One More Day Until the Back-to-School Harangue

The last post touched on some of my opinions regarding Republican criticism for President Obama's planned September 8 Back-to-School blustering.

The prepared text for the speech is now available on whitehouse.gov, and so I took a few minutes to peruse it.

While the speech's preparers rightfully keep politics at large out of the address, it does touch on a few of Obama's agenda points that I like to call the Three-E's:

• Education reform. Obama's education reform agenda is mentioned twice throughout the speech and is the most blatant political reference.
• Environment. Recycling and good stewardship is something I learned about in elementary school, and today it's a huge marketing campaign. It's also near and dear to our left-leaning president, and not surprisingly, he touches on environment in his speech. Teaching kids good stewardship isn't a bad thing, though.
• Economy. While brief, the text does touch on the state of the economy.

Otherwise, assuming Obama sticks to the prepared comments, (and with his reputation for heavily relying on a teleprompter, I'm sure he will) this speech is a good motivational talk to kids. It encourages themes like diligence, respect, hard work, applying oneself, perseverance, and patriotism.

Whether a "media grab" for the cameras or not, most of Obama's comments are relevant to kids in today's schools. I stand by my original conclusion that the critics need to quit the nit-picking. Children are often overlooked, and I think this is a wonderful opportunity for them to hear from their president in language they understand about issues relevant to them.

One final note: Prior to the election, I jokingly said Kohl's (my employer) should sue Obama for using the phrase "Yes we can" in all of his campaign materials. "Yes We Can" is Kohl's commitment to customer service, and at Kohl's U. (training class), we were schooled heavily in what this approach means. It's more than you think. So, jokingly, I posed the hypothetical question, can we also "expect great things" from Obama? "Expect Great Things" is the subtext on Kohl's logo. Toward the end of the speech, Obama uses this phrase. Perhaps it's time for my Wisconsin-based employer to have a little heart-to-heart with the White House about copyright laws and such?