Fifty eight years ago the nation listened to one of the most memorable speeches delivered by an American president, John F Kennedy, with the words, ‘And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country’, today, it would appear that Barack Obama was attempting to emulate that deliverance by rallying the children, and parents of America’s children, to take responsibility for their lives, their education and their futures, but his message will by no means go down in the annuls of history as a rousing call to arms.

At Wakefield High School in the Washington D.C, a suburb of Arlington, Virginia, Obama took to the podium to the sounds of a rousing brass band as he sauntered up to make his less than stirring utterance.

With all the controversy that preceded Obama’s speech it was automatically destined to be a well viewed production, but the controversy fell by the way as the 44th president of the US rambled on about his childhood, his wife, Michelle Obama’s difficult rise to the top and his vision of just how America’s children should conduct themselves educationally.

Freshwater pearls before swine is the only way to describe his speech. There cannot be one single line that can be described as memorable in his 10 minute address. Far from being controversial, a form of propaganda or indoctrinating, the only fear most parents should have had was that their children would fall asleep listening to the self appraising Obama!

The only propaganda here was the administration’s poorly worded assignment sheet and failure to give details of the speech earlier which consequently allowed the opportunity for the far right to make it a bigger issue than it should have and so causing a larger audience than Obama deserved!