Dare To Be Dumb

Let's hear it for Dare County, North Carolina! Dare County schools, to be specific. It seems that the Dare County school system is caving in to the latest Republican talking points about the terrible speech President Obama is about to unleash on the county's youth.

Why, Obama is going to talk to the kids about what used to be considered core conservative values: working hard, studying hard, and staying in school. But no, the Republican party seems to have local parents in a tizzy about these core, formerly conservative values--parents are demanding that their kids be able to opt-out of the speech:

In North Carolina, the Dare County School Board is taking similar measures. Another concerned parent, who wishes to remain anonymous, contacted Raw Story about a newsletter item that was sent out and posted on the board’s web site:

According to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, on Tuesday, September 8, at 12 noon, President Barack Obama will deliver a national address to encourage students to set high academic goals and to do their best to succeed in school.

Any parent who wishes for his/her children not to participate may “opt out” by contacting the school(s) where the children are enrolled. Principals will be contacting parents by various means, such as with forms, electronic mail, websites, or via an announcement on the educational television station. If parents have any questions, they should call the school(s) where the children attend.

The Dare County School Board did not return calls for comment.

Because to a conservative, what could possibly be scarier than working hard, studying hard, and staying in school?

Conservatives would much rather have presidents come and teach their kids about how to cope with the worst attack ever to occur on U.S. soil--by sitting around and reading "The Pet Goat" while Americans burned alive in the World Trade Center towers. Like this:



Or maybe these same conservatives would be made more comfortable by having the "Great Communicator" stop by to chat up the importance of deregulation and tax cuts for the rich. Much, much better.

On November 14, 1988, Reagan addressed and took questions from students from four area middle schools in the Old Executive Office Building. According to press secretary Marlin Fitzwater, the speech was broadcast live and rebroadcast by C-Span, and Instructional Television Network fed the program “t o schools nationwide on three different days.” Much of Reagan’s speech that day covered the American “vision of self-government” and the need “to keep faith with the unfinished vision of the greatness and wonder of America” but in the middle of the speech, the president went off on a tangent about the importance of low taxes...

Work hard, study hard, stay in school. Wow--how radical.