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Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama

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Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama
Back to School Event


Arlington, Virginia
September 8, 2009

The President: Hello everyone – how’s everybody doing today? I’m here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we’ve got students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten through twelfth grade. I’m glad you all could join us today.

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’s your first day in a new school, so it’s understandable if you’re 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’re in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could’ve stayed in bed just a little longer this morning.

I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn’t 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 – at 4:30 in the morning.

Now I wasn’t too happy about getting up that early. A lot of times, I’d fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I’d complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and say, "This is no picnic for me either, buster."
So I know some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But I’m here today because I have something important to discuss with you. I’m here because I want to talk with you about your education and what’s expected of all of you in this new school year.
Now I’ve given a lot of speeches about education. And I’ve talked a lot about responsibility.

I’ve talked about your teachers’ responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn.

I’ve talked about your parents’ responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and get your homework done, and don’t spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with that Xbox.

I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren’t working where students aren’t getting the opportunities they deserve.

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 – 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.

And that’s 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.

Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide.

Maybe you could be a good writer – maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper – but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor – maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine – 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.

And no matter what you want to do with your life – I guarantee that you’ll 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’re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.

And this isn’t 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’re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.

You’ll 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’ll 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’ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.

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’t do that – if you quit on school – you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.
Now I know it’s 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.

I get it. I know what that’s 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’t 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’t fit in.
So I wasn’t always as focused as I should have been. I did some things I’m not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.

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’t have much. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.

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

But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying.

Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.

That’s what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.

Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn’t 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.

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

And then there’s 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’s on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college.

Jazmin, Andoni and Shantell aren’t 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.

That’s why today, I’m calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education – 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’ll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in your community. Maybe you’ll 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’ll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn. And along those lines, I hope you’ll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don’t feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.

Whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to really work at it.

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’re not going to be any of those things.
But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.

That’s OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. JK Rowling’s 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."

These people succeeded because they understand that you can’t let your failures define you – 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’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.

No one’s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You’re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You’ve got to practice. It’s 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’s good enough to hand in.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, and to learn something new. So find an adult you trust – a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or counselor – and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.

And even when you’re struggling, even when you’re discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you – don’t ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.

The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.

It’s 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.

So today, I want to ask you, what’s 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?
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’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you’ve 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’t let us down – don’t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

source
 
Socialism! Thats Socialism! Stay Home From School And Jesus Will Save You!
 
Socialism! Thats Socialism! Stay Home From School And Jesus Will Save You!
:geewhiz:
It seems like a well-reasoned, encouraging, and common sense speech.
One we haven't heard for our students in a while.
 
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Fox.com

Obama's planned talk has been controversial, with several conservative organizations and individuals accusing him of trying to delve too directly into local education and indoctrinate students with what they call his "socialist" agenda. But White House officials, including Education Secretary Arne Duncan, have said the charges are silly.
How can people distort a stay in school speech?
 
Fox.com

How can people distort a stay in school speech?
I'm with you Mino.

This is so common sense. But the pundits have got to put their spin on it, and make it sound like Obama has a hidden agenda. Turning the country to socialism. Jesus. The wealthy politicians sure don't have to worry about their children's education, do they?
 
:geewhiz:
It seems like a well-reasoned, encouraging, and common sense speech.
One we haven't heard for our students in a while.

.....sounds like you hate 'MERICA. If our children go to school, the terrorists win.
 
I am lost Danzik, you mean to say your against education?
 
I'm failing so hard at sarcasm right now. Is there some type of a nightclass I can take from ROID?
 
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I don't think the guys color has anything to do with it whatsoever
 
oh I do, over half of the US hated Bush but he was not disrespected this way.

rose colored glasses my friend? yea, bush was disrespected just the same. It's partisan politics. Has nothing to do with the guys color. If it was color the guy wouldn't have been elected.
 
oh I do, over half of the US hated Bush but he was not disrespected this way.
seriously? With all the comments about how stupid people thought Bush was?

What I think is 'funny'...is how a 'liberal' is quick to bash on Bush, or any republican.
However...if anybody goes against Obama...oh no! you cant say that! RACIST! Give him a chance!.....

I may be wrong...but now that in the first few months in office, O has taken a TRILLION dollar loan, doubling our debt...I think it is pretty safe to say it is now Obama's economy and not Bush's...if what he's doing works: AWESOME! he pulled our asses out of the fire! If he fails...its all him...not Bush.
I friggn' HATE politics. Just saying.

I think O's speech writers made a nice speech. I do like the part where he states taking personal responsibility. Maybe our goverment should actually practice what they preach...
 
. I do like the part where he states taking personal responsibility. Maybe our goverment should actually practice what they preach...

alas, you expect too much
 
I think O's speech writers made a nice speech. I do like the part where he states taking personal responsibility. Maybe our goverment should actually practice what they preach...

Don't hold your breath.
 
I don't think the guys color has anything to do with it whatsoever
I know a few people who do admit it.
To me it's just the typical conservative wacky way of thinking.

Obama--Stay in school.

GOP-- Socialist!!

