Category Archives: Texana

It’s strange that a president would do this, especially during the school day instead of in the evening when kids are at home. But it’s probable it’ll just be boilerplate: "Stay in school, study hard, contribute to your world, etc." Austin schools, picking up on the scattered protests elsewhere, are telling parents they can opt their kids out, if they want. What will the kid do? Go wait in the hall until it’s over?

The schools already are plenty political. In Texas, as early as second grade, they teach global warming as a crisis, not a controversy. It’s made for some interesting discussions with Mr. B. I remember the schools trying to indoctrinate me and my peers with this or that bit of politics years ago. By high school, our b.s. detectors had become pretty sensitive.

Eisenhower was president when I was in elementary school. He famously preferred golf to almost anything else. His successor, JFK, was too busy with extramarital affairs to speak to us directly. But if either of them had wanted to, I’m sure the schools would have made arrangements for us to listen. Probably forced us to listen. There was no opting out in those days.

UPDATE:  Dan Riehl ponders whether Barry is uniquely unable to do this without controversy or if any president could do it peacefully anymore.