In case you haven’t seen this video (which is likely to be the case if you get your news from the ‘major’ news networks), you may watch it here. This is, in a sense, the topic of this week’s discussion.
I say ‘in a sense’, because the questions that I want to ask you all out there really has nothing to do with the song itself or any views laid out in the song, but in the principle behind the ‘event’ recorded in the video:
- Is it right to venerate any president or public figure in a public-school setting involving young children?
- Does it matter if the president is in or out of office regarding public, government-funded, educationally-based endorsement and praise? What if it was Reagan they were praising, or Bush, or Jefferson? At what point does it become ‘ok’?
- Should politics be involved with the official curriculum (as stated by the school in defense of the video) under any circumstance?
- In defending the video and its contents, the school claimed that the song had been practiced and performed by the children in celebration of Black History Month. Is there a wiser choice of topic that they could have chosen?
- And lastly: is this an example of political indoctrination in public schools, or merely an exercise of ‘free speech’? Or perhaps something else entirely?
Again, I apologize for the brevity of this post; I’ll be back to comment more at length and bring up some more issues you might find interesting once my hand is back in ‘working order’. Until then, question boldly and demand answers.
--Reformation HQ
Meghan H.
