As teaching moments go, it was a disgrace.
Across the country -- and the Grand Traverse region -- a handful of people managed to bulldoze local school officials into not showing President Obama's address on education Tuesday.
Based on one line in an accompanying lesson plan (later dropped) that called on students to "help the president" improve education, Obama opponents threw a fit and claimed the president was trying to "brainwash" their children.
It was an absurd, almost laughable claim, of course, but nowadays par for the course.
Further, it was a shameful slam on the office of the president, whoever that president may be.
Former first lady Laura Bush, a former teacher, criticized the manufactured brouhaha.
"I think that there is a place for the President of the United States to talk to schoolchildren and encourage schoolchildren," Bush told CNN. "And I think there are a lot of people that should do the same."
What got the radical fringe so lathered?
"I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself," Obama told schoolchildren across the country. "Every single one of you has something that 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."
And: "But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, the best schools in the world -- and none of it will make a difference, none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities, unless you show up to those schools, unless you pay attention to those teachers, unless you listen to your parents and grandparents and other adults and put in the hard work it takes to succeed."
Locally, an angry few dictated policy for thousands of schoolchildren.
After a few parents called -- six called Superintendent Mike Murray -- Suttons Bay schools chose to not show the address; it will be shown later and parents will be able to opt out.
In Traverse City, the principals at East and West middle schools decided to allow parents to keep their children out of later showings. The address didn't air live because it was a half day of school.
District spokeswoman Alison Arnold said "several" parents called, and some expressed a political opinion about the speech. About two dozen reached administrators, and individual principals also got some.
Letting parents opt out is "the way of offending the least number of people." And it is certainly a parent's right to make that choice.
It's disturbing that a presidential address encouraging kids to stay in school could be spun as "offensive," but given political trends over the past few presidencies, not surprising.
The best course would have been for the district to say yes, we will show the president's address at a future date and allow parents the chance to opt out.
The hotter the rhetoric, the less we listen. That road goes nowhere.
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