Obama’s Banal Address to America’s Youth

Posted by Enrique on 09.10.2009

Schoolmarm in chief...



As you are no doubt aware, there was a bit of a dust up over President Barack Obama's address to students, which he delivered with his usual lack of aplomb on Tuesday. Some conservatives were up in arms at the prospect of "indoctrination," while liberals countered that conservatives are whiny, paranoid bastards. As usual with politics, both interpretations have some truth to them.

Obama wasn't the first POTUS to address students, and he wasn't the first to try and push a subtle political message on a captive audience of impressionable youngsters. While it's certainly appropriate for Obama's opponents to criticize anything and everything he does – there's a civics lesson there – the content of the speech is less important than the idea that it's appropriate for the President of United States to address schoolchildren at all.

The story so far…

The transcript of Obama's address to America's youth can be found here. If nothing else, it serves as another testament to the fact Obama is the most overrated public speaker in the human history. I suppose there's no accounting for taste, but the speech is loaded with inconsequential treacle like:

But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, the best schools in the world -- and none of it will make a difference, none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities, unless you show up to those schools, unless you pay attention to those teachers, unless you listen to your parents and grandparents and other adults and put in the hard work it takes to succeed. That's what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education.

I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself. Every single one of you has something that you're good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That's the opportunity an education can provide.

Blah blah blah, the speech goes on like that for the most part – full of banal platitudes, staying far away from anything that might resemble an original thought. I'm not blessed with children myself, but if I was I probably would have given serious thought to keeping them home from school on Tuesday – not because I'm concerned about indoctrination, but because I wouldn't want to subject my kids to such tedious nonsense. I'd rather they spent their time usefully, like by helping their father complete the next mission of Grand Theft Auto.

But what of "indoctrination?" That was a popular word used by rightwing luminaries such as Glenn Beck and Michelle Malkin. Liberals predictably ridiculed restless conservatives for being concerned that a Chicago politician who has never worked a day in the private sector just might try to slip some crypto-socialist messages into a speech aimed at a bunch of brainless kids. One could certainly make the argument that knee-jerk conservative outrage about whatever Obama does is manufactured. But one could also make the argument Obama's speech was laden with subtle indoctrination. Consider this passage:

You'll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You'll need the insights and critical-thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You'll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.

We need every single one of you to develop your talents and your skills and your intellect so you can help us old folks solve our most difficult problems. If you don't do that -- if you quit on school -- you're not just quitting on yourself, you're quitting on your country.

Actually, that's not very subtle. Obama sees the role of education to develop "critical-thinking skills," which will then naturally be directed toward lefty social justice pap like fighting poverty (presumably through higher taxes on the rich). This seems to be Obama's sincere worldview, so I doubt he's attempting anything sinister, but he's clearly telling kids their role is to protect the environment and fight homelessness. He's trying to indoctrinate students into a progressive perspective, with the implication they're letting the country down if they quit school before developing those key "critical-thinking skills."

Obama's naïveté would be adorable if it weren't so misguided. Like many liberals, he seems to think the role of business is to "create new jobs and boost our economy." Maybe I should be grateful Mr. Obama deigned to mention the private sector even in passing, but someone needs to tell him job creation is not and shouldn't be the goal of any business. The goal of a business is to make a profit by selling a product or service. Job creation is the happy byproduct of a free market system, but it is not the goal of a private sector enterprise. To tell children otherwise is to mislead them.

Of course, Obama isn't the first POTUS to play politics with America's youth – Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush made similar addresses to students during their administrations. We can assume at those times it was liberals carping about indoctrination and conservatives wondering what all the fuss was about. And, yes, there was a fair amount of indoctrination going on. Hotair's Ed Morrissey points out a passage from Reagan's May 1986 speech to students that was highly nuanced:

Only 5 years ago our economy suffered from high inflation, high interest rates, mushrooming government spending, and steadily increasing unemployment. A lot of people couldn't find jobs, and people on fixed incomes were finding it harder to buy the basics, such as food and shelter. Well, we got inflation down, interest rates down, and our economy created over 1\1/2\ million new jobs just last year alone. The poor are now increasingly able to dig themselves out of poverty, and that's been good economic news.

The good news in defense is that our Armed Forces, which were suffering from neglect and low funding, have now made a comeback. Morale is up in the services, and the quality of our men and women in uniform has never been better -- and I mean never. As a matter of fact, we have the highest percentage of high school graduates in uniform today than we've ever had in the history of our nation, even back when we had the compulsory draft. In addition, our nation has encouraged a more realistic sense of defense needs.

Since it's apparent any POTUS is going insert inappropriate political content into a speech to students, we should ask ourselves if such a venue is ever suitable. The POTUS is head of the Executive Branch of the federal government, which is a position prone to abuse of power and corruption. The person who occupies the Oval Office holds immense power and his/her actions should ideally be met with healthy skepticism. Even if many Americans admire the person or the office, the President of the United States is not supposed to be a hero or a pseudo-monarch who requires adoration or who is entitled to preach to children. Heather MacDonald says it best: "Who, exactly, are you to be saying these things to children? Isn't it the role of teachers and parents to encourage hard work and a love of learning? Is the president also the Great Roofer and Parent and School Purchasing Department in the Sky?"

The POTUS is not our parent, or even our leader. He's the head of state. We shouldn't continue to mistake that for something worthy of worship. On the bright side, Obama didn't tell kids to "just say no to drugs." I think we can all agree the absence of that phrase was the highlight of the speech. Progress.