Obama's Speech to America's Schoolchildren

The concept of children writing essays about the President, or what they could do for their country, or what they could do to help the President, is not new. Only now, people getting bent out of shape because a president actually provided lesson plans to accompany his speech to schoolchildren. You can access these lesson plans for K-6 and 7-12 here.

No one said that the assignments were mandatory. In fact, no one said that listening to the speech was mandatory. Actually listening to the speech would be a good idea, though, simply to overcome one's fears, or to have something tangible to critique. Maybe this speech would encourage kids to become more engaged in civics and public affairs, and make them realize that they are not too small to make a difference. Where is the harm in this?