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.Click here to read the entire speech.
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.
Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide.
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.
My take: I can't see what is wrong with this speech, nor can I see anything wrong with the President of the United States addressing the youth personally. It's a shame that Obama gets so much slack for trying to tactfully handle our youths problems escalating from lack of direction/ positive reinforment. This speach is nothing never-before heard of, it - to me - sounds very fatherly and Daddy Bush did this and so did Reagan. But I guess some overly-sensitive and/or republican voters feel that they should be the only ones to speak to their children about these subjects. I just know that the backlash that Barack is receiving is laced a tad with racism and leftover hateful feelings from the election. But those that feel this way are not sensitive the concept of 'it takes a Village...' Some children aren't spoken to like this, some don't have parents, some are alientated for being smart or dumb...I think there is a neglected sector that this speech will impact.
Way to go Barack - You're really doing your thing.
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As soon as Obama won the election, I prepared myself for the racist and illogical critiques that would follow. Thus, I've paid very little attention to the speech naysayers. Whatever. As for me and MY house, we shall encourage the kids to listen to the President's speech more than once.
ReplyDeleteA rational mind can not find any aspect of this speech to complain about, but the ignorant among us can and do complain about a-n-y-t-h-i-n-g.
To hell with 'em.