I'm a public high school teacher in Massachusetts, in a suburb of Boston. I was talking last night to a friend who is a middle school principal in a nearby town. He says he's received more angry calls about President Obama's education speech than about ANYTHING else in his four years as a principal.
More than anything: more than grades, more than teacher assignments, more than students being cut from teams, more than all the countless complaints that principals hear every week from their students' highly involved and attentive parents.
But here's the scary part. . . .
My friend mentioned this to his town's superintendent of schools -- thinking the superintendent would sympathize, and shake his head in amazement. But the superintendent (who had also been fielding a lot of angry calls) immediately told him that neither he nor any of his teachers was to show the president's speech in class.
This is in Massachusetts! Granted, my friend is a principal in one of the very few Massachusetts towns that Obama didn't carry, but still . . . the wingnuts are winning, even here. The few squeaky wheels are getting the grease.
We need to raise our voices -- sane, reasonable voices, but insistent ones. We need to make ourselves heard.
PLEASE call your local school or your local school district, ask for the principal or the superintendent, and tell that administrator how much you hope your kids, or your neighbors' kids, will be able to hear the president's message. Don't say you demand it -- that's the other side's tactic. Just tell them how much you support the president's message encouraging academic achievement, and how much you hope it will be heard.
And while you're at it, tell them how much you support them, and their teachers and all their staff, in their efforts to achieve that goal.
Wherever you are, wherever you live -- make the call. This is no time to be silent. Think about it: Even in Massachusetts, there is at least one town where the wingnuts' intimidation tactics are winning.