The hoopla around President Obama’s speech to students tomorrow has been pretty danged astonishing. Since I’ve already blogged about it elsewhere, I thought I’d just drop a link to the text as it will be delivered tomorrow, and then maybe add some witty commentary.
I strongly encourage you to read it. It’s jam-packed with scary radical ideas, like:
But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying.
No excuses for not trying? How DARE he!
And what about this?
No one’s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You’re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You’ve got to practice. It’s the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it’s good enough to hand in.
**gasp!!**
Will he really say that one has to work at things to get good at them? What a scary thought!
…. Okay, enough snark.
What I really want to know is — how are all those parents who are planning to keep their kids home tomorrow, or who called the schools in a panic about “socialist indoctrination” going to explain why they don’t agree with what Obama has to say here?
I mean seriously, how would that go?
“No, Johnny, if the president said it, it’s WRONG! You really don’t need to work at your education, and it’s not your responsibility to do your best.”
What an overplayed hand this was. Ridiculous.