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REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
IN A NATIONAL ADDRESS TO AMERICA’S SCHOOLCHILDREN
Wakefield High School
Arlington, Virginia
THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you,
everybody. All right, everybody go ahead and have a seat. How is everybody doing
today? (Applause.) How about Tim Spicer? (Applause.) I am here with students at
Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we’ve got students tuning in
from all across America, from kindergarten through 12th grade. And I am just so
glad that all could join us today. And I want to thank Wakefield for being such
an outstanding host. Give yourselves a big round of applause. (Applause.)
I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for
those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it’s your first
day in a new school, so it’s understandable if you’re a little nervous. I
imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now
-- (applause) -- with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade you’re
in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer and you could’ve
stayed in bed just a little bit longer this morning.
I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived overseas. I lived in
Indonesia for a few years. And my mother, she didn’t have the money to send me
where all the American kids went to school, but she thought it was important for
me to keep up with an American education. So she decided to teach me extra
lessons herself, Monday through Friday. But because she had to go to work, the
only time she could do it was at 4:30 in the morning.
Now, as you might imagine, I wasn’t too happy about getting up that early.
And a lot of times, I’d fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But
whenever I’d complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and she’d
say, "This is no picnic for me either, buster." (Laughter.)
So I know that some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But
I’m here today because I have something important to discuss with you. I’m here
because I want to talk with you about your education and what’s expected of all
of you in this new school year.
Now, I’ve given a lot of speeches about education. And I’ve talked about
responsibility a lot.
I’ve talked about teachers’ responsibility for inspiring students and
pushing you to learn.
I’ve talked about your parents’ responsibility for making sure you stay on
track, and you get your homework done, and don’t spend every waking hour in
front of the TV or with the Xbox.
I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high
standards, and supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools
that aren’t working, where students aren’t getting the opportunities that they
deserve.
But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the
most supportive parents, the best schools in the world -- and none of it will
make a difference, none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your
responsibilities, unless you show up to those schools, unless you pay attention
to those teachers, unless you listen to your parents and grandparents and other
adults and put in the hard work it takes to succeed. That’s what I want to focus
on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education.
I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself. Every single
one of you has something that 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.
Maybe you could be a great writer -- maybe even good enough to write a book
or articles in a newspaper -- but you might not know it until you write that
English paper -- that English class paper that’s assigned to you. Maybe you
could be an innovator or an inventor -- maybe even good enough to come up with
the next iPhone or the new medicine or vaccine -- but you might not know it
until you do your project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or
a senator or a Supreme Court justice -- but you might not know that until you
join student government or the debate team.
And no matter what you want to do with your life, I guarantee that you’ll
need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police
officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our
military? You’re going to need a good education for every single one of those
careers. You cannot drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got
to train for it and work for it and learn for it.
And this isn’t just important for your own life and your own future. What
you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this
country. The future of America depends on you. What you’re learning in school
today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in
the future.
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.
Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No
one’s written your destiny for you, because here in America, you write your own
destiny. You make your own future. |
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发表于 2016-7-11 09:34:33