{"id":2046,"date":"2009-09-08T06:49:16","date_gmt":"2009-09-08T14:49:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/?p=2046"},"modified":"2009-09-17T09:33:04","modified_gmt":"2009-09-17T17:33:04","slug":"presidents-message-to-the-schoolchildren","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/2009\/09\/presidents-message-to-the-schoolchildren\/","title":{"rendered":"President&#8217;s message to the schoolchildren"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The White House has released the text of the president&#8217;s address to our nation&#8217;s schoolchildren. Controversial ideas encouraged include staying in school, working hard and giving it your best effort.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama<br \/>\nBack to School Event<\/p>\n<p>Arlington, Virginia<br \/>\nSeptember 8, 2009<\/p>\n<p>The President: Hello everyone \u00e2\u20ac\u201c how\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s everybody doing today? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten through twelfth grade. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m glad you all could join us today.<br \/>\nI 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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s your first day in a new school, so it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s understandable if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re 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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve stayed in bed just a little longer this morning.<br \/>\nI know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t 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 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c at 4:30 in the morning.<br \/>\nNow I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t too happy about getting up that early. A lot of times, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and say, &#8220;This is no picnic for me either, buster.&#8221;<br \/>\nSo I know some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m here today because I have something important to discuss with you. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m here because I want to talk with you about your education and what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s expected of all of you in this new school year. <!--more--><br \/>\nNow I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve given a lot of speeches about education. And I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve talked a lot about responsibility.<br \/>\nI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve talked about your teachers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn.<br \/>\nI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve talked about your parents\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and get your homework done, and don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with that Xbox.<br \/>\nI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve talked a lot about your government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t working where students aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t getting the opportunities they deserve.<br \/>\nBut at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 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.<br \/>\nAnd that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 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.<br \/>\nEvery single one of you has something you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the opportunity an education can provide.<br \/>\nMaybe you could be a good writer \u00e2\u20ac\u201c maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor \u00e2\u20ac\u201c maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 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.<br \/>\nAnd no matter what you want to do with your life \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I guarantee that you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll 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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.<br \/>\nAnd this isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t 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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.<br \/>\nYou\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll 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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll 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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.<br \/>\nWe 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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do that \u00e2\u20ac\u201c if you quit on school \u00e2\u20ac\u201c you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not just quitting on yourself, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re quitting on your country.<br \/>\nNow I know it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 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.<br \/>\nI get it. I know what that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t 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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t fit in.<br \/>\nSo I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t always as focused as I should have been. I did some things I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.<br \/>\nBut 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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have much. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.<br \/>\nSome of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job, and there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t right.<br \/>\nBut at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life \u00e2\u20ac\u201c what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got going on at home \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no excuse for not trying.<br \/>\nWhere you are right now doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have to determine where you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll end up. No one\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.<br \/>\nThat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.<br \/>\nYoung people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t 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.<br \/>\nI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fought brain cancer since he was three. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s endured all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory, so it took him much longer \u00e2\u20ac\u201c hundreds of extra hours \u00e2\u20ac\u201c to do his schoolwork. But he never fell behind, and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s headed to college this fall.<br \/>\nAnd then there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college.<br \/>\nJazmin, Andoni and Shantell aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t 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.<br \/>\nThat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why today, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in your community. Maybe you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll 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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn. And along those lines, I hope you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.<br \/>\nWhatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to really work at it.<br \/>\nI know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work &#8212; that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not going to be any of those things.<br \/>\nBut the truth is, being successful is hard. You won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t love every subject you study. You won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.<br \/>\nThat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s OK.  Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had the most failures. JK Rowling\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 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, &#8220;I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.&#8221;<br \/>\nThese people succeeded because they understand that you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t let your failures define you \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.<br \/>\nNo one\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got to practice. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s good enough to hand in.<br \/>\nDon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be afraid to ask questions. Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a sign of weakness, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know something, and to learn something new. So find an adult you trust \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or counselor \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.<br \/>\nAnd even when you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re struggling, even when you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you \u00e2\u20ac\u201c don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.<br \/>\nThe story of America isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t about people who quit when things got tough. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.<br \/>\nIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 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.<br \/>\nSo today, I want to ask you, what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 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?<br \/>\nYour families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve 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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t let us down \u00e2\u20ac\u201c don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.<br \/>\nThank you, God bless you, and God bless America.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The White House has released the text of the president&#8217;s address to our nation&#8217;s schoolchildren. Controversial ideas encouraged include staying in school, working hard and giving it your best effort. Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama Back to School Event Arlington, Virginia September 8, 2009 The President: Hello everyone \u00e2\u20ac\u201c how\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s everybody doing today? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellany"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2046"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2055,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2046\/revisions\/2055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}