I waited till the speech was made to make my call so as to study the body language. I have viewed it many times. This in spite of already reading it many times over. And the conclusion that I come to is this : The Right should apologize to President Obama.

There are a few things I would like to cover here. First, I would go about the contents of the speech. Next, I would take the controversy and lastly I would like to address parental concern.

The contents of the speech was as harmless as it can come. It was a very simple speech. It was about asking the kids of today to stay in school. He told the kids that he too made mistakes and the importance of education.

I feel that this speech was modeled for minorities. All of the positive examples he brought up are minorities. Minorities also tend to have issues (not that White people do not have them) such as single parents, high drop-out rates and tendency to talk back to teachers at school and what the Presidents said was what so many teachers told my friends so many times : It is no excuse. Especially for the African American population, President Obama is a considered a role model and sometimes having a role model saying this might change a person’s life.

The entire controversy was about the lesson plan. It was about the simple question : What can you do to help President Obama? Had there not been a soap opera nonsense that took place, it would have been a brilliant way to get kids to write their ideas down. I would bet that they would have written about big plans and, lets face it, many silly ideas.

“Do not give up on yourself.” That was the correct answer to the essay question. Yes, if you want to say that President Obama ripped this out of an old story, you are right. I recall my Jewish friend telling me a similar wise story in class in High School in a different context. This also justifies President Obama’s innocence in the “charge” of indoctrination.

I cannot remember what President HW Bush said to us when I was in school. However, this speech with the lesson plan would have been something that many pupils would never have forgotten for the rest of their lives. Like I have not forgotten what my Jewish friend said years ago. (Thanks R.M).

The Right wing has spoilt that experience with the garbage of political attacks. I think that they should apologize. It is one thing to say what you feel, it is another to slander others. They should not go about accusing without evidence and force the other side to prove otherwise. For example, if I go about saying that Governor Palin has hired hit-men to kill David Letterman; without backing it up; it is wrong and silly; like the charge of indoctrination.

There are some parents who feel that they should be informed first. There is a fine line to be drawn between concern and paranoia. For example, my mum literally dragged my teenage behind out of my friends’ house,by the ears, home to study for a test the next day rather than play Sega Saturn at their place. That is tough love.

But if you are going to pull your kids out of class because you think that they should not be taught about evolution, you stepped over the line. Curriculum should not be dictated by parents just as road planning should not be done by drivers. Children should be taught what they need to know, not what the parents think the child needs to know. In the same way, if you want to step in because you did not want your kid to be motivated by the President, you are paranoid.

Lastly, I would like to share another personal story. A police commissioner once came in to my middle school gave a talk. He warned us about sexual predators and other kinds of people to avoid and to say no to drugs. My parents never knew about it. If that is called indoctrination, I think it is of a good kind. Just like what President Obama did.

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