MBGuy wrote:The Annoyed Man wrote:Much as I can't stand the man and fear that he is the ruination of our country, like others, I don't see a problem with this as long as it is agenda-free and just an exhortation to buckle down and be good students.
That's a good argument, and one that's hard to argue against. But if we look at it as a States issue vs. Fed issue, I see it as the WH sticking it's nose in where it doesn't belong. Doesn't matter if it's left or right, good "life lesson" or not, should the Fed President be heard by local school district audience on local school district time?
It really depends on what it's about. I remember similar things from
my childhood (1950s & early 1960s), and I don't see it as necessarily a bad thing. Back then, it was films about atomic bomb drills for the classroom ("duck and cover") distributed by the Atomic Energy Commission (a federal agency) and the Defense Department (a federal agency) — both of which were answerable to Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy during their respective administrations. And we had President Kennedy's athletic fitness standards program - not necessarily a bad thing either. And then there were the educational films created by NASA (another federal agency) about the Space Program, which was transitioning from infancy to "full swing" back then. I agree in principle that schools should be run according to local exigencies, and not according to some federal "master plan," but that said, there
are some things, even if rarely so, that the federal government may be better equipped to do than local governments. In the case of the Obaminator's speech to the kiddoes, I think that as long as it is agenda-free, and as long as local districts and/or schools have the freedom to opt out of it without penalty if they want to, then I don't see any great harm in its being distributed.
). That said, and in general principle, IF the speech is agenda-free, then I don't have a problem with it.