(Thumbnail image from Daily Kos)
U.S. President Barack Obama will address the nation’s school children on Tuesday, but his speech is generating controversy and much criticism from some conservatives, even before his actual address.
Various media outlets are keeping a close eye on the issue, including FOX News, the Huffington Post, the Chicago Tribune and Sky News.
First, Dan Springer of FOX News explains one of the reasons the conservatives are opposing the President’s speech.
"The teachers would ask the students to write an essay and ask them to say in the essay how they could help President Obama. That was removed by the Department of Education's website."
CBS News reports the Obama administration has come up with an alternate assignment, asking children to write an essay about how they will achieve their education goals.
“These parents are teaching their children a powerfully dangerous lesson. A black man may have won the election, but they don’t have to listen to him or respect him.”
Chicago Tribune’s Clarence Page writes otherwise. He says the uproar from conservatives is not really about race, tracing back to similar speeches given by former presidents.
“…I don't think race has much to do with it. Presidents Ronald Reagan in 1988 and George H.W. Bush in 1991 gave similar televised addresses, amid some criticism from Democrats about propagandizing on the taxpayers' dime. That's politics.”
No matter what the central issue of the argument is, Greg Milam of Sky News says this controversy says a lot about the political climate in America
“[It] is a demonstration of just how partisan and tense Washington is at the moment.”
So what do you think? What makes parents opt their children out from hearing the speech?
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