Norwalk schools and some parents say 'no' to Obama pep talk

Since I have been in Norwalk and have had a child in the school system I have formed some opinions about the school system. It is a major center of city culture. The school takes every effort to prepare students for future education. But in this case Mr. Wulf has made a serious error. I doubt that his predecessors made it when Presidents made speeces to school children.
In a democratic society the most important task of parents and educators is to teach students to listen to and make informed judgments about the political process. The President's speech will probalbly be twenty minutes of blather about the importance of education and how he and his wife obtained theirs, blah, blah, blah. Mr. Wulf fears this will seduce these innocent children.

All politicians do this. But people including children soon learn which make decisions of which they approve or disapprove and grade them.

More important Mr. Wulf fears words more than silence. In 1984 George Orwell's characters refer to "wrong speech." This "wrong speech" is of course prohibited. The same is true today in China and other oppressive regimes.

The correct answer for Norwalk and one I would have advocated were I on the school board is to allow children to hear speeches from all in public service "the free flow of ideas" rather than censureship.
Please respond with your opinions.

Thank you,

Jim Jones
918 Cherry Parkway
Norwalk, IA

What about the parents out there who do not believe that what Obama is doing is good for society. Why would we want our children to listen to him ramble if we dont agree with what he is doing in the first place. If you want your children to hear his "speech" on education than you can do it on your own time!

susie wrote:

What about the parents out there who do not believe that what Obama is doing is good for society. Why would we want our children to listen to him ramble if we dont agree with what he is doing in the first place. If you want your children to hear his "speech" on education than you can do it on your own time!

Well, it would appear that those parents aren't much more educated than their children. They talk alot, but there's no substance to what they discuss.

Prejudice and racism is all those parents carry to their children. Intolerance and hate-mongering...oh, and that ever faithful evangelical born again republican made religion. ;)

You give them FAR too much credit.

Parents who refused to allow their children to watch the president's speech are the same ones who join churches and let their 11 year old daughters marry their 56 year old uncles.

Box of rocks are smarter than the smaller minority of idiots in this nation getting FAR too much news coverage.