Obama Will Ask Students To...Work, Study Hard

Photograph of President Barack Obama's signature on a wall in a health classroom at Southwest High School in Green Bay, Wisconsin by Pete Souza/White House. Obama was at the school for a town hall meeting on health care in June; the school's phys ed and health staff asked the President to sign the wall.

Following criticism of President Obama's plan to speak about education to schoolchildren, the White House released the text of the speech yesterday. Last week, one parent in Texas, apparently concerned that his school district hadn't approved the speech, told the NY Times, "I don’t want our schools turned over to some socialist movement." Fortunately, the "socialist movement" seems limited to "If you quit on school - you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country" and "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."

The speech emphasizes hard work and responsibility, with Obama referring to his and First Lady Michelle Obama's own childhood challenges: "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"; "Neither of [Michelle's] 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". In the "if at first you don't succeed" vein, the president mentions how JK Rowling was initially rejected by many book publishers. Obama also gives examples of American students who overcame obstacles—language barriers, brain cancer, bouncing between foster homes—and are now succeeding.

Some excerpts follow; you can read the full text here. The speech will air on C-SPAN and stream live on the White House website at 12 p.m.

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.

...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.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on September 8, 2009 7:15 AM

Comments [rss]

hubcap

he's promoting graffiti! look! and chairman mao himself used to say "keep fit, study well, work hard"!!

a commie if i ever saw one! lol

blondeinthecity

He's not saying anything that parents, grandparents, mentors, coaches, teachers, etc. aren't already saying... he just happens to have the power of celebrity on his side.

jpeditor

wake up sheeple....

Democrats">http://startthinkingright.wordpress.com/2009/09/08/democrats-turned-1991-george-h-w-bush-speech-to-schoolchildren-into-spanish-inquisition/">Democrats Turned 1991 George H.W. Bush Speech To Schoolchildren Into Spanish Inquisition":

NannyState

How can kids possibly "study hard" with all these Presidents lurking around?

Homer2323

Hey Trilby16..which President gave a speech in 1991? Thats 1991. And for the record, the second George Bush was elected..TWICE. You are a sore loser. Get over it moron.

robingee

Well. Not really.

dd7

It is unbelievable that some idiots are opposing this speech being broadcast to schoolchildren.

The president telling kids to study hard and take responsibity for their futures -- yeah, that's really controversial .... sigh.

TrippinJoJo

you know what?

freedom of speech. let him tell those kids to drop those iphones or xbox controllers and start paying attention in school....some kids will pay attention, whether they retain any info is another issue. Most likely those kids will probably be txting each other about their summer vacations...

put a jonas brother next to obama and then they'll pay attention.

people are just full of nonsense

FranklinBluth

Actually, the democrats did complain about George H.W. Bush making a speech to schoolchildren

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/When-Bush-spoke-to-students-Democrats-investigated-held-hearings-57694347.html

RevWaldo

Over the weekend a nickname occurred to me for all the "Obama's a socialist / fascist / born in Kenya / you shut up when you're talking to me!" folk:

Tonyas.

Sore-loserdom. Lowest-common-denominator mindset. And if we can't succeed one way, we'll just take 'em out at the knees. (Sometimes fun to hang out at bars with, though.)

RevWaldo

That's Tonyas - sorry for the bad link.

grizzzly

and our curricula are not state mandated? I suppose that could be a little more nuanced, but my general complaint was with people who pick & choose the parts of state socialism they like.

The fact of the matter is that an address from a democratically elected president is probably unlikely to be an outright socialist indoctrination and this, from the get-go, should neither have been news nor a controversy.

Trilby16

Right! Democratically elected! That is a big difference between this speech and Criminal Bush's, Mr. Rolltide_23.

Homer2323

Black meet Kettle.

When President George H.W. Bush delivered a similar speech on October 1, 1991, from Alice Deal Junior High School in Washington DC, 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.

"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.

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."

PKMKII

But did any of the Democratic congressmen accuse Bush of attempting to promote fascism?

Trilby16

Reminds me of a funny story.

A girl I went to college with was non-plussed when her interviewer told her that, if she came to the school, she would have to "wear a card." She was like, really? Why? and he just insisted a few times that she must be prepared to "wear a card." Finally she realized he was saying "work hard," not the other thing.

Maybe rethugs are afraid Obama will make their darlings wear a card.