ANOTHER EDUCATOR SPEAKS - AT 10:30 P.M. ET:  Remember those kids in New Jersey who were forced to sing a song praising Barack Obama?  We learned about it only because a video was posted on YouTube.

Well, the school district conducted an investigation - very deep, very deep, very Sherlockian - and came to brilliant conclusions, as the Philadelphia Inquirer reports:

The superintendent of a South Jersey school district stands behind the student performance of songs about President Obama that created a national stir last month.

The video that captured the children is another matter.

In other words, what the school did was correct.  Their only crime was getting caught at it.

Burlington Township Superintendent Christopher Manno today discussed the results of an internal investigation concerning the controversial songs.

Yeah, I can just see them, on their knees, dusting for Obamaprints.

He and Denise King, principal of B. Bernice Young Elementary School, were "deeply disturbed" by the YouTube.com posting of a video that featured second-graders at the school, he said. He added that he had apologized to the students' parents at a recent meeting.

The video was taken on March 23 during an "impromptu" performance of two tunes the youngsters learned in honor of Black History Month for a school assembly in February, Manno said. The lyrics, which describe Obama's accomplishments and his views on equality, are punctuated with the recitation of the president's name, Barack Hussein Obama.

Just a patriotic song.  Kind of like "Yankee Doodle Dandy."

The school had sent the songs' lyrics to parents in advance and received no complaints before or after the assembly, which family members attended, Manno said.

Yeah, I can just imagine how a complaint would have been received. 

The principal did, to his credit, caution teachers about appearing to take political stands, but it was a vague statement.  The offenders didn't even get the traditional slap on the wrist.

We know that our colleges have been politicized.  What many Americans don't realize is that "educators" are working on the high schools and elementary schools as well. 

Parents have a right, and an obligation, to examine what the schools are doing.  They are, after all, called "public schools."  And parents have the same right to complain as to cheer at a school soccer match.

October 12, 2009