The Business Times: "Parents angry at Obama's planned speech to school students"

"US president Barack Obama's plan to deliver a speech to public school students has sparked a revolt among conservative parents, who have accused him of trying to indoctrinate their children with socialist ideas and are asking school officials to excuse the children from listening."

I think this talk should be compulsory for students to attend, no matter what parents think. There are several rebuttals to the parents' decision.

The first rebuttal is a very general argument to the citixens of the US totally rejecting a controversial (or even a bit more on the logical side) decision by the presidency. Firstly, Obama is the president of the US and he is probably doing what he thinks is best for the nation and for the next generation of American citizens. If Obama's every actions are decided or "censored" by the citizens which he is trying to look after, then he isn't really the president anymore, and citizens who are not suitable to be in positions of power will be making decisions that may harm the nation, or, more likely in this case, prevent the US from developing its future potential fully.

The second rebuttal is a more specific counterargument to this particular revolt. Many parents stated that they did not want their children to be indoctrinated by socialist views. What's wrong with socialism? It's not like America's entire political system is going to change to a socialist one. Socialism also means that individuals' efforts will be geared more towards caring for others in a community than otherwise (communism is considered the system where individuals care for one another the most, followed by socialism, and capitalist systems' individuals care for each other the least). That's a good thing, unless these parents don't want their kids to help the people around them.

The last argument is against parents heavily "filtering" out what their kids hear. In this case, the parents in question are censoring what their kids hear in a way. Then aren't they treating their kids as if they aren't smart enough to work out what's right and wrong for themselves? Surely their kids are intelligent enough to work out if something they hear is right or wrong. And if the kids can't, then it means that the parents haven't properly taught their kids right and wrong or what values they should have.

Thus, I think kids should hear what Obama has to say and then discuss with their parents what is controversial in the speech. I think it will also help kids develop a "political sense".