The simple answer (the one the left could not hear) was not the fact that he wanted to speak but the pre-meeting notes sent out by the White House.   Specifically, the statement asking students to write about how they can help the President (read his agenda).   Combine this with the lack of speech text and the current state of the Health care debate, and parents rightfully asked, “What is he going to say?”  Will it be political or simply about the importance of education?  Was he going to tell students to help him save health care in this country?  Was he going to explain that Grandma will not be denied health care under his plan?   More generally, was he talking to high school students, middle school, elementary school students?   Was it really appropriate for all?  All good questions but with no forth-right answers made parents a bit nervous.

Add to this a short basic education on education.  School boards spend months (even years) planning and tuning their education programs to meet Federal and State guildelines.    This job is one that many spend much of the “summer break” to manage.  In general, the actual curriculum is controlled and set forth the counties and implemented through your local school administrators and devout teachers to try to meet or exceed those guidelines.    Weeks before school starts lesson plans are put in place, schedules set, students placed into classrooms.    Involved parents pay attention and offer input/feedback in much of this process.  Why does the President expect all of this to be placed on hold (at all grade levels) for a special assignment dictated from Washington?  It smacks of Federal control of our students education.  A visceral reaction of Americans should have been expected and frankly am I glad it occurred.   This country is not as far gone as many have feared.

So all this concern from the “right wing” was met with understanding and clarity from the left…oh sorry…was met with comments such as “Obama is being asked to sit in the back of the school bus.”    “All Presidents speak to classrooms.  This is no different.”

The racists comments will be taken as they always should be, as proof that their argument is lacking in facts and they have no intellectual foothold.  The second point is worth some clarification.    All Presidents speak to classrooms, I agree.   George Bush was reading to a classroom when 9/11 occurred.   In cases such as this, the President is speaking to a single classroom or a single school; not a mandated national broadcast.   I would expect that the reading materials or speech content is germane to the school curriculum and approved in general terms by the local administration…as it should be.

Many were simply asking for the chance to preview the speech and be prepared for what was said and questions that might arise.   As “crazy” as this uproar was, the White House released the speech before Monday and changed the text of the offending question.   Yet more proof that Americans still do have the power and Washington sometimes listens.   I think the left is more uncomfortable with parents and the more conservative general population learning this valuable lesson.