Students across the country will sit through a presidential address this afternoon, at noon EDT. Don’t worry, your 11 a.m.–12:20 p.m. lecture won’t be interrupted — the address is directed toward the nation’s K-12 students.

You’ve probably heard the buzz. Political pundits, senators and members of the House of Representatives — even a few parents — have raised a stink about the president taking an opportunity to indoctrinate our nation’s youth.

Not to say that campaign propaganda doesn’t hit its mark in the U.S. from time to time, but have these people actually read his speech?

No doubt many will find a thing or two to join the stink-raisers on, but we’re wondering why a 20-minute speech about hard work and dedication has become such a big deal that touches so many nerves.

True to form, the president tells his and the first lady’s inspiring stories, selects a handful of students whose circumstances he touts as examples of achievement in the face of adversity, and he cites the greats — the Greatest Generation, Neil Armstrong and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin — as what you can become, for America’s sake.

And he ties it off with a personal challenge to each of America’s students — that they overcome their own adversity, set goals and contribute to society.

By the end of the address, each of the country’s students, teachers and parents — to whom the speech is directed, mind you — hopefully understands this is an opportunity to discuss such important issues among themselves and to, at the very least, consider the president’s words and decide for themselves what they’ll take to heart and what they’ll choose to disregard.

Hopefully, most will choose, today to set themselves on a course to become contributing and valuable members of our society. And that seems to us to be a reasonable discourse to undertake in any classroom.

And although the president’s remarks won’t be broadcast widely in any of our classrooms this afternoon, they do give us cause to reflect on the decisions we’ve made and those that are yet before us.

There are times to disagree and times to criticize the president. But when it comes to education, we hardly see a problem.

Don’t become an extremist pundit. Talk about your education and your future. Remember that although Obama’s address isn’t aimed at our age group, although we may disagree with the president, although the closing of this editorial is corny as can be, the importance of education is certainly not limited to age.