{"id":5771,"date":"2009-09-08T19:01:25","date_gmt":"2009-09-08T19:01:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2009\/09\/a-president-in-the-classroom.html"},"modified":"2009-09-08T19:01:25","modified_gmt":"2009-09-08T19:01:25","slug":"a-president-in-the-classroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/09\/a-president-in-the-classroom.html","title":{"rendered":"A President in the Classroom"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Obamas.jpg\"<\/span><\/p>\n

The much-disputed speech of President Obama is now a matter of record. I have posted what is found on the White House site. <\/p>\n

Now what are your thoughts? I’m wondering what folks are hearing from those who were most concerned?<\/b><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

THE WHITE HOUSE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Office of the Press Secretary
\n___________________________________________________________________________
\nFor Immediate Release                                                        September 8, 2009<\/p>\n

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
\nIN A NATIONAL ADDRESS TO AMERICA’S SCHOOLCHILDREN<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wakefield High School
\nArlington, Virginia<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

12:06 P.M. EDT<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you,
\neverybody. All right, everybody go ahead and have a seat. How is
\neverybody doing today? (Applause.) How about Tim Spicer? (Applause.) I
\nam here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia.
\nAnd we’ve got students tuning in from all across America, from
\nkindergarten through 12th grade. And I am just so glad that all could
\njoin us today. And I want to thank Wakefield for being such an
\noutstanding host. Give yourselves a big round of applause. (Applause.)<\/p>\n

I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And
\nfor those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school,
\nit’s your first day in a new school, so it’s understandable if you’re a
\nlittle nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are
\nfeeling pretty good right now — (applause) — with just one more year
\nto go. And no matter what grade you’re in, some of you are probably
\nwishing it were still summer and you could’ve stayed in bed just a
\nlittle bit longer this morning.<\/p>\n

I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived overseas. I
\nlived in Indonesia for a few years. And my mother, she didn’t have the
\nmoney to send me where all the American kids went to school, but she
\nthought it was important for me to keep up with an American education.
\nSo she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through
\nFriday. But because she had to go to work, the only time she could do
\nit was at 4:30 in the morning.<\/p>\n

Now, as you might imagine, I wasn’t too happy about getting up that
\nearly. And a lot of times, I’d fall asleep right there at the kitchen
\ntable. But whenever I’d complain, my mother would just give me one of
\nthose looks and she’d say, “This is no picnic for me either, buster.”
\n(Laughter.)<\/p>\n

So I know that some of you are still adjusting to being back at
\nschool. But I’m here today because I have something important to
\ndiscuss with you. I’m here because I want to talk with you about your
\neducation and what’s expected of all of you in this new school year.<\/p>\n

Now, I’ve given a lot of speeches about education. And I’ve talked about responsibility a lot.<\/p>\n

I’ve talked about teachers’ responsibility for inspiring students and pushing you to learn.<\/p>\n

I’ve talked about your parents’ responsibility for making sure you
\nstay on track, and you get your homework done, and don’t spend every
\nwaking hour in front of the TV or with the Xbox.<\/p>\n

I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting
\nhigh standards, and supporting teachers and principals, and turning
\naround schools that aren’t working, where students aren’t getting the
\nopportunities that they deserve.<\/p>\n

But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers,
\nthe most supportive parents, the best schools in the world — and none
\nof it will make a difference, none of it will matter unless all of you
\nfulfill your responsibilities, unless you show up to those schools,
\nunless you pay attention to those teachers, unless you listen to your
\nparents and grandparents and other adults and put in the hard work it
\ntakes to succeed. That’s what I want to focus on today: the
\nresponsibility each of you has for your education.<\/p>\n

I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself. Every
\nsingle one of you has something that you’re good at. Every single one
\nof you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to
\nyourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education
\ncan provide.<\/p>\n

Maybe you could be a great writer — maybe even good enough to write
\na book or articles in a newspaper — but you might not know it until
\nyou write that English paper — that English class paper that’s
\nassigned to you. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor —
\nmaybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or the new
\nmedicine or vaccine — but you might not know it until you do your
\nproject for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a senator
\nor a Supreme Court justice — but you might not know that until you
\njoin student government or the debate team.<\/p>\n

And no matter what you want to do with your life, I guarantee that
\nyou’ll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a
\nteacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a
\nlawyer or a member of our military? You’re going to need a good
\neducation for every single one of those careers. You cannot drop out of
\nschool and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to train for it and
\nwork for it and learn for it.<\/p>\n

And this isn’t just important for your own life and your own future.
\nWhat you make of your education will decide nothing less than the
\nfuture of this country. The future of America depends on you. What
\nyou’re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation
\ncan meet our greatest challenges in the future.<\/p>\n

You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in
\nscience and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop
\nnew energy technologies and protect our environment. You’ll need the
\ninsights and critical-thinking skills you gain in history and social
\nstudies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination,
\nand make our nation more fair and more free. You’ll need the creativity
\nand ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies
\nthat will create new jobs and boost our economy.<\/p>\n

We need every single one of you to develop your talents and your
\nskills and your intellect so you can help us old folks solve our most
\ndifficult problems. If you don’t do that — if you quit on school —
\nyou’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.<\/p>\n

Now, I know it’s not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot
\nof you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to
\nfocus on your schoolwork.<\/p>\n

I get it. I know what it’s like. My father left my family when I was
\ntwo years old, and I was raised by a single mom who had to work and who
\nstruggled at times to pay the bills and wasn’t always able to give us
\nthe things that other kids had. There were times when I missed having a
\nfather in my life. There were times when I was lonely and I felt like I
\ndidn’t fit in.<\/p>\n

