Truancy
Parentally Approved Skip Day? And now a message from Karl Marx: Stay in school. Work hard. Set goals. Take responsibility.
Actually, those are the themes of President Obama’s back-to-school speech Tuesday, the one that is being offered to all of the nation’s schools and has set off near-hysteria among some of the president’s more hardcore critics.
The chairman of the Florida Republican Party, Jim Greer, thundered that he was “absolutely appalled that taxpayer dollars are being used to spread President Obama’s socialist ideology.” He accused the president of “indoctrinating” America’s children with “liberal lies.” Where do the Republicans find these people?
Several of Florida’s largest school districts, apparently confident that their students are not gullible dupes, are going to let them watch it anyway. That is, if they’re even in school that day.
Some activists, egged on by right-wing talkers, are urging parents to boycott the speech by keeping their kids home that day. One host tweeted, “Make September 8 Parentally Approved Skip Day,” an odd cause for a conservative to embrace – truancy.
You know things have gone too far when Texas’ Republican Gov. Rick Perry, who was so inflamed by Obama that he suggested his state secede, is the voice of reason. Perry said he’s “certainly not going to advise anybody not to send their kids to school that day.” Moreover, he added in words certain to agitate his more perfervid followers, “Hearing the president speak is always a memorable moment.”
President George W. Bush made a similar address in 1991, and was also accused of trying to plant political propaganda in the schools.
The Obama Department of Education did go overboard with suggested study and discussion topics, like writing letters saying “what they could do to help the president” and addressing the question, “What is President Obama inspiring you to do?”
Cooler heads at the White House are said to have excised these gooey proposals from the accompanying materials. In an age when many students get their news and opinions from Comedy Central, it would have been interesting to hear their responses. They likely would not involve Karl Marx.
Scripps Howard News Service