But in a democracy they can make a choice for them and their children . Now whether it is right or wrong that’s another story
yeah long comment , going on and on about the same thing that has already been established.. What you are trying to do is to prove that the kids should be taught about every aspect of history , well i never said they shouldnt be.With tecahing about history , of course you learn about the good people and the bad people.You cannot just omit the dark aspects of history because you dont like them . So kids should be taught everything that happened in history , good or bad and I agree with you on that point completely . so hopefully you wont try to prove the same point on which I already have agreed with you.The thing is teaching someone about a certain president in the past and his speeches is another thing and being made to watch a current president's speech is another. Now, by not watching his speech , they are trying to show their disobedience or dislike for their president which in every way is their right .They have a right to dislike a president . Afterall you are living in a democracy not a dictatorship. If it were a dictatorship and the dictator's speech was on tv then there would've been no problem in making everybody watch it and persecuting them for not doing so.
If it is made mandatory when the republicans are trying to make their kids not watch it , it will only give them the wrong idea that they were right and there was some “hidden agenda” in the speech that was being pushed forward by forcing their kids to watch it . You can never persuade an opponent by forcing them into anything . I learnt that lesson in my life but in a different respect . I was forced to embrace Islamic views and ideology just like the rest of my family but everytime they forced me , I became more repelled by islam . So here’s the thing , there is a harmless encouraging speech by a president whose life in itself is inspiring to so many people in America and outside . They don’t want their kids to watch it fine ,their loss. The real problem arises if they say that not only will their kids not watch it , they will make sure that other people’s kids don’t watch it either. So then some action should be taken against them because they trespassing on other people’s right .
emphasizing the point of "about" and "engage" was unnecessary and irrelevant because it was quite obvious what i was trying to say . i was talking about kids being taught to engage in hating blacks or gays. You are just arguing for the sake of argument and again teaching them a lesson in the book about bush's government and the things he did or his speeches , i am not against that . how will they learn about it if they are not not taught. i am just saying that that speech should not be made mandatory to watch . The ones who are against obama will not start loving him after watching that speech and the ones who like him will make sure to watch it anyhow even if someone tries to stop them
I dont think if you miss a president's speech then you are missing a huge lesson on your country's history or politics . People get an idea about how their country is being governed not by the sugar coated words their rulers say in speeches but what the country actually becomes when it is ruled by them . We pakistanis hardly care about a president or prime minister’s speech because we know they will say good words in them but the real situation of the hunger, poverty , disease and lawlessness in the country is quite apparent to everyone. Your children will know themselves what a great man obama is by his actions which I’m sure will benefit your country and rest of the world and not necessarily by watching his speech on tv. All I am trying to say is , I know his speech only contains words of encouragement for the youth of your country but it shouldn’t be made mandatory for them to watch it .
"Teachers have every right to make decisions about how to cover topics as long as they're appropriate to the class being taught". I disagree . If teachers do have every right to make such decsions then what if lets say a conservative, right wing , religious teacher starts teaching my kids about hating blacks or gays or some other such ideas ? should I be ok with it since it is up to the teacher to decide what or how what to teach them . Secondly i am not against tecahing children about the unpleasant aspects of politics or history.etc . On the contrary i believe that americans should be taught about dark aspects of their history or the not so good decisions made by their governments in relation to foreign policy but if we were talking about a chapter in a book or a whole subject that a kid just decides to not study then it is different and wrong . Here we are talking about a speech .
In fact what most Americans don’t know is that in a lot of ways he was actually facilitating the extremist terrorist groups so when the problem gets out of hand , he can say to the American government look here are the terrorists and I am the only one who can handle this problem for you thus continuing to be the “king” of Pakistan with American government’s support and possibly taking huge amount of bribes in terms of money and I can go on and on and on . So yeah I have every right to be uncomfortable with my kids listening to bush’s speech
like i said , i would not be comfortable with them listening to george bush's speech but if they want to watch it then it's ok. There's a difference between people who people that it is upto them to decide if their children and other people's children should watch a certain president's speech or not and ones who are simply uncomfortable with a situation . And being a pakistani and directly being affected by bush's crazy schemes to rule the world :p yes i have every right to be atleast uncomfortable with the idea of my kids listening to his speech . His government supported a military regimen in pakistan that came into power by overthrowing a democraticratically elected government and "ruled" Pakistan for 9 years. Yes that’s how that dictator pervaiz musharraf came into power which probably for you Americans was a good guy supporting bush’s “war on terrorism”
. It was about greed . He just wanted oil, it was all about the money . He did not give a damn about his countrymen. If he did , he wouldn’t have waged all the meaningless wars in which so many innocent civilians and American soldiers have been killed. He wouldn’t have wasted resources of his country that could’ve been spent on education, healthcare etc. and instead spent them on killing and torturing people . Probably that’s what he will teach in his institute . Lesson#1 : How to get your hands on another country’s resources by making it sound all in the name of love for your country and religion“ . Lesson#2 :"Road to heaven , that passes through the fields of god and oil "
yeah the first time american people elected him , i was disappointed but i was like it's ok , they made a mistake and they'll realise it it soon. They wont make the same mistake again .I followed the second election with alot of interest and when americans again voted for bush , i was like what??are you serious???? how can you do this to yourself and to rest of the world . I was upset for days and bush lived up to all the expectations of evil and wrong doing that were attached to him . We used to talk about him in college . Some students used to say he is a christian terrorist , he's doing this for his religion . Some said he's a madman who thinks america should rule the whole world and only american people's blood meant anything , the rest of the world is just animals but me and my friends really believed it wasnt about religion or love for his country .