{"id":3717,"date":"2009-09-08T11:56:07","date_gmt":"2009-09-08T11:56:07","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2009-09-08T11:56:07","modified_gmt":"2009-09-08T11:56:07","slug":"be-not-afraid-read-president-obama-s-message-of-encouragement-to-our-nation-s-school-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/proudparenting.com\/2009\/09\/be-not-afraid-read-president-obama-s-message-of-encouragement-to-our-nation-s-school-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Be not afraid: Read President Obama’s message of encouragement to our nation’s school children"},"content":{"rendered":"

Text of President Obama’s back to school speech<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

The President: Hello everyone \u2013 how\u2019s everybody doing today? I\u2019m here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we\u2019ve got students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten through twelfth grade. I\u2019m glad you all could join us today.<\/p>\n

I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it\u2019s your first day in a new school, so it\u2019s understandable if you\u2019re a little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now, with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade you\u2019re in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could\u2019ve stayed in bed just a little longer this morning.<\/p>\n

I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn\u2019t have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday \u2013 at 4:30 in the morning. <\/p>\n

Now I wasn\u2019t too happy about getting up that early. A lot of times, I\u2019d fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I\u2019d complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and say, “This is no picnic for me either, buster.”<\/p>\n

So I know some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But I\u2019m here today because I have something important to discuss with you. I\u2019m here because I want to talk with you about your education and what\u2019s expected of all of you in this new school year.<\/p>\n

Now I\u2019ve given a lot of speeches about education. And I\u2019ve talked a lot about responsibility.
\nI\u2019ve talked about your teachers\u2019 responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve talked about your parents\u2019 responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and get your homework done, and don\u2019t spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with that Xbox.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve talked a lot about your government\u2019s responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren\u2019t working where students aren\u2019t getting the opportunities they deserve.<\/p>\n

But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world \u2013 and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.<\/p>\n

Every single one of you has something you\u2019re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That\u2019s the opportunity an education can provide.<\/p>\n

Maybe you could be a good writer \u2013 maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper \u2013 but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor \u2013 maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine \u2013 but you might not know it until you do a project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a Senator or a Supreme Court Justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.<\/p>\n

And no matter what you want to do with your life \u2013 I guarantee that you\u2019ll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You\u2019re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can\u2019t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You\u2019ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.<\/p>\n

And this isn\u2019t just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you\u2019re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You\u2019ll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You\u2019ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.<\/p>\n

We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don\u2019t do that \u2013 if you quit on school \u2013 you\u2019re not just quitting on yourself, you\u2019re quitting on your country.<\/p>\n

Now I know it\u2019s not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork.<\/p>\n

I get it. I know what that\u2019s like. My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn\u2019t always able to give us things the other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and felt like I didn\u2019t fit in.<\/p>\n

So I wasn\u2019t always as focused as I should have been. I did some things I\u2019m not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.<\/p>\n

But I was fortunate. I got a lot of second chances and had the opportunity to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams. My wife, our First Lady Michelle Obama, has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn\u2019t have much. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.<\/p>\n

Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don\u2019t have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job, and there\u2019s not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don\u2019t feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren\u2019t right.<\/p>\n

But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life \u2013 what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you\u2019ve got going on at home \u2013 that\u2019s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That\u2019s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That\u2019s no excuse for not trying.<\/p>\n

Where you are right now doesn\u2019t have to determine where you\u2019ll end up. No one\u2019s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.<\/p>\n

Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn\u2019t speak English when she first started school. Hardly anyone in her hometown went to college, and neither of her parents had gone either. But she worked hard, earned good grades, got a scholarship to Brown University, and is now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to being Dr. Jazmin Perez.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who\u2019s fought brain cancer since he was three. He\u2019s endured all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory, so it took him much longer \u2013 hundreds of extra hours \u2013 to do his schoolwork. But he never fell behind, and he\u2019s headed to college this fall.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods, she managed to get a job at a local health center; start a program to keep young people out of gangs; and she\u2019s on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college.<\/p>\n

Jazmin, Andoni and Shantell aren\u2019t any different from any of you. They faced challenges in their lives just like you do. But they refused to give up. They chose to take responsibility for their education and set goals for themselves. And I expect all of you to do the same.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why today, I\u2019m calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education \u2013 and to do everything you can to meet them. Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending time each day reading a book. Maybe you\u2019ll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in your community. Maybe you\u2019ll decide to stand up for kids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you believe, like I do, that all kids deserve a safe environment to study and learn. Maybe you\u2019ll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn. And along those lines, I hope you\u2019ll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don\u2019t feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.
\nWhatever 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 the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work — that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you\u2019re not going to be any of those things.<\/p>\n

But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won\u2019t love every subject you study. You won\u2019t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won\u2019t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who\u2019ve had the most failures. JK Rowling\u2019s first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, “I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”<\/p>\n

These people succeeded because they understand that you can\u2019t let your failures define you \u2013 you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.<\/p>\n

No one\u2019s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You\u2019re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don\u2019t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You\u2019ve got to practice. It\u2019s the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it\u2019s good enough to hand in.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t be afraid to ask questions. Don\u2019t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn\u2019t a sign of weakness, it\u2019s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don\u2019t know something, and to learn something new. So find an adult you trust \u2013 a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or counselor \u2013 and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.<\/p>\n

And even when you\u2019re struggling, even when you\u2019re discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you \u2013 don\u2019t ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.<\/p>\n

The story of America isn\u2019t about people who quit when things got tough. It\u2019s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.
\nSo today, I want to ask you, what\u2019s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country? <\/p>\n

Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I\u2019m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you\u2019ve got to do your part too. So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don\u2019t let us down \u2013 don\u2019t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.<\/p>\n

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.<\/p>\n

9\/6\/2009<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to The White House<\/strong> website<\/a>, at noon on Tuesday, September 8th the President will be welcoming America\u2019s students back to school. The President has spoken often about the responsibility parents have for their children and their education, but in this message he\u2019ll urge students to take personal responsibility for their own education, to set goals, and to not only stay in school but make the most of it.<\/p>\n

ProudParenting blogger – HalWLanse<\/a> – reminds us to stay calm amid the furor of anti-Obama rhetoric buzzing through right-wing circles about his upcoming speech to school children.<\/p>\n

According to the gay adoptive parent, grandfather of twins, teacher trainer, and author living in New York City – the media is full of reports that parents are objecting to President Obama\u2019s upcoming speech. One talking-head has called the speech \u201cindoctrination.\u201d But HalWLanse asks some critical questions:<\/p>\n