Leader or enemy

At 7:20 this morning, the loudspeaker crackled. I was in my classroom sucking down a large iced coffee in order to combat the exhaustion of my 4-day weekend.  The principal's voice whined over the intercom.

"There is a mandatory meeting for all staff in the library, beginning immediately." His voice was grave, and I felt the flutters of panic. This Labor Day weekend had been tragic in our area-- several young people had gotten into horrific accidents. A friend's younger brother was crushed by a train when his car stalled on the tracks. I hoped that none our staff or students had been injured.

The assembled throng of staff wore the same expressions of sleepy dread, exchanging looks, mentally taking attendance of faculty and staff. Our principal rushed to the podium, cleared his throat, and began to speak.

"As many of you know, President Obama will be speaking to the nation's students this afternoon. Under no circumstances are you allowed to show this speech to students. As a school, we are comitted to remaining poiltically neutral. That is all." He walked away, leaving all of us to stare around the room in shock.

It has been on my mind all day. As my fellow teachers know, teaching is more than just the curriculum. Teaching is about "teachable moments," those unplanned events that open a possibility for meaniful discussion and applied curriculum: the hatching of a chrysalis in a classroom window, a story in the room that fits into your curriculum. Today's speech by Obama was a teachable moment. Instead of teaching our students about respect, we instead reinforced the message that authority figures should not be respected. In a time when parents are being usurped by children and teachers are being considered no more than glorified babysitters, to show students that the highest elected official in our country does not deserve respect is more damaging than we know.

Our students, despite their age, do know what is going on. They have an access to current events that we cannot fathom. They know about the controversy of Obama's speech, from Tweets, news updates, or even dinner time conversation. What message are we sending our students?

My administration, like many others around the country, refused to show the speech in order to appear neutral. What they did, however, was make a different political statement.

I admit, that I am a Democrat and did vote for Obama in the election. I know, however, that my personal political feelings would not change my feelings about this. I did not appreciate President G.W. Bush's decisions. However, he was my President, and elected by the majority of this country. Therefore, I would listen to what he had to say.

I talked about narcissism several posts ago in relationships. This narcissism extends now into the political arena. Many people now believe that "because I didn't vote for him, I shouldn't have to listen to or support him". This attitude is so different from that of our forefathers, parents, and grandparents. I'm concerned about what this means for the future of our country; this saying keeps repeating in my mind: united we stand, divided we fall....