Here’s Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s letter to principles announcing President Obama’s speech to America’s schoolchildren on September 8.

Here’s the list of suggested classroom activities for before, during, and after the speech for grades pre-K to 6 grades 7 to 12.

In the section for pre-K to 6th graders titled “Extension of the Speech: Teachers can extend learning by having students” is this suggestion:

• Write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president. These would be collected and redistributed at an appropriate later date by the teacher to make students accountable to their goals.

Liberals will say critics of this “first ever” presidential speech to students are politicizing a nice gesture by the president about the importance of learning.

But the widespread and growing objection to the idea is that the president has no business injecting himself into every classroom or suggesting to teachers that they help students figure out how they can help the president. If W has tried such a stunt he would have been rightfully roasted for doing so. It is a terrible idea, and ought to be abandoned, but won’t be. Parents who object to the exercise are going to find themselves mocked, but many will do so nonetheless. Whether they will be listened to remains to be seen.

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