Recently, our president gave a speech that was to be listened to by all children in schools. Some schools opted to not listen to the broadcast and some asked their children at school if they wanted to listen to it or go out to play. Naturally, we all know what the choice was that the children made.
Some radio talk shows received calls from adults expressing their thoughts about the result of how the situation was handled and turned out. It wasn’t too hard to guess who were the ones who felt our President was snubbed. This all seems to have turned into politics, once more, between the parties in our nation.
My question about this entire fiasco is, “What are we doing to our children?” As I grew up, I remember listening to “world affairs” like “The Bombing of Pearl Harbor” and then, if I remember right, we were not forced to listen but we “knew” there was something different, and serious enough to make us want to listen and find out what it was all about even though we were young. Children are not so dumb that they do not know when something important is taking place that could affect them and that’s the time to let them decide if they want to listen or continue to play. Just the tone of the day reaches them to make them want to find out what happened, however, they don’t have to have it drummed into them that they are being rude if they don’t listen to a broadcast. Don’t force them to hear and think about events that can affect their minds, rather than letting them live their formative years carefree and without all the worries adults engage in. If the dignitary is present, in person, that is something they should be aware of because it may not happen again, however, there are many opportunities, as they get older, for them to hear the same person speak on the radio, or by other means of getting the news out to them. In the meantime, let them be involved in something that really interests them, which is playing at their age.
I grew up, not even knowing whether my parents were Democrats or Republicans. They didn’t speak negatively about our President, whether they agreed with him or not. I didn’t hear them speak negatively about friends, relatives, officials, or anyone. I truly believe they would have spoken honestly about their feelings with each other, in their discussion of everyday occurrences, however, they would have done that at a time and place where we would not hear it.
Presidents certainly never dedicated any of their “speeches” to us children and we would not have been expected to take time from our schooling, or play time, to sit and listen to him. Politics were pretty much kept among adults to be discussed. We were children and were not expected to deal with problems of the adults who had created them in the first place.
Being taught that we were to show respect to those in authority, I’m sure
