However, I have heard many people say, in defense of the president’s speech: “The president just wants to encourage our children to work hard and stay in school by reinforcing the value of education. He wants to influence their education positively.” I really have to ask: Who they are kidding? Who really influences our children?
My children will work hard and stay in school because my husband and I make sure they have what they need to be successful: Sufficient rest, proper nourishment, emotional and spiritual support, and sometimes a good swift kick in the pants. They will be challenged to reach higher and believe they can achieve their goals because they have great teachers, dedicated adults who lead by example day in and day out.
Our children will be successful because they have received a strong spiritual foundation laid for them by their pastors and Sunday school teachers at church, people who really care about them and love them.
Our children will succeed because they have grandparents, aunts, uncles, neighbors and friends who are decent, caring people who touch our children’s lives on a daily basis.
Our children are influenced by the people directly around them in their lives.
I can tell you who will not directly determine their success or failure: One man sitting hundreds of miles away in a big white house with whom they have never spent any time.
While our children may get excited about the 15-minute speech of a man — whom they have neither met nor sat down to dinner with nor tossed ball with — we are the ones who will influence our children. ... Leave this job to us, Mr. President.
Leave this charge to parents, teachers, relatives, pastors, Sunday school teachers, Cub Scout leaders, baseball coaches, grandmas, grandpas, baby-sitters and neighbors. We are capable, we won’t drop the ball, and we can be trusted to get the job done. And if we fail, shame on us; but you couldn’t have been in a million places to do the jobs for us anyway, sir.
So talk to the nation. Talk to me, talk to the parents and educators and community leaders and all the great people who live across this nation, who directly touch the lives of our children every day. Challenge us, inspire us, lead us. And then let us lead our children.
... Thanks, Hamilton City Schools, for seeing the big picture and staying on task, and honoring our children’s best interests.
Jonetta Hughes
Hamilton