Thursday, September 3, 2009

RISD shields students from the President

Next week, the President plans to broadcast a short speech aimed at students nationwide, challenging them "to work hard, set goals and take responsibility for their learning." Ho-hum, right? Wrong.

According to the The Dallas Morning News, the Richardson Independent School District (RISD) received about a hundred calls from parents objecting to their children listening to the President. Perhaps as a result, the RISD plans to require written parental permission before students are allowed to listen to the President of the United States extol the value of an education.

Normally, the RISD can be counted on to make level-headed decisions in the best interest of education. This decision might have involved the former superintendent and now, once again, acting superintendent Dr. Carolyn Bukhair. If so, and this was her call, I'll be charitable and assume she's just rusty after coming out of retirement. Because I hate to think that the RISD is a victim of an illness making a comeback in this country, an epidemic that's not swine flu.