What controversy has arisen over children singing a song about Obama?
BURLINGTON TOWNSHIP, N.J. — A school for kindergartners through second-graders in a comfortable Philadelphia suburb has become the latest target of accusations by conservatives that schoolchildren are being indoctrinated to idolize President Barack Obama. The controversy grows out of a school assembly during Black History Month in February, when gripes about the freshly inaugurated president were still mostly hushed. That month, a group of smiley and fidgety students at B. Bernice Young School sang a medley of two short songs praising the president. The first song begins, “Mmm, mmm, mmm, Barack Hussein Obama/He said that all must lend a hand/To make this country strong again.” The second one was set to “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” and included the refrain, “Hooray, Mr. President.” While the performance is seven months old, the outrage is new and came about because of the discovery of a YouTube video. It’s been fodder for conservative opinion leaders such as columnist and blogger M
A school for kindergartners through second-graders in a comfortable Philadelphia suburb has become the latest target of accusations by conservatives that schoolchildren are being indoctrinated to idolize President Barack Obama. The controversy grows out of a school assembly during Black History Month in February, when gripes about the freshly inaugurated president were still mostly hushed. That month, a group of smiley and fidgety students at B. Bernice Young School sang a medley of two short songs praising the president. The first song begins, “Mmm, mmm, mmm, Barack Hussein Obama/He said that all must lend a hand/To make this country strong again.” The second one was set to “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” and included the refrain, “Hooray, Mr. President.” While the performance is seven months old, the outrage is new and came about because of the discovery of a YouTube video. It’s been fodder for conservative opinion leaders such as columnist and blogger Michelle Malkin and Fox News
Because the song was used by teachers on the public payroll to teach children, the Republican National Chair Michael Steele has chastized the action and resulting video as an indoctrination of children using public money. Sources: Information came from Examiner.com.
