The Forgotten Voice

“No Voice; but oh! the silence sank like music on my heart.”

                                                                                         — Samuel Coleridge

President Barack Obama’s planned speech to America’s school children on Tuesday created a maelstrom of conflicting voices of politicians, teachers and administrators, and parents. The voices that have not been heard, however, belong to those at whom the speech is aimed: the children.  The recent developments regarding the speech illuminate the conflicts of the religious and political spheres entering the institutional education sphere, and the question that follows: Are we forgetting our children’s voice in a fight for their minds?                                     

The arguments from the adults seem to revolve around the fact that the speech will be available on television and online for broadcast in school. The Obama camp, vocally led by Education Secretary Arne Duncan, has been campaigning for the speech to be viewed in the classroom.            

The argument from parents is that they are being removed from the process. If the speech was viewed at home by parents and their children, the argument goes, then there is opportunity for discourse.           

The argument from Republicans is that the speech is an attempt to promote a political agenda to children. This is not new. The Democrats took a similar stance when George H.W. Bush spoke to schoolchildren in 1991.                                     

The opposing argument by the Obama Administration is that the speech’s “whole message is about personal responsibility and challenging students to take their education very, very seriously,” said Education Secretary Arne Duncan.                                    

School districts are using their own discretion regarding the viewing of the speech. Some districts have decided to not air the speech at all; some said they would leave the final decision to teachers and principals. Still others offered to allow children’s parents to opt them out of the viewing if they did not wish them to see or hear the President’s speech.                                                                                                            

From all sides of the argument, schoolchildren are being spoken for.  And yet none are being heard.                

 In order to quell the backlash to the planned speech, the Obama administration today released a transcript of the President’s address. In it, President Obama speaks directly to the schoolchildren of America.

“But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed. 

And that’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself. 

Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide. “

Regardless of the message, the arguments that surround it show a fear of spheres of influence becoming amalgamated. The fear of the political sphere of influence entering the institutional education sphere of education mirrors the fear of the Religious sphere of influence doing the same.                                                            

The argument regarding prayer in schools, for instance, is well documented. Religious institutions and leaders rally for prayer in the school to be allowed, and many parents and educational institutions rally for a separation between the two spheres.                                                                                                                                    

In fact, prayer is allowed in American schools. Students are allowed under Constitutional law to pray at school – on buses, in hallways and lunchrooms, gymnasiums, and under flagpoles. The law, however, does not permit prayer in a classroom while in session. And yet the argument continues. Is then the individual right not the focus, but rather the collective indoctrination? If so, this collective mentality of spreading a message is ignoring the individual voice of the child.                                    

If the hurricane surrounding the Obama speech is born from the fear of the child’s spheres of institutional education being invaded, how much credit is given to the children and their experiences? The sphere of influence has little bearing on a mind that travels between such spheres, experiencing different and differing viewpoints. Children take what they have learned and develop their own belief structures. If the school is such a hotly contested area because it is thought of as where children learn, then ignorance rules. Children learn constantly and from everywhere — at school, at home, at church, at play, with family and friends, and from strangers.                                     

The argument is about our children and how we speak to them and impress upon them. Why then, do we not look to those for whom we care? While fighting for an ear, we are forgetting to lend our own.