By Marcus Cygy at Cygy.com

Original Article: http://www.cygy.com/politics/education/president-obama-delivers-solid-back-to-school-speech/

On Monday, September 8, 2009, US President Barack Obama made his way to Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia to tell students, not just in attendance, but across the country to work hard and to commit to their education. Despite all the prejudgment perpetrated against President Obama by conservatives heading into this event, his speech was solidly delivered on all fronts.

Many conservatives rallied themselves up urging people to boycott Obama’s “back-to-school” speech. Their belief for reason was that Obama was going to push a partisan political agenda; however, the President kept to his word and avoided any mention of controversial political initiatives. Instead, he delivered what was in my mind one of his best speeches thus far as President of the United States because it was actually politics aside.

During the speech Obama said, “No matter what you want to do with your life, I guarantee you that you’ll need an education to do it.”

He continued by suggesting if “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 can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.”

“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.”

Suggesting that future cures for cancer and AIDS are potentially on the horizon, Obama reminded students that “you’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math” to accomplish this long-chased accomplishment.

Businesses like Microsoft were not created because Bill Gates decided to give up and quit school. If Gates had not followed through with his studies, where would we be as a society today? That’s why Obama said “if you quit on school, you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.”

However, President Obama is reminded of the challenges at hand when trying to balance school with life in general. “I get it,” he said. “I know what that’s like.”

At just two years of age, Obama’s father left his family. He explained that he “was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills” and that meant she wasn’t always able to give him what other kids had.

“There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and felt like I didn’t fit in.”

The result of that were some moments in time where Obama doesn’t particularly look back on with pride because he got in trouble more than he should have. “I wasn’t always as focused as I should have been,” he said. “My life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.”

With those experiences, Obama knows the diversities of life and how these obstacles influence our everyday life. But you cannot forget your true self as you have to find what you’re worth despite an unsettling or unsupportive surrounding.

“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,” Obama said with passion. “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.”

Obama continued by proclaiming, “Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up,” because “no one’s written your destiny for you.”

“Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.”

That’s why Obama wants everyone to commit to education even if the images on TV paints a picture that says being rich and successful comes without any hard work, “but the truth is, being successful is hard,” he exclaimed.

“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.”

“That’s okay,” Obama said.

President Obama brought up author JK Rowling’s name during his speech as one of the most successful persons of this era who had seen many failures before success. Her first Harry Potter book “was rejected twelve times before it was finally published.”

Next on the list of prominent names in society was NBA star Michael Jordan. Obama said he “was cut from his high school basketball team, and lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career.” That didn’t make Michael Jordan quit though, it only fueled him and inspired him to learn from his mistakes and master his craft.

“These people succeed because they understand that you can’t let your failures define you, you have to let them teach you,” Obama carefully articulated. “If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.”

As the saying goes, practice makes perfect with anything you do and Obama attests to that statement with how far he’s gone in his own life. He was not handed a spot in politics because he had a political father like his predecessor George W. Bush had.

Obama had to ask those tough questions that most people would fear to do, but “don’t be” he said. “Dont be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day,” he explained. “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.”

These were encouraging words from the United States President that Minnesota Governor, Tim Pawlenty, who is a possible contender for the Republican’s 2012 presidential nomination, never believed would occur. He predicted that Obama’s speech would disrupt the student’s first day of school.

This was the belief that many Republicans shared. In fact, Florida Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer accused Obama last week of trying to “indoctrinate America’s children to his socialist agenda.”

Ignoring accusations from the right, President Obama went forth with his true agenda. He said, “The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.”

Furthering that notion of trying your best, he added that “it’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution” upon founding America. “Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon.” With regard to today’s technology, Obama continued by saying “students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter, and Facebook,” which changed the way we communicate.

“So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be?”

“What problems are you going to solve?”

“What discoveries will you make?”

“What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?”

President Obama concluded his nothing short of solid speech by reminding the students that he along with their families and teachers are doing everything they can to make sure they have the best education possible with helpful accessories at their disposal such as books and computers.

“So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. 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,” Obama concluded.

After all the heat and debate charged by the Republicans over their delusional prejudgment against President Barack Obama, he went into this “back-to-school” speech and delivered the total opposite of the GOP’s remarks. Without trying, he exemplified the true aspersion that fuels and runs the conservative Republicans, who try to undermine President Obama at any point in time possible.

They choose to ignore history though. Republican President George H. W. Bush delivered a nationally televised speech from Alice Deal Junior High School in Washington on October 1, 1991. That day, President Bush decided to lay on some heavy facts about what the students don’t know, rather than what they do and should know for their future.

“Every day, we hear more bad news about our schools,” President Bush said that day. “This national report card shows that, nationwide, five or six eighth graders don’t know the math they need to move up to the ninth grade.”

The speech in 1991 became nothing more than a paid political advertisement for President Bush. In President Obama’s 2009 speech this week though, he spoke nothing of the United States’ fundamental flaws within the education system. His words were solely secluded to positive relation to the students and inspiring outlooks into the future even though the country is flailing in the biggest recession since the Great Depression.

But what about the George W. Bush of this decade? You know, the last US President before Barack Obama? What did he say during his speech to the students? Nothing. He didn’t do a speech because he was the Republican puppet who had nothing inspiring to say unless he had a teleprompter telling him what to say. Even then he would screw up more often than not.

President Ronald Reagan made his speech to students more about his own political agenda in November 1988. He said taxes were “such a penalty on people that there’s no incentive for them (students) to proper… because they have to give so much to the government.”

So for the past two decades, whenever a US President has not been a Democrat, these speeches have been delivered under a negative light with regard to politics. Forget the last Republican President because he never even delivered one, but for George H. W Bush, which spans from 1989 to 1993 and Ronald Reagan from 1981 to 1989, the agendas of these speeches were not kept true to the benefits of students with politics aside.

During President Bill Clinton’s speech to the students, a Democratic President from 1993 to 2001, he based his speech on the rise of the students. He compared his early life in education to how today’s life in education has greater advantages because of the many new avenues becoming available through the inception of the Internet.

President Clinton was always a remarkable speaker, even though he received much flack from the GOP then just as President Obama is receiving today. I just can’t fathom how the Republicans can choose to be alienators when an election doesn’t go their way. The Democratic Presidents, even as far back as Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1981, were never crusading to benefit their own party over the Republicans. It was and still is about one unified America.

Until the Republican Party can realize this though, the United States of America will unfortunately always be running under a split mindset of moral beliefs. One is more cool, calm, and collected with dignity on the left. The other is sometimes radical, greedy, and literally full of mavericks on the right.

This is not an attack, this is just one Canadian observing on the outside. I take great pride in my own country’s future, but I also care about my neighbours of the south because I am not blinded of the realization that our future depends on the well being and prosperous future of one United States of America.