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Staff Photo by Lesley Onstott Stone Creek Elementary students in Mrs. Carter's fourth-grade classroom watch live coverage of President Barack Obama's school address Tuesday. After watching the speech, the students wrote their own goals, signing the bottom of their papers to signify their commitment to fulfilling them.
ANN SANNER, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON — Take responsibility for your education. Go to class and listen. Don't let failures define you.
That's the advice President Barack Obama will give schoolchildren Tuesday in a speech that drew fire even before he delivered it.
"We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems," Obama said. "If you don't do that — if you quit on school — you're not just quitting on yourself, you're quitting on your country."
The White House posted Obama's remarks on its Web site Monday.
The president was to deliver the talk at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Va., a Washington suburb. The speech will be broadcast live on C-SPAN and on the White House Web site.
In the prepared remarks, Obama tells young people that all the work of parents, educators and others won't matter "unless you show up to those schools, pay attention to those teachers."
Obama's planned talk has proven controversial, with several conservative organizations and individuals accusing him of trying to pitch his arguments too aggressively in a local-education setting. White House officials, including Education Secretary Arne Duncan, have said the allegations are silly.
Obama makes no reference in his prepared remarks to the uproar surrounding his speech. Nor does he make an appeal for support for tough causes such as his health care overhaul. He uses the talk to tell kids about his at-times clumsy ways as a child and to urge them to set goals and work hard to achieve them.
"I think it is a very good speech," Loudoun County, Va., school superintendent Edgar Hatrick told WTOP News in Washington, "but it's just not on the first day of school very convenient for everybody to stop in the middle of lunch and to stop everything else they're doing and hear the live broadcast."
Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent Mark Roosevelt told KDKA Radio: "If the president wants to speak to the students of America and talk about the importance of academic achievement and working hard, that is a wonderful thing and ought not to be the subject of debate."
Duncan, in an interview Tuesday on MSNBC, said the controversy wasn't merited, but he also acknowledged that guidance the administration sent to schools about how kids could participate Tuesday could have been better worded.
In his talk, Obama says: "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."
Some conservatives have called on schools and parents to boycott the address. They say Obama is using the opportunity to promote a political agenda.
Schools don't have to show the speech. And some districts have decided not to, partly in response to concerns from parents.
Duncan's department has also taken heat for proposed lesson plans distributed to accompany the speech.
The education secretary has acknowledged that a section about writing to the president on how students could help him meet education goals was poorly worded and has been changed.
In his remarks, Obama leaves the students with some words of encouragement.
"I expect great things from each of you," he said. "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."
I can’t imagine a better student pep talk nor a better person than President Obama to deliver it. If only 10% of the students received some encouragement, imagine what effect that will have on their future. As for the schools that opted out, it was a lost opportunity taken from some of those students to be inspired, or twenty years from now being able to testify they witnessed this event.
I can't imagine a person less qualified to talk about respnsibility than this goober who has run amuck in office. I kept me kid away form the dribble spewed by this socialist. EaTn, I hope you don't have a kid or grandkid, they are doomed if they have to listen to your tilted ideals. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the damage done by tis clown, just ask the 430 SHaw workers in Ringold who just found out their loosing their jobs, possibly their homes and more. EaTn, how letting them move in with you? Nevermind, I have never heard you make sense and I;'m not gonna hold my breath how.
enufisenuf- I guess you probably believe in Iraq weapons of mass destruction and that Bush left Obama with a bustling economy. But as bad a president as I believe Bush was, I would give the position the respect it deserves and let my kid listen to his speech on the benefits of a good education.
I'm glad the kids had an opportunity to hear from the President today. His life story, work ethic and educational background should be an inspiration. I reviewed the content Monday and saw nothing in the message that was threatening nor political. Then I gave my older daughter the change to hear the speech and make her own opinion. The controversy surrounding this was stupid. There is no other word to describe it.
By the way, what's on your child's curriculum for tomorrow?
Did they change the President's compensation to a per-word-spoken-on-television plan? You can't turn on the TV without seeing this guy reading from a teleprompter somewhere. Give it a rest already. What's next...posters of the chosen one hanging from the rooftops of all Federal buildings?
EATN, As much a liberal crybaby as you are, I wouldn't give respect to a person who has brought out more anger in real Americans than ant president in recent history. What you fail to realize is that Clinton created the houseing debacle, the democratic congress greated the gas prices and this goober in the white house has created this economic slide into socialism. Try paying attention to history cause it is repeating itself right in front of your eyes only this time your in the US not in Europe It's my country being destroyed, and I care about that it's too bad you don't and won't untill it too late for you to be more tna cannon fodder.
Define: "real Americans"
If I have to explain, you wouldn't understand and it definatly wouldn't apply to a future KOMRAD such as yourself.
Basically, if parents don't want their kids to view a speech about the importance of EDUCATION from the PRESIDENT of the UNITED STATES, then they should try to find some educated, open minded, REAL Christians(or whatever religion) parents to raise their kids. Then the parents themselves should leave the USA, that way our society will be better off, and their kids won't be subjected to their parents brainwashing them to be racist, bigots, extreme right wing, or whatever else the parents are themselves.
College graduate, boy did someone waste good money on you, your no better off than before college. Perhaps you should get some deprogramming cause your off the deep end, mentally. I hope you don't go out in public much, your scary in a BAD way. BTW, is your mommy EaTn?
Still waiting for a definition.
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