Texas Rep Debbie Reynolds -- An Exchange re: Obama's Speech to School Children
Dear Representative Riddle,
I was disappointed to receive your message of Friday 4 September (re: Obama Speech). I feel that your position is ill-founded on several reasons, and I especially feel it is beyond your responsibilities as an elected representative to encourage citizens to ignore any communication from an elected leader.
I did not vote for Barack Obama in 2008, but I recognize that he is the legitimately elected president of the nation. As such, he feels he can use his bully pulpit to encourage students for whatever values he sees fit. Previous presidents have done this as well, and yet only now do we have this very irrational outcry, using words such as "brainwashing" and "indoctrination," when some talking heads on television even liken such a speech to Stalin's control of youth during the Soviet era. All is nonsense.
I am an educator myself and have been for over six years. One of the concerns that many educators have is the inability of our students to appreciate events in our world, an inability to use dialectical thinking, and an inability to discuss anything without the same rash emotionalism they see on television talk shows. Would it harm any student to listen to the President of the United States for 15 or 20 minutes on any issue, including his apparent topics of personal responsibility and the importance of education (ironically, two of the value planks of the political Right in this country)? Surely no one speech can brainwash any student into falling for any values that are at odds with parents at home. Instead, this would be a great opportunity for teachers, students, and parents to discuss a single topic for just one day, ideally to examine all facets of the issue, and come to their own conclusions. However, by encouraging parents to prevent their children from listening to the Chief Executive, we are only encouraging ignorance, rumor-mongering, and reliance on the talking heads of mass media ... instead of independent thought.
Ironically, those who feel Obama may somehow indoctrinate empty minds into some sort of socialist mindset fail to see that it is in an actual socialist setting that their children are sitting -- public schools are nothing if not a socialist idea. The President, as head of the executive branch, then controls the large federal tax dollars being fed into these public schools, and so he does, in fact, have more of a right to speak to the recipients of public education than most people do.
Further, there are many ideas that are presented in public schools that may go contrary to the value set of the family, including biological evolution, commercialism, some literature texts, etc. And yet we expect parents to "deal with" these issues while expecting the students to listen to or learn about these items. We cannot expect parents to excuse their children from science for three to six weeks while principles of plate tectonics, species divergence and adaptation, and astronomy are discussed. We send students to learn and ideally to make up their own minds of what is of value to them, and what is not. We should not excuse students from listening to the President's words, once a year or less often, just because we may or may not agree with everything he says.
I imagine that if President Bush had offered to speak to school children during the first week of September 2001, that we would not have opposed his plans; even the far Left would only have taken a "let's wait and see" approach. (Ironically, it was in precisely that setting, a school, that President Bush was speaking to children when the terrorist attacks began that year -- what is the difference here?). I still maintain that much of the irrational hostility to Barack Obama, especially from white Texans, is due to a deep-seeded racial prejudice and fear, and the continued rumors of his affinity to Islam. It is precisely this irrational discourse that must stop. We must encourage citizens to stop listening to the pundits and instead go directly to the source -- in this case, listening to the President -- to make up our minds. Anything less is always a mistake. All of us must learn to engage with ideas that may be different than our own, to consider, digest, and then to assimilate or reject those ideas.
Americans, let's be honest, are not the most politically astute. When I discuss politics with European or Canadian friends, they always know more about international affairs and even American affairs, than 90% of Americans I speak to. We need to encourage young people to be aware of process and policy, not to encourage rumors. Just as most young people here have little knowledge of personal financial planning, they have no idea about who their representatives are and what they believe. We should encourage our elected officials to spend more time interacting with young people, regardless of party or beliefs, instead of encouraging ignorance and fostering fear.
I hope you will reconsider your position. I further hope that you will contact the same constituents of your first message and offer a more balanced, encouraging, engaging, enlightened position on being part of the process instead of explaining how they can run away from another's ideas.
Most respectfully,
Bruce J. Martin
5406 Oaklynn Dr
Spring TX 77373-6968 USA
I was disappointed to receive your message of Friday 4 September (re: Obama Speech). I feel that your position is ill-founded on several reasons, and I especially feel it is beyond your responsibilities as an elected representative to encourage citizens to ignore any communication from an elected leader.
I did not vote for Barack Obama in 2008, but I recognize that he is the legitimately elected president of the nation. As such, he feels he can use his bully pulpit to encourage students for whatever values he sees fit. Previous presidents have done this as well, and yet only now do we have this very irrational outcry, using words such as "brainwashing" and "indoctrination," when some talking heads on television even liken such a speech to Stalin's control of youth during the Soviet era. All is nonsense.
