On Tuesday morning, President Barack Obama plans to give a nationally televised speech directed to school children. He wants to talk about the importance of working hard and staying in school. It’s a kind of presidential pep talk for kids.

Bitter partisans have responded with loud objections, including some in St. Louis. A few parents — what one local school administrator described as “a small but vocal minority” — have objected.

They characterize the president’s anticipated remarks as “propaganda.” They have asked that the speech not be shown in the schools. Missouri’s Republican Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder took time out from planning for the Tour of Missouri bicycle race to pander to them, calling Mr. Obama’s plans “a clear infringement on the rights of our students and those of Missouri parents.”

Mr. Obama is not the first such presidential infringer. President Ronald Reagan invited a group of high school students to the White House in 1986. He talked to them about world and military affairs, his tax program and the importance of education. The proceedings were broadcast live on radio and television to high school students nationally. No one seems to have objected.

President George H. W. Bush gave a noontime address in 1989, televised from the White House Library. He encouraged youngsters, gathered and watching from schools nationally, to stay away from drugs. (When Mr. Bush did a similar telecast in 1991, this time from a classroom, Democrats, including then-U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt of St. Louis, complained about the $26,750 Department of Education expenditure).

This time around, many school districts around the country essentially will punt on the presidential speech, claiming that it is scheduled during lunch hour, that the school year is just getting started and everybody is busy, etc., etc. Teachers have the option to show the speech, but it is doubtful that many will want to deal with complaints from a few protesting parents.

However many students end up watching the live broadcast, Mr. Obama’s talk is a teachable moment, not so much for what he has to say, but as a study in citizenship. An enterprising high school civics teacher could build a lesson around this question: What is the state of our civil society when the innocuous matter of a presidential speech geared toward a goal we all should embrace — getting a good education — would evoke such an empty and embarrassing outcry of nastiness and disrespect from grown-ups? What are we teaching our children?

President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act in the gymasium at Hamilton High School in Ohio. Standing behind the President (from L-R) are Rep. George Miller (D-Ohio), Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA), Secretary of Education Rodney Paige, Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH) and Rep. John Boehner (R-OH). AFP PHOTO / TIM SLOAN