"How is this teaching them to think for themselves?" While there are exceptions, I don't think that people who value independent thought are very likely to pursue jobs as teachers in the public schools as they are now constituted. The bureaucracy and the mindless ed-school curriculum probably select for people who are themselves conformists and who value conformity in others. And this goes double for administrators.

Erin, your classroom goals are exactly the same as mine (as well as can be managed in a poli sci class). These videos drive me nuts. How can anybody call themselves a teacher and then push this indoctrination on kids?

So, where are we starting these charter schools?

Couldn't agree more, Erin. The videos are depressing in the extreme. What struck me is how elaborate the presentations were in several of the cases, e.g. the one you quoted. These are not off-the-cuff outpourings of positive reaction to Obama's election -- they're long-planned paeans to The Leader that obviously depend on heavy teacher guidance and leading. That's inexcusable for the teachers involved.

I guess I'm having a little trouble feeling the outrage here. I went to the site with all the videos (all eleven, by the way--hardly an epidemic of "school prayer"), and it looked like at least half or so were generated by the kids themselves. It's not clear whether they were assigned to sing Obama's praises or were simply told to be creative and came up with the subject matter on their own.

Separate from that, though, is the nature of the presidency itself. The president is not just the political head of government, he is also the symbolic head of state. Once elected, a president often transcends partisanship, particularly in the classroom (notice that these kids were not singing about his policies). When I was in kindergarten, we had a poster of John F. Kennedy on the wall (damn, I'm old). He was, if I recall, speaking to a small child; it may have been an ad for the March of Dimes or the Red Cross. I doubt anyone took this as evidence that the San Diego public schools had gone all in on the New Frontier. He was just the president, that's all.

One more thing: most of the classrooms featured on these videos consisted primarily of African American students. Not only was Obama's election an enormous source of pride in the African American community, entirely separate from his politics, but Obama's also exactly the sort of role model that teachers should want their students--black and white--to emulate.

So, I guess I'm just saying that until they uncover a set of videos with public school children singing the praises of single-payer health care, or urging the bombing of Iran, I won't be too concerned.

ScottF...but I doubt if you were singing:

"JFK there is nobody higher
Other politicians should call me sire"

...which would have been quite different from a mere picture on the wall.

Also, I doubt if the word "sire" is in the average elementary school student's vocabulary...well, I guess at least this teacher is more literate than many of them seem to be.

ScottF: "...and it looked like at least half or so were generated by the kids themselves. It's not clear whether they were assigned to sing Obama's praises or were simply told to be creative and came up with the subject matter on their own."

You must be kidding. If not, your grip on reality needs some physical therapy.

As others have said, it's one thing to use a particular president as a way of communicating what the *office* of president is all about, particularly for younger children who cannot yet relate to abstract concepts. It is quite another to use young children in the most cynical of ways to build a "cult of personality" around a particular president. This is Papa Joe and Chairman Mao stuff. Really. Simply grotesque.

And no, I don't buy the "you're being hysterical" or "ridiculous" rap. It's all too easy to rely on the past as a presumed bulwark against radical political change, only to see the most solid of social structures and institutions overturned virtually overnight. "Past returns are no guarantee of future results." Just because it hasn't worked in the U.S. so far, doesn't mean it can't or won't. The world has witnessed our situation in the past many times, and the results have not been good. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Becky -- Great minds! My charter school will be in southern Oregon, and will be the very first one ever in my county. Where will yours be?

Just for the record, the quoted lyrics seem to be a rewrite of Run-DMC's "Kings of Rock." It appears to be Hope, Change, and plagiarizing old-school rap.

Bob,

Wow...let's review what we have here. A handful of children in a handful of schools sing the praises of the first president in American history who looks like them. The guy's a wonderful family man and an outstanding model of grace, intelligence, and hard work. If you're a teacher, wouldn't you at least consider taking advantage of this moment to tell your kids to "be like Barack"? Hero worship is pretty standard practice for grade schoolers, so I don't really see anything wrong with channeling that hero worship in the direction of a man who embodies all the values that we hope our kids will embrace. Perhaps you'd prefer Paris Hilton or Fifty Cent?

Regardless, if you somehow see in all of this the beginnings of the Cultural Revolution or the Stalinist purges, then you'll pardon me if I decide not to heed your lectures regarding how tightly to grip reality.

Quick note to David Foster: any kid who has watched "The Lion King" (and that would be approximately all of them) has probably come across the word "sire".

ScottF:

"The guy's a wonderful family man and an outstanding model of grace, intelligence, and hard work."

"Hero worship is pretty standard practice for grade schoolers..."

"...a man who embodies all the values that we hope our kids will embrace..."

You just proved my point better than I ever could. Thanks. I also don't believe I mentioned "Stalinist purges" or "Cultural Revolution" and, indeed, neither could have been foreseen at the time their perpetrators first took power. Hyperbolic? Absolutely. Impossible? It depends on how much we allow the government to invade our lives. Your response gives me the chills.

I'm old enough to remember similar laudatory expressions towards earlier presidents in public schools. Starting with Eisenhower, Kennedy, and culminating in Reagan. As long as they don't get out of hand, I have no problem with them. Also, I think there's some link to the way we have admired and praised astronauts and other "firsts."