it's a shut out!

here's the thing. a note from a parent or guardian should excuse a kid from anything at school. anything. any.thing.

next week, obama is going to make an address to the nation's school children. this address will not be carried live at the schools in some districts. this is wrong. it should be carried live everywhere, and if you don't want your kids to see it, you should send a note. all kids whose parents have sent a note should be allowed to go to the liberry and sit quietly and read a patriotic book about supporting your president. heh. no, seriously - parent sends a note, kid is excused, end of story.

a parental note should be enough to get a kid out of anything - whether it's reading a summer reading book the parent believes is not beneficial or listening to a speech from the president or going on a field trip or participating in gym class or anything at all. i don't think the schools need to offer myriad options. they can offer 2 options - the default and the alternate. the schools would not need to offer the alternate unless there was a sort of groundswell opposition to the default. it's not like they'd have to have options for everything. and if neither of those options satisfies, the parent can work directly with the teacher or principal to develop another option, or the parent can work with the child on the concept that the child will take a zero on an assignment because the assignment is contrary to the family's principles.

the default for a presidential speech should be "school day stops, kids hear president". i really don't see how, even if you disagree with the president, that you can actually believe he is going to say anything that will not be a positive message to the kids. but, okay, some folks don't want their kids to hear it. fine. send a note and your kid is excused, just like you send a note when your kid has a cough and won't be participating in gym class. you don't need to create a big hooplah and force the entire school district to opt out.

the basic principle here -- the president speaks, we listen. period. after he speaks, we discuss, we decide how we feel about what he said, we decide how we will react. i have heard some people say if bush had made a speech like this, they would have held their kids out of school and not let them listen. that is just as wrong as these folks not allowing their kids to listen to obama. listening is the only way to learn. how do we know what our leaders are thinking, believing, and wanting to try unless we listen? when we shut out, the only thing we learn is how to be divisive.

still, the ultimate authority in the life of a child is the parent, and if the parent says "my child will not" then the school should not override that.

he drew a circle that shut me out -
heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
but love & i had the wit to win -
we drew a circle that took him in.
~~~ edwin markham