Obama's talk to the nation's school children. Is the Daddy State now upon us?

There's been controversy over President Obama's plans to address our nation's kids directly on September 8th. At one level, this seems innocuous enough. But a closer look at exactly what he's doing raises some troubling questions. It looks like the President is using his bully pulpit to circumvent parents and inject himself unnecessarily in the lives of millions of school children.

The US Department of Education has released recommended guidelines for what teachers can do to prepare their children for the President's address.

• One is encouraging the children in grades preK-6 to read books on past presidents and current one's on Obama. It seems a bit presumptuous to have children read biographies of himself.
  
• It encourages teachers to ask students why what President Obama says is important. I wonder whether that should carry over to speeches he gives regarding abortion, expansion of government run health care and efforts to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act?
• Asking the kids to think about what the president is asking them to do? (He'll be telling them to do things?)
• Then he wants to the students to come together and discuss what the president wants them to do.
  

The Department of Education encourages an even deeper level of engagement by middle and high school students.

Knowing Obama's collectivist orientation, meaning he supports a gradual and not so gradual shift towards more government, e.g. socialism, it smacks of paternalism by the state. This is what one sees in a lot of socialist societies. The political leader whether it's "papa" Stalin, Castro, or whoever presents himself as the benevolent, provider and protector of the people.

It also demonstrates a lack of boundaries. Obama wants to inject himself and by extension government, into every area of life. In this instance, circumventing parents, and speak to millions of school children on what he thinks is best for them.

In a sense, this is in character with government leaders who seek to raise our children for us. He's taking Hilary Clinton's mantra, "it takes a village to raise a children" to a whole new level; the federal government is now raising our children.

I have appreciated and applauded Obama's efforts to, in a general sense, point out the importance role fathers play in the lives of children. But the general addressing of the issue is much different than what he's doing here, circumventing parents and seeing to, in a sense, be the great father to the children in our nation.