"Teach your children well... And feed them on your dreams." -Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young
I rarely, if ever, get political in blog posts. After all, I am a daddy blogger. But something happened in the world of politics this week that falls into my genre. So I feel compelled to share my thoughts.
Vice President Joe Biden spoke at an elementary school in York, PA on Wednesday. He spoke to a group of fourth graders. And he chose this audience to push the President's agenda. He was selling a provision in the jobs bill that would have given $35 billion for state and local governments to pay for public jobs, like teachers and police officers. (As it turns out it failed in the Senate on Thursday.)
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I rarely, if ever, get political in blog posts. After all, I am a daddy blogger. But something happened in the world of politics this week that falls into my genre. So I feel compelled to share my thoughts.
Vice President Joe Biden spoke at an elementary school in York, PA on Wednesday. He spoke to a group of fourth graders. And he chose this audience to push the President's agenda. He was selling a provision in the jobs bill that would have given $35 billion for state and local governments to pay for public jobs, like teachers and police officers. (As it turns out it failed in the Senate on Thursday.)
He told the students - 9 and 10 year-olds, mind you - that all he and the President want to do is "ask people who make a lot of money to pay a little bit more in taxes" to pay for teachers likes the ones at their school who lost their jobs. Just like that. He even held his thumb and index finger apart just a tiny bit to illustrate his point, and show how little extra these people with a lot of money have to pay.
Unacceptable.
The Vice President wants to visit an elementary school and talk about the importance of working hard, or the dangers of drugs and alcohol, or the value in service to country, that's fine. I'm all for it. Instead, what Mr. Biden did amounts to nothing more than propaganda. Filling the heads of children with one party's ideas. He had a captive audience, and this is what he decided to talk about? Inexcusable.
As a parent, I would be furious if my child were in that classroom. And before you start making assumptions about my politics, I would be just as furious if a Republican spewed right-wing talking points to a bunch of kids. I would be furious because no one's personal politics belong as part of the curriculum in a public school classroom. Just like no one's religion belongs there either.
Maybe some of those students went home and asked their parents about what the Vice President said. Maybe some of the parents offered an opposing point of view. Maybe some of those kids didn't say anything to their parents because they assumed what this very important man was telling them must be true. Maybe their teachers reinforced Mr. Biden's ideas after he left. Maybe THEY offered the opposing view. I honestly don't know.
But that's a lot of maybes. Maybe Mr. Biden should have chosen something else to talk about. Or read them a book.
When we start presenting political views to impressionable children who are incapable of questioning the presenter, that's propaganda. It's disturbing. It can't happen. It shouldn't happen. It's one thing for parents to teach their children their political beliefs. One could even argue that in itself is potentially dangerous. But that is a parent's right. It is not a school's or the government's right to deliver an uncontested political message to our children.
We all have our own political beliefs. They are different from everyone else's. We all approach the issue of teaching these beliefs to our children differently. Whether it's right or wrong, I don't plan to instill my daughter with my beliefs. I want her to have her own. I hope to present both sides of issues to her when the time comes, tell her which side I am on, and have her decide which side she is on.
And when she enters public school next year, I certainly don't want a teacher, administrator, or politician bringing their political beliefs into the classroom and presenting them to my daughter as fact.
What are your thoughts? I'd appreciate if comments were kept to the issue of politics in the classroom, and not the merits of a particular agenda.
Unacceptable.
The Vice President wants to visit an elementary school and talk about the importance of working hard, or the dangers of drugs and alcohol, or the value in service to country, that's fine. I'm all for it. Instead, what Mr. Biden did amounts to nothing more than propaganda. Filling the heads of children with one party's ideas. He had a captive audience, and this is what he decided to talk about? Inexcusable.
As a parent, I would be furious if my child were in that classroom. And before you start making assumptions about my politics, I would be just as furious if a Republican spewed right-wing talking points to a bunch of kids. I would be furious because no one's personal politics belong as part of the curriculum in a public school classroom. Just like no one's religion belongs there either.
Maybe some of those students went home and asked their parents about what the Vice President said. Maybe some of the parents offered an opposing point of view. Maybe some of those kids didn't say anything to their parents because they assumed what this very important man was telling them must be true. Maybe their teachers reinforced Mr. Biden's ideas after he left. Maybe THEY offered the opposing view. I honestly don't know.
But that's a lot of maybes. Maybe Mr. Biden should have chosen something else to talk about. Or read them a book.
When we start presenting political views to impressionable children who are incapable of questioning the presenter, that's propaganda. It's disturbing. It can't happen. It shouldn't happen. It's one thing for parents to teach their children their political beliefs. One could even argue that in itself is potentially dangerous. But that is a parent's right. It is not a school's or the government's right to deliver an uncontested political message to our children.
We all have our own political beliefs. They are different from everyone else's. We all approach the issue of teaching these beliefs to our children differently. Whether it's right or wrong, I don't plan to instill my daughter with my beliefs. I want her to have her own. I hope to present both sides of issues to her when the time comes, tell her which side I am on, and have her decide which side she is on.
And when she enters public school next year, I certainly don't want a teacher, administrator, or politician bringing their political beliefs into the classroom and presenting them to my daughter as fact.
What are your thoughts? I'd appreciate if comments were kept to the issue of politics in the classroom, and not the merits of a particular agenda.