Obama-- to Republicans: Where's YOUR solution to health reform?

GOP--um...invade Iran!!

Obama--What a beautiful blue sky!

GOP-- No it's not!! Whargarbllwarbllyyl :blah:
 
Texan Critic Of Obama's 'Indoctrination' Speech Backs Actual Indoctrination In Textbooks | TPMMuckraker

Texan Critic Of Obama's 'Indoctrination' Speech Backs Actual Indoctrination In Textbooks


Conservatives have spent the last week whipping themselves into a frenzy over President Obama's speech tomorrow in which he will indoctrinate the nation's schoolchildren using the instruments of mass media.
As it turns out, Obama's speech will be pretty anodyne. But one vocal critic of Obama's plans, has long been involved in an effort to actually indoctrinate students -- through the state-sanctioned textbooks they study all year.
Meet David Bradley, Republican member of the Texas State Board of Education from Beaumont.
Bradley is "one of the ring leaders" of the GOP-controlled board's large and activist social conservative bloc, says Dan Quinn of the Texas Freedom Network, which describes itself as committed to fighting the religious right. And Bradley will undoubtedly vote for the skewed history textbook standards we told you about last week that focus on Reaganomics, Newt Gingrich, and Phyllis Schlafly, Quinn says.


In one infamous episode in the late 1990s, Bradley physically ripped apart an Algebra textbook because he was unhappy with pictures, recipes, references to women's suffrage, and other subjects incorporated into the text.
In 2003, he voted with a minority of board members against new biology textbooks because they didn't address "weaknesses" in evolution, according to a Texas Freedom Network report (.pdf).
And in a story on the Gingrich-based textbook standards, Bradley is described as "one of the conservative leaders" and "figures the current draft will pass a preliminary vote along party lines 'once the napalm and smoke clear the room.'"
Bradley didn't immediately return a call seeking comment.
He clearly couldn't resist jumping in the fray over Obama's speech. To USA Today last week as the controversy was bubbling up, Bradley offered this advice to parents: "If you're concerned, keep your kids home for the day."
As David Carr points out, quoting Bradley in the New York Times, the keep-the-kids-home mantra was repeated ad nauseum on Fox News and elsewhere.
Bradley had this to say when asked by the Houston Chronicle about Obama's speech:
"Under Texas statute, parents have the right to review all instructional materials. They also have the right to opt out their kids from any program they might object to," he said, citing sex education as an example.
In any case, we look forward to Bradley speaking out clearly against partisanship in the classroom when the history standards come up for discussion next week.
 
This is utterly pathetic. As a nation, we look utterly pathetic. My family in Taiwan has read his speech and loves it. ( of course we are all very pro education.) They asked me if our country was heading towards censorship practices......( thats what some of the papers over there are talking about).

I considered George W. Bush a misguided boob but I had no issue with a speech by him on the importance of working hard in school being aired in my children's classrooms. It never occurred to me his speech would be a subversive attempt to recruit my child into right wing politics.
 
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To be fair the Democrats went this route also, both parties have no common sense..especially when it comes to kids.



When Bush Sr. spoke to students, Democrats investigated, held hearings

By: Byron York
Chief Political Correspondent
09/08/09 7:11 AM EDT


The controversy over President Obama's speech to the nation's schoolchildren will likely be over shortly after Obama speaks today at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. But when President George H.W. Bush delivered a similar speech on October 1, 1991, from Alice Deal Junior High School in Washington DC, the controversy was just beginning. Democrats, then the majority party in Congress, not only denounced Bush's speech -- they also ordered the General Accounting Office to investigate its production and later summoned top Bush administration officials to Capitol Hill for an extensive hearing on the issue.
Unlike the Obama speech, in 1991 most of the controversy came after, not before, the president's school appearance. The day after Bush spoke, the Washington Post published a front-page story suggesting the speech was carefully staged for the president's political benefit. "The White House turned a Northwest Washington junior high classroom into a television studio and its students into props," the Post reported.
With the Post article in hand, Democrats pounced. "The Department of Education should not be producing paid political advertising for the president, it should be helping us to produce smarter students," said Richard Gephardt, then the House Majority Leader. "And the president should be doing more about education than saying, 'Lights, camera, action.'"
Democrats did not stop with words. Rep. William Ford, then chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, ordered the General Accounting Office to investigate the cost and legality of Bush's appearance. On October 17, 1991, Ford summoned then-Education Secretary Lamar Alexander and other top Bush administration officials to testify at a hearing devoted to the speech. "The hearing this morning is to really examine the expenditure of $26,750 of the Department of Education funds to produce and televise an appearance by President Bush at Alice Deal Junior High School in Washington, DC," Ford began. "As the chairman of the committee charged with the authorization and implementation of education programs, I am very much interested in the justification, rationale for giving the White House scarce education funds to produce a media event."
Unfortunately for Ford, the General Accounting Office concluded that the Bush administration had not acted improperly. "The speech itself and the use of the department's funds to support it, including the cost of the production contract, appear to be legal," the GAO wrote in a letter to Chairman Ford. "The speech also does not appear to have violated the restrictions on the use of appropriations for publicity and propaganda."
That didn't stop Democratic allies from taking their own shots at Bush. The National Education Association denounced the speech, saying it "cannot endorse a president who spends $26,000 of taxpayers' money on a staged media event at Alice Deal Junior High School in Washington, D.C. -- while cutting school lunch funds for our neediest youngsters."
Lost in all the denouncing and investigating was the fact that Bush's speech itself, like Obama's today, was entirely unremarkable. "Block out the kids who think it's not cool to be smart," the president told students. "If someone goofs off today, are they cool? Are they still cool years from now, when they're stuck in a dead end job. Don't let peer pressure stand between you and your dreams.​
 
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What I would like to know is who here would have an issue with his speech.
I really like to know why also.
 
