Oh. My. Gosh.

Some wingnut on one of our local news channel websites offered the following PDF as evidence that educators are being asked to "indoctrinate" students by having them listen to a speech by President Obama on Tuesday. Some of the shocking activities and questions include:

Why do you think the president wants to speak to you?

What can students do to help in our schools?

Why is it important that we listen to the president and other elected officials, like the mayor, senators, members of congress, or the governor? Why is what they say important?

Students could record important parts of the speech where the president is asking them to do something. Students might think about the following:

• What specific job is he asking me to do?
• Is he asking anything of anyone else?
• Teachers? Principals? Parents? The American people?

Write letters to themselves about how they can achieve their short‐term and long‐term education goals. Teachers would collect and redistribute these letters at an appropriate later date to enable students to monitor their progress.

Wow. Frightening stuff, I know. Haven forbid we encourage our kids to think about what they might tell the president, why it might be important to listen to our elected officials (Articles of Faith 12 comes to mind: "We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law."

The only thing worse than ignorance, I've heard, is the determination to remain ignorant.