Talking of education, President Obama’s idea of exhorting America’s children to work hard via a nationwide address to schools is (of course) encountering resistance as did a similar initiative by President Bush in 1991:

… Critics are particularly upset about lesson plans the administration created to accompany the speech. The lesson plans, available online, originally recommended having students "write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president."  

The White House revised the plans Wednesday to say students could "write letters to themselves about how they can achieve their short-term and long-term education goals."

… "As far as I am concerned, this is not civics education – it gives the appearance of creating a cult of personality," said Oklahoma Republican state Sen. Steve Russell. "This is something you’d expect to see in North Korea or in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq."  

Hence in our YouTube age…