I’ve given careful consideration before writing this post, mostly because while it’s not my intention to offend or stir up controversy, this is and always will be… my blog. Which means if you don’t like what I’m writing, you’re not being forced to keep reading. Unless you’re having a train wreck moment and simply can’t look away, then by all means ogle a little longer why don’t you?
My sister made the comment over the weekend that I could have just kissed her for. She told me how disappointed she was in her son’s school over their decision not to show President Obama’s speech on September 8th. First of all, we’re not sure that the school didn’t show the students the speech but according to my nephew, he didn’t see the speech. 
I, on the other hand, know my kids didn’t see the speech because we talked about it. And, like my sister, I am very disappointed as well. Possibly even angered by it. See, I like my children’s school district but in the six years we’ve lived here and my kids have attended it, I’ve been let down by some of their decisions and practices. It came to a head for me two years ago when I blogged about how my son’s middle school showed a blatant disrespect for our nation’s capital, the monuments and how they completely missed so many important and teachable moments. Well, it seems that they’ve missed another one. Honestly? I could have sworn that part of the school’s job was to educate them.
Unfortunately they totally missed the bus on this one.
In all honesty, I should have written this post two weeks ago when I first thought that the school district may not show the President’s education speech but silly me, I hoped our district wouldn’t be so apathetic in letting our kids see something that could motivate and move them in a positive way. I understand that there was unrest over what the speech might actually be about but when you have the chance to read the speech before it airs and see that there is no agenda other than to motivate and engage our kid in their own futures then there’s no excuse for that kind of ignorance.
But that’s bad. We can’t do that. It would be… asking them to be responsible and Lord knows that we’ve created a generation of kids who have become privileged in just about every aspect of their lives. Their education should be no different right?
WRONG.
If you ask me and a lot of other wise parents, our kids needed to hear this speech.
It’s true. You know it is. You’ve seen those kids; the ones that could care less if they make it to school or if they do go, what happens in their day once they get there. So what would have happened if our kids would have heard the President tell them that they can do great things but they must be responsible for that greatness.
My God.
I shudder to think how successful they could be if they heard that and believed it.
I mean heaven forbid we actually expect our kids to take responsibility for their successes or failures. We feel guilty when they don’t do well and understandably so, but do we ever stop and think that maybe, just MAYBE, we should put the guilt back on them and let them fail? I mean what would be so wrong with that? They might learn something from it.
Failing sucks. It’s easy to do but it’s no damn fun.
In none of my years of school did anyone say that I could “write my own destiny”.
Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide.
I would have loved to hear that. I would have loved to know that I was good at something, and that it was OK for me to fail every now and then because it meant I’d be successful somewhere else.
I’m trying to find the problem that people are having with President Obama’s speech because I’m not seeing anything bad or wrong or offensive about it.
There are a lot of kids who never hear that they are good at something. There are millions of kids who don’t even know that they have a destiny let alone that they can write it!
The schools and districts that didn’t show the speech missed the boat on giving the kids that are at risk for dropping out by the time they hit high school a reason to stay and work hard. They missed the boat on allowing them to hear and see a landmark speech that was created just. for. them. It wasn’t about anything else except for the opportunities they have available to them if they really wanted it.
I read the President’s speech the night before it aired because I was curious. I wasn’t scared about what might be on the speech but I did want to know what my kids might be hearing because it could open up the door for some excellent conversations with them.
To prove my point, the night before the speech, Bug and I were discussing my frustrations over why everyone seemed so up in arms about a speech they haven’t even heard yet. I told him that the school might not let him watch it and after being a bit upset over that thought, he asked me to read some of the speech to him, since I was tweeting, reading and talking about it. After listening to me read a portion of it, he stops me and tells me this, if there was ever a doubt in my mind that my son wouldn’t understand what the President was trying to tell him, those thoughts were gone in that very moment.
If you’re a parent like me, and most are better than me… hence the name “the guilty parent”, then you have probably talked your child about working hard and doing well in school BUT… let the President tell them that and it might not go in one ear and out the other for a change.
Maybe the thing that bothers me most is that we have thousands of schools looking for and taking the stimulus handouts and grants from the government so that they can give kids the tools they need to succeed but when it comes to letting our nation’s leader (like him or not) tell the kids that all the tools in the world won’t matter if they don’t show up and work hard for what they want…
they’ve completely failed on their responsibility to give my children ALL the tools they need to succeed.
