In his speech to school children carried live on CNN, PBS and many other networks, the President implored students, "Take control -- challenge yourself," adding, "Only you know how hard you work." Those quickly forgotten and uncontroversial words were delivered by President George H.W. Bush in 1991 at Alice Deal Junior High School in Washington, D.C. But a year after they first raged about Barack Obama using similarly innocuous language as part of a campaign of "socialist indoctrination" and "cult of personality propaganda," conservatives are still grumbling about the 44th president simply doing what his predecessors did.
This year, as the Wall Street Journal reported today, "Obama Speech to School Kids Gets Little GOP Reaction." As it turns out, the subdued right-wing reaction may have as much to do with Republican political calculus than the realization that for all of their hysteria, President Obama's 2009 address to the school kids was a non-event:

This year, conservatives appear to be yielding to the request of senior Republican strategists to stay focused on the economic message, to "not run down rabbit holes," as Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour put it last week.

More important - and even more sad - this year school districts around the country tried to head off a new furor by contacting parents in advance to provide them the opportunity to prevent their children from listening to the President of the United States. In Colorado, for example:

On Friday the Boulder Valley District sent a letter (pdf) notifying parents that elementary schools would "offer students the opportunity to view the speech" but that parents who do not want their children to view the speech could opt out. "An alternative activity will be provided," the letter said
Last year, enraged Colorado parents fired up by an intense anti-Obama-anti-health care town hall campaign, demanded their children be exempted from any speech given by the "socialist" President.

Last year, Boulder faced "dozens of calls from irate parents in 2009 who said they would keep their children home from school out of earshot from the president."
Meanwhile in Texas, the Georgetown and Leander school districts sent out similar opt-out notifications after refusing in 2009 to allow students to hear from their president. Two other districts - Elysian Fields and Waskom -- will not show the speech. And in Michigan, Jon Felske, superintendent for Wyoming and Godwin Heights school districts, said Sunday. "It's nowhere near what it was last year. There is less apprehension this year." By way of comparison, in 2009:

The urging of conservative talk radio hosts, some of whom tried to organize a "Keep Your Kids Home" effort, led some parents to call and e-mail West Michigan school leaders concerned about the potential content of the speech.
As a result, several districts in Ottawa and Kent counties refused to show the speech live and others gave parents the option of pulling their kids out of class to avoid being affected by politics.

Whether you chalk it up to last year's milquetoast speech by the President or the fact that he is facing trial over stealing $200,000 from his party, former Florida GOP chairman Jim Greer appears to be feeling some remorse for launching the right-wing protest last time around. A year after warning that "taxpayer dollars are being used to spread President Obama's socialist ideology" and "using our children as tools to spread liberal propaganda," Greer blamed racists in his own party:

"In the year since I issued a prepared statement regarding President Obama speaking to the nation's school children, I have learned a great deal about the party I so deeply loved and served," Greer said in a statement Tuesday to CNN and other media outlets.
"Unfortunately, I found that many within the GOP have racist views and I apologize to the President for my opposition to his speech last year and my efforts to placate the extremists who dominate our Party today. My children and I look forward to the President's speech."

A year later, the American people by now should recognize that Republicans were simply engaging is what the younger President Bush might have called the soft expectations of low bigotry.
UPDATE: in November, President Obama will publish a children's book titled, ""Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters." Proceeds will will be donated to a scholarship fund for fallen and disabled U.S. soldiers. Conservatives will doubtless call this, too, socialist indoctrination for American kids.