PREDICTABLE

Posted at 6:59 P.M. ET:

As we've said many times, we wish the new president well.  We want to see him and the nation succeed.  However, we expect that the next week will be filled with events and statements that will make us wince.  At the Angel's Corner, our subscription service, we have something called the Pompous Fool Award.  Standards are high.  Many seem to want the honor.  We give the award only after rigorous examination.  We expect to have many, many candidates in this next inaugural week, and may have to give the award several times, or have runner-up categories.  Already the pompous rhetoric is flowing. 

Leave it to the teachers' unions to get on the bandwagon.  Oh, wait, bandwagon has military connotations.  Maybe, so students aren't traumatized, we should say peace wagon.  Okay, the teachers' unions are on the peace wagon.  Both unions are essentially branches of the Democratic Party, they contribute, and they want results.  So they will be greeting President Obama on inauguration day with new lesson plans for our kids.  Consider whether you want your children to have a 24-hour flu that day:

The American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association jointly developed five suggested lesson plans about the inauguration plus a recommended reading list...

So far, no problem.

The idea for the suggested lesson plans came from the inaugural committee and it approached the NEA and AFT to draw them up, said committee spokesman Brent Colburn.

Whoops.  Problem.  Can you imagine the reaction if a Republican inaugural committee had made the same suggestion?  Oppression!  Spying on our schools!  Thought control!  The right-wing grip on our children's throats!  I, I don't know if I can go on.

"It is crucial that our students understand that we are not only living history and making history with this inauguration, but also carrying forward the historical contributions of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his influence on our incoming 44th president," NEA President Dennis Van Roekel said in the same statement.

Okay, but getting hooked on race is not the way to do this.  He's an American president.  All inaugurations are historic.  He will be judged on his record, not his race.  Do these unions understand that?

One of the suggested lesson plans asks teachers to generate discussion about the similarities between Mr. Obama and Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president whom historians regard as one of Americas greatest. It is entitled "Two Presidents from Illinois."

Oh boy, here it comes.  Can you feel the p.c.?

Fifteen similarities were picked out, ranging from both entering the presidency during wartime to both having been lawyers before entering politics and from both having been criticized "for being too inexperienced to run the country" to both selecting political rivals to serve in their cabinets.

Nothing like getting it wrong from the start.  Lincoln didn't enter the presidency during wartime.  The first shots were fired weeks after he took the oath. 

And this whole Lincoln comparison is enough to have us reach for the seasickness pills.  We revere Lincoln because of what he did as president.  Obama hasn't even entered the office.  Let's calm down on this.

Another suggested lesson is to have to students watch Mr. Obama's inaugural address, on TV or the Internet, and ask up to six questions in small groups.

Among them:

— "What vision does President Obama have for public education?"

— "What does he say divides us as a country and how does he want to unify and strengthen America?"

— "How will President Obama make our country more secure?"

— "What does President Obama ask Americans to do to help strengthen the country?"

I don't know about you, but that list gives me the creeps.  It sounds like something out of a socialist state.  You know, Glorious Leader says...  Glorious leader expects...

We want to welcome the new president warmly.  But what about some tough questions for students?  And what about listing the accomplishments, as well as the failures, of the Bush administration?

January 12, 2009.