Assignments for Sept. 8

As you’ve probably heard, the president will address public school children next week. I’m not bothered by the address itself, which seems little different from elected officials speaking in schools, but the announced assignments for elementary school students are creepy. Students will be asked questions such as:

Why is it important that we listen to the President?

What is the President asking me to do?

What specific job is he asking me to do?

And this question is somewhat amusing:

Are we able to do what President Obama is asking of us?

It gives the impression that students may not be capable of achieving the President’s lofty goals for them.

Students are also supposed to write letters to themselves about how they can help the president. I thought that was a tactic used to brainwash prisoners of war, not an assignment for the first day of third grade.

As a group, students are supposed to list the goals they’ve come up with in a “cluster web,” which sounds like some kind of politically correct Venn Diagram, and there will be school-wide incentive programs to reward good little followers of the president. Another assignment is to “exchange sticky notes.”

I liked it better when speeches to schools were just about photo ops and soundbites.