Who’s responsible for values: parents, schools, or the president?

Outrage over President Obama’s upcoming televised speech to the nation’s schoolchildren has ignited a storm of objections from parents. Obama says he just wants to give schoolkids a pep talk, tell them to stay in school. Parents claim the president is trying to subvert their authority and feed his own brand of socialist values to their kids. Schools have mostly OKed viewing of the speech in their classrooms, many of them leaving it up to the discretion of their teachers.

This isn’t the first time a president has directly addressed U.S. schoolchildren. Presidents Reagan and Bush, Sr. did it with no real controversy. Bill Clinton appeared on MTV to address the nation’s teenagers and to give his now-notorious "didn’t-inhale" remark. So what’s the big deal this time around? What has these parents in such a tizzy?

Obama’s race certainly has something to do with it-  a lot of people are still scared to death by a black man in the Oval Office-, but it’s not all. The profuse sensationalism surrounding Obama’s election is still fresh on conservatives’ minds- the president’s eloquence and star-appeal is frighteningly strong-, but that doesn’t fully explain it.

No, what has this group of parents so outraged over Obama’s school speech is his policies since taking the presidency. Some of these policies have been kept in the shadows. Some, like the current healthcare reform wildstorm with its accompanying town hall throwdowns and avalanches of lobbyists, have been very public, perhaps more public than lawmakers and the president would have wanted them to be. Add to these Obama’s cozy visits to Egypt and Saudi Arabia and his remarks on the Defense of Marriage Act and you have a very angry, wary conservative base. Even some moderate conservatives are now scared to death of Obama and his- real or imagined- socialist agenda.

So, when these parents no longer trust the President of the United States to deliver solid values, who, if anyone, is responsible for letting the president go ahead or not. Of course, this highlights a broader question: who is ultimately responsible for the instilling of values: parents, teachers, or the government? Out of patriotism or civic duty, should schools be able to override parents’ objections? Should the president be able to override parental objections?

This issue bleeds into all facets of education. We see it in evolution vs. intelligent design. We see it in sex ed. In fact, conservatives are currently in an uproar over the U.N.’s proposed sex education program which encourages contraceptives over abstinence and teaching kids about sex younger and in more detail.

At what point is the government not allowed to intrude on parental discretion? Up to what point is it okay if the president tells kids about school, sex education, or the definition of marriage? These questions get at the very heart of the delicate balance between government involvement and American autonomy.