Saturday, September 5, 2009

Political Agenda

I have been reading the buzz by upset parents who are worried that the President of the United States wants to make a speech to their children about education. I have some thoughts on this issue, as I have children in school.
1. I am not a Republican, so I do not understand the brainwashing theory. I mean, I have no idea what the heck they are talking about. The reality is, it won't matter what he says, because they only listen to the first 7 words (that is what one of my child development books said and started to watch kids after reading it --- very true). So if he is going to brainwash (?????) them, he basically has 7 words to do it in.
2. I think that it is wonderful that the leader of the nation would take time out of his busy schedule to talk to children.
3. Because of No Child Left Behind, there has to be a lesson plan to go along with it and make it standard based or educators can't take the time away from preparing the children for a test to watch it.
4. I want my children to have their own political views. I want them to study and learn and listen and see what they truly believe.
5. No matter what my political views are, I believe that we need to have respect for elected officials. It is diversity, that makes us a great nation.
Thank you for your comment Rich, I couldn't agree with you more.

3 comments:

Andrea said...

Amen!

R. L. Hall said...

As further evidence that I really do read your blog, I thought I'd comment on this one. I have only two comments: (1) You are so right about the attention span of children - and that of adults is only slightly longer. Perhaps at some point we will all discover what the prophets have told us for years: that it is not what takes place outside of the home that "trains up a child" but what they hear, and most importantly, see & feel, in the home that gives them the direction of their lives. Only when there is a void at home does anything that happens outside have any differential impact. (2) We do need to respect elected officials (and teachers too, by the way). I have spent my life around them (the former) and although I tend to believe that few of them are sincere, and even fewer are actually competent, they stepped up to a very difficult job, and unless we are willing to replace them (ourselves), they deserve our respect.

Autumn @ Autumn All Along said...

I'm still unsure what I think about the No Child Left Behind. I know my special ed department teachers seem to love it, but I am still kind of skeptical.