I am an educator myself and have been for over six years. One of the concerns that many educators have is the inability of our students to appreciate events in our world, an inability to use dialectical thinking, and an inability to discuss anything without the same rash emotionalism they see on television talk shows. Would it harm any student to listen to the President of the United States for 15 or 20 minutes on any issue, including his apparent topics of personal responsibility and the importance of education (ironically, two of the value planks of the political Right in this country)? Surely no one speech can brainwash any student into falling for any values that are at odds with parents at home. Instead, this would be a great opportunity for teachers, students, and parents to discuss a single topic for just one day, ideally to examine all facets of the issue, and come to their own conclusions. However, by encouraging parents to prevent their children from listening to the Chief Executive, we are only encouraging ignorance, rumor-mongering, and reliance on the talking heads of mass media ... instead of independent thought.
Ironically, those who feel Obama may somehow indoctrinate empty minds into some sort of socialist mindset fail to see that it is in an actual socialist setting that their children are sitting -- public schools are nothing if not a socialist idea. The President, as head of the executive branch, then controls the large federal tax dollars being fed into these public schools, and so he does, in fact, have more of a right to speak to the recipients of public education than most people do.
Further, there are many ideas that are presented in public schools that may go contrary to the value set of the family, including biological evolution, commercialism, some literature texts, etc. And yet we expect parents to "deal with" these issues while expecting the students to listen to or learn about these items. We cannot expect parents to excuse their children from science for three to six weeks while principles of plate tectonics, species divergence and adaptation, and astronomy are discussed. We send students to learn and ideally to make up their own minds of what is of value to them, and what is not. We should not excuse students from listening to the President's words, once a year or less often, just because we may or may not agree with everything he says.
I imagine that if President Bush had offered to speak to school children during the first week of September 2001, that we would not have opposed his plans; even the far Left would only have taken a "let's wait and see" approach. (Ironically, it was in precisely that setting, a school, that President Bush was speaking to children when the terrorist attacks began that year -- what is the difference here?). I still maintain that much of the irrational hostility to Barack Obama, especially from white Texans, is due to a deep-seeded racial prejudice and fear, and the continued rumors of his affinity to Islam. It is precisely this irrational discourse that must stop. We must encourage citizens to stop listening to the pundits and instead go directly to the source -- in this case, listening to the President -- to make up our minds. Anything less is always a mistake. All of us must learn to engage with ideas that may be different than our own, to consider, digest, and then to assimilate or reject those ideas.
Americans, let's be honest, are not the most politically astute. When I discuss politics with European or Canadian friends, they always know more about international affairs and even American affairs, than 90% of Americans I speak to. We need to encourage young people to be aware of process and policy, not to encourage rumors. Just as most young people here have little knowledge of personal financial planning, they have no idea about who their representatives are and what they believe. We should encourage our elected officials to spend more time interacting with young people, regardless of party or beliefs, instead of encouraging ignorance and fostering fear.
I hope you will reconsider your position. I further hope that you will contact the same constituents of your first message and offer a more balanced, encouraging, engaging, enlightened position on being part of the process instead of explaining how they can run away from another's ideas.
Most respectfully,
Bruce J. Martin
5406 Oaklynn Dr
Spring TX 77373-6968 USA
Dear Friends and Neighbors,
By now, most of you are aware that on Tuesday, President Barack Obama will broadcast a message to our school-aged children. I know that many of you agree with me when I say I believe that 100 percent of this president’s agenda is not to be trusted, even when it is innocently repackaged as a pep rally promoting the benefits of education. Our children need to be excited about learning, and they need to be encouraged to complete their education, but they do not need to be taught to idolize Barack Obama.
I have spoken with all five school districts that fall within District 150. Humble and Spring ISD have all informed me that the decision to view the speech in class will be left up to each teacher individually. Klein ISD has informed me that at least some social studies students will be viewing the speech, but that the logistics of working that out will be left to each campus. Aldine ISD had not worked out an official policy when I contacted them, but stressed that parents will have the final say as to whether or not their children will participate.
Tomball ISD has indicated through a letter on their website that they will not air the speech live, but will instead record it and review it to determine if it is appropriate to be viewed in social studies classes at certain grade levels. If it is deemed to be appropriate, then teachers will individually have the option of incorporating it into their curriculum, and students will be given opt-out forms in advance to share with their parents.
If you have children in school and you are concerned about them being exposed to this broadcast, I cannot stress enough that your child is NOT required to participate, regardless of the intentions of your campus. Each of you may choose to remove your child from that portion of class, and I believe most campuses are more than willing to assist you in asserting this right. I encourage you to speak with your child’s campus administrators before Tuesday and work out the plan that will be the least disruptive to your child’s routine in advance.
Please contact my office at (281) 537-5252 if I can be of any additional assistance to you on this issue!
Sincerely,
Debbie Riddle
State Representative
District 150
