Does President Obama Want to Brainwash Our Kids?

I suppose I'm asking for trouble by going here, but could someone explain to me the current controversy surrounding President Obama's speech to American public school students on Tuesday? I'm serious. At first I thought the whole thing was just a minor stink, but as I've been reading posts on the Web and around the blogosphere, I'm realizing that this is major stuff. And as I look at some of the conversations happening among my friends and acquaintances on Facebook, I'm a little taken aback to find that some folks are actually afraid that their children will somehow be brainwashed or corrupted by whatever "hidden socialist messages" Obama will be delivering during his pep talk on the importance of education.

I know that there was initially concern about the wording of some classroom activities that the Obama administration was encouraging educators to use with their students during and after the speech, but my understanding is that the administration corrected the problem areas and that it will even post the speech at the White House Web site on Monday so parents and teachers can read it beforehand. Nevertheless, some parents and school districts are still making noise. The Valley View School District here in Illinois, where my two children are students, announced on Thursday that it would not allow its kids to watch the speech, and other districts are leaving it to individual teachers to make the call. Personally, I would've loved for this to be a part of my kids' classroom activities next Tuesday, and I would've looked forward to chatting with them that evening about what they heard.

Again, can someone help me out here? I'd like to hear your thoughts on this latest installment in the ongoing Obama drama. I'll hold back sharing some of my less-than-hopeful observations until I've heard from you.

Edward Gilbreath is editor of UrbanFaith.com, and the author of Reconciliation Blues: A Black Evangelical's Inside View of White Christianity. He blogs at Reconciliation Blog.