Ignoramus30623 wrote:
On 2009-09-03, John R. Carroll wrote:
cavelamb wrote:
Ignoramus30623 wrote:
I cannot believe it that people are afraid that a president is going
to make a speech to their children. Even assuming that the president
would say something with which a parent would disagree with,
isolating children from presidential speeches is an inadequate
answer.

The better approach would be to explain to the children that not
everyone has to agree with the president about everything, highlight
differences between your opinion and the president's etc.

Trying to hide the president's speech from children is similar to
sticking one's head in the sand when you hear bad news. It is not a
productive approach and leads to living in an imaginary world.

Let's wait until the speech and then we can see if it is as evil as
some are expecting it to be. If it will be the case, then I will
adjust my understanding of reality, and if it is not, then those who
expected it to be evil, should adjust theirs.

i

Unless, of course, they see it as protecting their children from
political propaganda...

Is "propaganda" something that is evil universally? Or is Democratic
propaganda more evil than Republican propaganda? Or the reverse? Would
you want to isolate your children from both kinds of propaganda? Would
you expect that isolating children from "propaganda" may make them
resistant to it when they encounter it?

Would it not be a good idea to expose children to various age
appropriate political topics and discuss those topics with kids in a
respectful fashion?

For example, I do not like George W Bush, but if he wanted to make a
speech to children, I would not want to hide the speech from them --
but I would discuss it critically afterwards.

i

Iggy, the problem with that idea is that most of the people who will
pull their kids out of school rather than let them be encouraged to stay
in school, stay off drugs and don't let anything hold them back from
their potential, are the kind of people who could not listen to Obama's
speech and analyse it for themselves. they won't have a clue what Obama
did wrong until Limbaugh and Beck spin it for them....