Dear Superintendent:

We were quite surprised and upset to read the letter that was sent home with our son today, advising parents that their students were not given the opportunity to watch President Obama’s address to the students of America.

First, the notion that technical and logistical challenges were the main obstacle to showing the President’s address is absurd. My husband remembers well watching the Apollo moon mission in his grammar school…in 1969. I remember quite vividly watching President Reagan’s inauguration in my first grade classroom. The year was 1980. Here in 2009, the technical and logistical challenges you cited were successfully overcome in the town right next door. In fact, a 5 year old from that town explained to me this very afternoon that at school, she watched President Obama give a speech in which he told children to “try hard, do their best, and even if you’re not good at something at first, that you should keep trying, like he did.”

Second, it seems entirely unnecessary for principals and “available” teachers to review and pass judgment on the appropriateness of the President’s address before allowing the students to view it. Whether or not one agrees with President Obama’s politics, he is the President and it goes without saying that his message was vetted by many responsible adults and deemed appropriate for the target audience: the students of America. Furthermore, a transcript of the speech was available online as early as this past weekend. Therefore, you had the option of reviewing the speech in advance and inviting parents to do the same. Parents with objections or concerns could have asked that their children not be included in the viewing. This would have preserved the significance of the moment: the opportunity for students across the country to be “connected” by hearing the same message at the same time.

Finally, it is unacceptable that your letter, dated today, arrived home this afternoon, after the speech had taken place. We sent our son to school this morning assuming that he would participate in the viewing along with students all across the country. Why would any parent think otherwise, having had no communication from the school to the contrary? Surely a letter informing parents of your decision regarding this matter could have been included in the packet of forms sent home during the first few days of school.

When we enrolled our son in this school district, we did so with the hope and belief that he would be exposed to many viewpoints, that he would be encouraged to listen, to learn, to keep an open mind, to think critically, and to ask questions. Your decision flies in the face of that and causes us to question the values of the school system to which we are entrusting our children’s education.

Very truly yours,

Robyn and John Carter