As to the "Other Presidents have talked to schoolkids",

from Dr. Helen:Yes, other presidents have given individual talks to children but they went to the classroom themselves and talked with kids --the Politico article points out that this is the first time a president has ever given a speech addressed directly to students--and the fact that it is televised into the classroom is suspect. If Bush pumped in a show to all kids that was mandatory about the Iraq war,etc, people would be outraged.

Some of the commenters note one of the problems with this: an awful lot of teachers will use it as the opportunity to push their views on the kids. There's enough trouble with that crap without The One helping out.