I highlighted some good points but then gave it up after seeing the whole article needed highlighting.


Our kids need President Obama's wisdom

Michael Daly
Updated Tuesday, September 8th 2009, 10:08 AM




The start of school has been moved ahead a day, so our kids will miss some hard-earned wisdom from the man who proved anyone really can grow up to be President.


They will also miss a perfect opportunity to discuss why nut-job conservatives got into such a tizzy over President Obama's back-to-school speech Tuesday to students across the country about the importance of assuming responsibility for their education.



Why did people who thought it was fine for the first President George Bush to address millions of schoolkids decide it was an outrage for Obama to do the same?
Are these the same people who are the most vocal against his efforts to institute universal health care?



Does their vehemence really arise from their objections to Obama's politics?
Do they really just dislike Obama himself?
And is this dislike related less to his politics than his race?
Is the supposedly political opposition really just a cover for people afraid to say they can't accept a black man in the White House?



If that is so, if they are (barely) secret racists, do they become particularly unhinged at the thought of a black President addressing their children?
Or do the nut jobs honestly believe what they say?



Do they actually think schoolkids are endangered by hearing their President say, "Now, I know it's 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. I get it. I know what that's like. My father left my family when I was 2 years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn't 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't fit in."



Do the conservatives really think kids should not hear the President go on to say, "But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life - what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you've got going on at home - that's no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That's no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That's no excuse for not trying."

What parent would not want the President to tell kids, "You can't let your failures define you - 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't mean you're a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn't mean you're stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying. No one's born being good at things. You become good at things through hard work."

How can any American not be glad for the President to further counsel kids, "And even when you're struggling, even when you're discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you - don't ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country. The story of America isn't about people who quit when things got tough. It's about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best."

What American would not cheer when the President says, "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't let us down - don't let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud."
Our own kids would have started the year with those words, but deals between the city and the teachers and principals unions moved the start of classes from today to tomorrow.

And no kid can be expected to come in from playing to tune the TV past the Disney Channel to a message from the President, even one so profoundly and historically cool as Obama.
Tomorrow, partly in answer to the nut jobs, more for the sake ofour kids, every school in the city should begin by playing Obama's message.
A discussion should immediately follow as to why anybody would not want them to hear it.
mdaly@nydailynews.com


:clapping::clapping:
 
race has nothing to do with it. holy hell. when the race card is played constantly over things that have nothing to do with race it takes away from instances when race really is an issue. I mean holy shit a black man was elected president. do we really have to hear that about those who disagree with him are racist simply because they disagree?

for the record i can care less what he said to the kids. a childs education is up to the parents in my mind anyways. I have no concerns with what obama said. I have major concerns and reservations about his other policies however.
 
They have severe brain damage.


I must also be "Disruptive" because I gave my kids and nephews a similar speech about how important it is to have an education.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who thinks he is going to be President someday even as he makes Sarah Palin sound like a Fulbright scholar in comparison, called the Obama speech "disruptive."
"I don't think [the President] needs to force [his speech on education] upon the nation's schoolchildren," Pawlenty said.
If Pawlenty thinks that, here's all he really knows about the nation's schoolchildren: He didn't hit the books nearly hard enough when he was one.


Read more: Loons should shut up and listen: Obama not out to brainwash schoolkids

Another idiot, Florida Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer, has suggested that Obama is trying to "indoctrinate America's children to his Socialist agenda." Somebody needs to inform Greer, and fast, that Glenn Beck's time slot on Fox News hasn't opened up, at least not yet.
 
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I can understand the disagreement about economics and health which the latter I'm still not clear on...but this was a simple speech to stay in school.

Unreal.
 
Clarify please.

parents need to be involved in their childs education more. If I'm afraid that Obama is 'indoctrinating' my child all I have to do is sit my child down and explain to them why I disagree with what the president said.

hell, teachers do their best, but there are lots of times that teachers teach things that may not be in accordance with what a parent wants a child taught. in those cases it is simply up to the parent to be involved.

I hate it when a parent blames a teacher, or a school district for their child failing or performing poorly when the parent cant tell you the teachers name, or anything about what is going on in the class room.
 
Cool...there was a case where my kids Jamaican teacher would say a word....I forget what it was but it wasn't the correct way of saying it and it took me a while to explain to my kid that it's not proper english she was using even though she is a teacher.

There are parents out there who don't care about placing a kid in school.
 
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