If someone's diaried this already, I'll delete. I've been in class all day, and just found out about this.
In one of the very conservative, very white flight counties around Tennessee, the local school system has decided listening to Obama's education speech is so controversial, students will needto get parental permission to watch the speech.
This isn't conservatism, this is obscene. This school board isn't interested in education, or in citizenship, or in democracy, or in open-mindedness, or in the strengths of a public school setting. It's not interested in bringing students into the public square and the marketplace of ideas, but in pandering to the increasingly unhinged.
I knew this county was conservative, and that much of Tennessee was going backwards while the rest of the country was finally moving forward, but even I'm shocked by this.
My apologies for not having something more substantive to say. I'm still reeling from this. Feel free to post suggestions for fleshing out the diary.