So I wasn’t always as focused as I should have been on school, and I
\ndid some things I’m not proud of, and I got in more trouble than I
\nshould have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.<\/p>\n

But I was — I was lucky. I got a lot of second chances, and I had
\nthe opportunity to go to college and law school and follow my dreams.
\nMy wife, our First Lady Michelle Obama, she has a similar story.
\nNeither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn’t have a lot
\nof money. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could
\ngo to the best schools in this country.<\/p>\n

Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don’t have
\nadults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe
\nsomeone in your family has lost their job and there’s not enough money
\nto go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don’t feel
\nsafe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know
\naren’t right.<\/p>\n

But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life — what
\nyou look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what
\nyou’ve got going on at home — none of that is an excuse for neglecting
\nyour homework or having a bad attitude in school. That’s no excuse for
\ntalking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of
\nschool. There is no excuse for not trying.<\/p>\n

Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end
\nup. No one’s written your destiny for you, because here in America, you
\nwrite your own destiny. You make your own future.<\/p>\n

That’s what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.<\/p>\n

Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn’t
\nspeak English when she first started school. Neither of her parents had
\ngone to college. But she worked hard, earned good grades, and got a
\nscholarship to Brown University — is now in graduate school, studying
\npublic health, on her way to becoming Dr. Jazmin Perez.<\/p>\n

I’m thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who’s
\nfought brain cancer since he was three. He’s had to endure all sorts of
\ntreatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory, so it took
\nhim much longer — hundreds of extra hours — to do his schoolwork. But
\nhe never fell behind. He’s headed to college this fall.<\/p>\n

And then there’s Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago,
\nIllinois. Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the
\ntoughest neighborhoods in the city, she managed to get a job at a local
\nhealth care center, start a program to keep young people out of gangs,
\nand she’s on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to
\ncollege.<\/p>\n

And Jazmin, Andoni, and Shantell aren’t any different from any of
\nyou. They face challenges in their lives just like you do. In some
\ncases they’ve got it a lot worse off than many of you. But they refused
\nto give up. They chose to take responsibility for their lives, for
\ntheir education, and set goals for themselves. And I expect all of you
\nto do the same.<\/p>\n

That’s why today I’m calling on each of you to set your own goals
\nfor your education — and do everything you can to meet them. Your goal
\ncan be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention
\nin class, or spending some time each day reading a book. Maybe you’ll
\ndecide to get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in
\nyour community. Maybe you’ll decide to stand up for kids who are being
\nteased or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you
\nbelieve, like I do, that all young people deserve a safe environment to
\nstudy and learn. Maybe you’ll decide to take better care of yourself so
\nyou can be more ready to learn. And along those lines, by the way, I
\nhope all of you are washing your hands a lot, and that you stay home
\nfrom school when you don’t feel well, so we can keep people from
\ngetting the flu this fall and winter.<\/p>\n

But whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to really work at it.<\/p>\n

I know that sometimes you get that sense from TV that you can be
\nrich and successful without any hard work — that your ticket to
\nsuccess is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star.
\nChances are you’re not going to be any of those things.<\/p>\n

The truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject
\nthat you study. You won’t click with every teacher that you have. Not
\nevery homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life
\nright at this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything
\nthe first time you try.<\/p>\n

That’s okay. Some of the most successful people in the world are the
\nones who’ve had the most failures. J.K. Rowling’s — who wrote Harry
\nPotter — her first Harry Potter book was rejected 12 times before it
\nwas finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school
\nbasketball team. He lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of
\nshots during his career. But he once said, “I have failed over and over
\nand over again in my life. And that’s why I succeed.”<\/p>\n

These people succeeded because they understood that you can’t let
\nyour failures define you — you have to let your failures teach you.
\nYou have to let them show you what to do differently the next time. So
\nif you get into trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it
\nmeans you need to try harder to act right. If you get a bad grade, that
\ndoesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time
\nstudying.<\/p>\n

No one’s born being good at all things. You become good at things
\nthrough hard work. You’re not a varsity athlete the first time you play
\na new sport. You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song.
\nYou’ve got to practice. The same principle applies to your schoolwork.
\nYou might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it
\nright. You might have to read something a few times before you
\nunderstand it. You definitely have to do a few drafts of a paper before
\nit’s good enough to hand in.<\/p>\n

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help
\nwhen you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of
\nweakness, it’s a sign of strength because it shows you have the courage
\nto admit when you don’t know something, and that then allows you to
\nlearn something new. So find an adult that you trust — a parent, a
\ngrandparent or teacher, a coach or a counselor — and ask them to help
\nyou stay on track to meet your goals.<\/p>\n

And even when you’re struggling, even when you’re discouraged, and
\nyou feel like other people have given up on you, don’t ever give up on
\nyourself, because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your
\ncountry.<\/p>\n

The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got
\ntough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved
\ntheir country too much to do anything less than their best.<\/p>\n

It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and
\nwent on to wage a revolution and they founded this nation. Young
\npeople. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a
\nDepression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a
\nman on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who
\nfounded Google and Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we
\ncommunicate with each other.<\/p>\n

So today, I want to ask all of you, what’s your contribution going
\nto be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you
\nmake? What will a President who comes here in 20 or 50 or 100 years say
\nabout what all of you did for this country?<\/p>\n

Now, your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can
\nto make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions.
\nI’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books and
\nthe equipment and the computers you need to learn. But you’ve got to do
\nyour part, too. So I expect all of you to get serious this year. I
\nexpect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect
\ngreat things from each of you. So don’t let us down. Don’t let your
\nfamily down or your country down. Most of all, don’t let yourself down.
\nMake us all proud.<\/p>\n

Thank you very much, everybody. God bless you. God bless America. Thank you. (Applause.)<\/p>\n

END
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