extremely intelligent and successful person—the product of the finest education America has to offer—who is willing and able to talk to my girls about the importance of their education, is welcome in our home. And he should be in our schools as well.