I got a lot of responses here on DailyKos to the "permission slip" I had to send with my kids so they could watch the President's speech on Tuesday. (And I made the Rec List! Whooo-hooo!) In light of that and the subsequent discussions I've had with other Dublin parents, I think I'd like to get a group together to show up at the next meeting of the Dublin School Board on the 22nd. More info below the fold...
In the wake of the President's education speech to students--and, of course, our school district's asinine response--I'm thinking it might behoove us to attend the next Dublin School Board meeting on the 22nd. We could point our how displeased we were with decision to force students to "opt-in" to hear the President of the United States. It would also be a good opportunity to note that the disrespect they showed the office of the President--and the fact that they knuckled under to a bunch of loud mouths--is not only a terrible lesson in civics to our kids, but also a dangerous one. Look at how partisan and shrill things have gotten right now:
* Across the country, town hall meetings with politicians are becoming screaming matches
* An elected U.S. Representative heckles the President and call him a liar during an address to Congress
* According to a Columbus Dispatch poll,
1 in 5 Columbus-area residents either don't believe or don't know if President Obama was born in the U.S.
* According to the same poll, nearly a third of local Republicans don't believe he was born in the U.S.
Our kids deserve better. We should be helping them learn how American democracy is supposed to work. And our schools should be doing their part, too. Education should not be a partisan issue. Our kids are too important for that.
So, if you're interested in coming to the School Board meeting, please email me or post a comment here so we can figure out exactly what we want to do.