Stay in school, or, the ol' switcheroo

I wanted to weigh in on Obama's speech to school kids today. I'm not sure I'll break any new ground here, but I've been stewing on this since I first heard about it so here we go:

I was with a lot of people: this thing reeked of indoctrination. I'm sure that the initial draft of the speech differed incredibly from what they put out after the crap hit the fan. There's a big difference from writing essays on how to help Obama and assignments on reading his biography, and getting a 15 minute stay in school message.

Of course the left is in a tizzy over conservative reaction to this. They'd never think of having a problem with a president addressing students.

A Baldwin hit the nail on the head. The final product's good, it's the curriculum with it that still bothers me.

A friend---well, an acquaintance, really---linked to this on his Facebook. Of course, the premise of his linking to this was to say that the brouhaha over this whole thing was unmerited and was because of prejudice. Before I get to link, a couple of lessons: 1) If the problem is we're prejudiced, what about what libs did to Bush 41 when he addressed students? I mean, they're all harmony and rainbows and are never mean to anybody on any basis, so how do you explain that one? 2) You're right, my problem isn't with indoctrinating students, my problem is I'm judging Obama on completely surface levels. You figured it out, congratulations. But on to the link.

Now, before dissecting this any, a note about Piper: he's a theologian, and a lot of Southern Baptists love him. You would think, then, that he's a conservative. I have no idea what his political leanings are. I'll warn you that if you start diving into his sermons or works that your head will explode, but that's another story for another time. I'm linking to this because I feel he's broken down the message well, not because I agree with what he's said about the whole ordeal.

Let's ignore the blatant hypocrisy in Obama saying any of this and just get right down to it: this is very conservative in nature. He's basically told students to work hard and be responsible, and that their background isn't an excuse for causing trouble, and that it's okay to fail as long as you keep working. He just told kids that they're responsible for their work and to work hard! Your background doesn't determine your circumstances!

Hello, lefties, quit being pissed at us and start railing on this guy for promoting garbage you don't believe in!