President Obama's Message to Students

Many of you may know that today our president is speaking to the K-12 student population. My school district decided not to watch it because they felt that there was not enough to send out permission slips to allow parents to opt their child out of watching. I think this is very sad. No matter what you political beliefs, no matter on your opinion of our current president, he is still our president and he is addressing the nation on the importance of education, not the importance of voting for his policies. I actually had a parent send a note requesting that his child not watch the speech, even though we have never announced we were watching it.

I read the transcript, and it is good. I really liked some of the things he has to say to our students. Here are some memorable highlights. You can read the entire speech here.

"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."
"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."

"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."

"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."