Welcome, and a happy back-to-school start to you with an important message from the President:
And if you missed the media circus and outraged reaction from some quarters (an outcry against ‘liberal propaganda’ for asking students how they can help the President) and widespread speculation that policy issues would be highlighted (they weren’t).
But really, it was all about personal responsibility and effort. Some excerpts below (lengthy but direct).
As always, here’s wishing our children clarity, purpose and focus.
“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 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.
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.”
Finally, Much Ado about Effort September 8, 2009
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