President Obama's Speech and Starting School: A Distracting Week for Our Children

Follow my line of thinking if you'll so indulge me... this week is probably one of the most busy weeks for the education department that our country will ever face. I know at least here in Chicago, the majority of students (at least those who haven't started school yet) will start on Tuesday, September 7, 2009. So our children are to some extent grieving over the loss of summer and the return to academia as they know it. On top of that, on Wednesday, September 8, 2009 the 44^th President of the United States, Barack Obama, will be giving a speech to our children. This event is in itself something that you don't see presidents do all that often, if at all, but this week it will be done in our country. I have a few problems with this...

First of all, isn't it enough that the children are just starting school? Now you're causing potential distraction by bringing the President's speech to them the day after most of them are starting school? Couldn't this have been something done via television like most other nationally broadcasted events? You could have had most of the free world's attention by interrupting NBC, ABC, CBS, WGN and any other station that normally stops programming whenever a president has a speech to give. Instead of this, it was decided to catch students in the week that they first start school. I don't understand the reasoning behind this nor do I see the necessity of it for our students.

The next problem I have is that the parents would not have been given access to the speech... only the children. We tell people not to listen to strangers, and even though the President of the United States is not necessarily a stranger, our children may not realize who he is. Granted, the president is not there in person with them, but he will be speaking to them personally. Shouldn't parents be there with their children in case the children have questions? I mean, is it just going to be school-as-usual after this speech is done? Surely some students will have questions or need discussion time? If nothing else when they get home, their parents will want to know what the children just heard! Coming directly from the mouth of a child, it may not come out exactly as voiced to them... which could lead to an unnecessary ball of confusion.

Thirdly, there is a transcript of the speech between President Obama and the children on the Internet. You can find it here and read it if you'd like. My question then becomes if the speech as prepared is available on the Internet, why won't the speech as prepared? If the speech is already available, parents can sit down with their children, they can read it to them (or the technological crew could have taped him giving the speech and put it up over the Internet in advance), and then discuss it right there and cleared up all issues before school started.

I understand that as a country that we want to put stock in our children, and rightfully we should, but I'm not sure I understand the purpose of what President Obama's speech is intended to do. Perhaps it's just to encourage, to strengthen, to enlighten... maybe it's to inspire, to ignite, or to inform... whatever the premise is for his speech, I see the potential for distraction and that isn't fair to our children. They just wanted summer to last a little longer than it has. Now, they'll be dealing with upset parents who don't understand why their president is giving a speech to our children without them present... or parents who are confused as to why the speech as prepared is available as a transcript but then waiting until school has started in order to show it.

From reading the president's transcript it seems that the message is a message of accountability, purpose, and hope; something that parents should be instilling in their children from birth. I'm not against the speech, and I'm not against the speaker... I'm moreso questioning the timing and wondering why now, and why this way? I don't have children that are in school as of yet, but for my nieces and nephews who may be exposed to this, and for those parents who have children that will be exposed to this transcript - now their parents must prepare to respond to what our president has to say, if they haven't already.

I must say, it's a very interesting way to start off the school year. Let's all pray that our children won't be distracted or confused by everything the adults are doing.