Today I received the following message from our kids' high school:
West Forsyth families… this message is to inform you that President Obama will be giving a back-to-school speech on Tuesday, September 14 at 1 p.m. He gave a similar speech last year in which he encouraged students to work hard, stay in school and graduate.
The school system will be showing the President's speech again this year. If you would prefer your student not watch the speech, please send a note with him or her on Tuesday.
Thank you.
I truly, truly, truly don't get this. What have we come to when a back-to-school speech from the President is treated like sex-ed? And I don't say this just because it's this President. I'd say it if we were talking about either President Bush, President Clinton, President Reagan, President Carter, etc.
What's even more troubling is that these are high school kids we're talking about. I can't believe parents feel like their kids aren't mature enough to take what they hear from the President, evaluate it, discuss it and then make their own judgments.
For the record I don't really blame the school administrators; they're obviously reacting to feedback they received last year and are putting a system in place in anticipation of a similar reaction from parents this year. I'm just supremely disappointed that some members of my generation feel like they've raised kids who aren't smart enough to figure out for themselves whether or not a speech from the President is an innocuous message of encouragement, or some sort of "liberal propaganda" disguised as a back to school speech.
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Befuddled 
Our elementary school sent home an opt-out form.
I’m opting out of opting out; my kids will watch the speech.
I dont truly buy the worrying at any level, but its somewhat easier
to take at the elementary school level given that the kids are likely
to be more susceptible to accepting any rhetoric at face value. I
still think its a stretch and I cant imagine this happening if it
was W giving the speech. If someone knows of the system doing this
pre-Obama Id love to hear about it, and Id still find the practice
ridiculous.
Well when I’m home at least I can vote with my remote control and have done so many times for many Presidents on both sides. This especially true during football or basketball seasons. I just like an escape from the daily 24/7/365 politics BS. School kids are kind of a captive audience and I suppose an opt out is kind of weird to me. But if I were still a student I’d love it, especially if it kept me out of a regular class for even a few minutes.
YD, I rarely sit through a speech from any President so Im right there with you. School kids are definitely a captive audience, and I can tell you I sat through my share of boring speeches and most of those were inflicted by the teachers themselves. Still, I cant imagine administrators at my schools even considering not having us listen to a speech from the President that was targeted directly to students. Just amazing to me how nuts the partisanship has gotten. As someone commented on Facebook about my post, its about the office not the man in it.