Presidency deserves respect

I have never felt such disappointment in a portion of the American people as I have felt recently over the disrespectful response to President Obama's school address. How in the world do people think that a president is trying to indoctrinate children by talking to them about the need to study and stay in school? There is something fundamentally wrong with this parental picture, not to mention with the news media that gave these parents a platform for attention. The children were put in no kind of risk. Parents who opposed it had their own agenda that had nothing to do with what President Obama was trying to accomplish by speaking commonsense and encouragement to schoolchildren.

I am a parent and a teacher who sees the lack of motivation daily from students at school. I work in a district that is trying its darndest to help students learn, keep the dropout rate down and teach what a healthy work ethic means. Obama's speech was appropriate, not to mention needed, in a time when many students are not hearing this message at home.

My disappointment is not only in the inappropriate, self-serving and uneducated response of these Americans to the speech, but even more it is in the modeling of disrespect that seems to be acceptable to these parents for their children. No matter your politics, the office of the presidency demands more respect than what these parents are teaching their children.

KAREN BOWLES, Cape Girardeau