Shame on Loudon County School Board

I was surprised when I received a call Friday afternoon from my child's school board. It stated, via recording, that President Obama's speech (the one about how it's important to stay in school and study) was NOT going to be shown in Loudon County classrooms. The reason? They want to review it as they are unsure of its educational value. Unsure of its educational value.

Interestingly enough, this same school board does NOT seem to take issue with their schools stuffing church-related pamphlets and invitations to church events into our children's weekly take-home folders. Nor do they take issue with prayer being said at PTO meetings. Perhaps these poor rubes forgot that it's separation of church and state.

Maybe this is just a case of misinformation. Maybe the parents of Loudon County are simply confused as to the nature of the President's message.

This must be the case as one East Tennessee resident stated, "Leave the children alone. Any teacher that forces a child to watch Hussein's socialist propaganda should be fired. If it were my child they would have more to worry about. That's why my grandchildren are staying home." Another, equally intelligent being says, "School is for learning, not for listening to Un-American socialist propaganda!" Oh Johnny, you rebel! And I do mean rebel.

Clearly East Tennesseans think that President Obama is going to flood our children's minds (in a 15 minutes speech) with enough Socialist rhetoric and evil health care propaganda to ensure that the children become die-hard pinkos. Obviously parents haven't been in a public school classroom recently. Because, if children absorbed information that quickly, maybe our country wouldn't be falling behind by international educational standards.

In fact, Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2007 tested "top performers" (note: Asian countries are not included as it was posted they do not 'need' a 12th year of study - in earlier grades they dominated). The United States was 15 in advanced math and 16th in advanced science. And these were, again, the "top performers". The cream of the crop. France was first in advanced math and Norway took first place in advanced science. What does this mean? It means that even though we spend more than most other countries on our students - we continue to fall behind.

We are failing.

And while our children continue to flounder in our public school systems, the proud parents can rest easily as some schools, like Loudon County, have crumbled under the might roar of their rebel yells. Congratulations, folks. You've succeeded in teaching your children that civic disinterest and disrespect is a-okay! This is Amer'ca - nobody's gonna make us reach higher!

Did the parents in East Tennessee raise this much stink over President Bush's speech about education in 1991? No. You are either hypocrites or racists.