President Obama Makes Historic Speech to Americas Students English subtitles

you

[Music]

hello everybody thank you thank you

thank you everybody all right

everybody’s going down to sweet how’s

everybody doing today

[Applause]

how about chintz tyson 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

twelfth 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 aside 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 it’s just one more year to go

and no matter what grade you’re in some

of you are probably wishing and we’re

still summer and you could have stayed

in bed just a little bit longer this

morning I know that field 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 a lot of times I’d fall

asleep right there at the kitchen table

but whenever I complain my mother would

just give me one of those looks and

she’d say this is no picnic for me

either buster 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

I’ve given a lot of speeches about

education and I talked about

responsibilities a lot I talked about

teachers responsibility for inspiring

students and pushing you to learn I

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

paper that English class paper that’s a

sign 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 in 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 gained 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

they’ll create new jobs and boost our

economy we need every single one of you

to develop your talents and your skills

and your intellect so you can help us

old folks 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

I know it’s not always easy to do well

in school I know a lot of you have

challenges in your lives right now they

can make it hard to focus on your

schoolwork I get it I know what it’s

like my father left my family when I was

2 years old and I was raised by a single

mom who had to work and has struggled at

times to pay the bills and wasn’t always

able to give us the things that other

kids had there were times when I missed

having a father in my life there were

times when I was lonely and I felt like

I didn’t fit in so I wasn’t always as

focused as I should have been on school

and I did some things that I’m not proud

of and I got in more trouble than I

should have and my life could have

easily taken a turn for the worst but I

was I was lucky I got a lot of second

chances and I had the opportunity to go

to college in law school and follow my

dreams my wife our First Lady Michelle

Obama

she has a similar story neither of her

parents had gone to college and they

didn’t have a lot of money but they

worked hard and she worked hard so that

she could go to the best schools in this

country so some of you might not have

those advantages maybe you don’t have

adults in your life

who’ll 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 well you’ve got

going on at home

none of that is an excuse for neglecting

your homework or having a bad attitude

in school that’s no excuse for talking

back to your teacher or cutting class or

dropping out of school there is no

excuse for not trying where you are

right now it 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

that’s what young people like you are

doing every day all across America young

people like Jazmin Perez from Roma Texas

Jazmin didn’t speak English when she

first started school neither of her

parents have gone to college but she

worked hard earned good grades and got a

scholarship to Brown University as now

in graduate school studying public

health on her way to becoming dr. Jazmin

Perez I’m thinking about Antonia Schultz

from Los Altos California who’s fought

brain cancer since he was three he’s had

to endure all sorts of treatments and

surgeries one of which affected his

memory so took him much longer

hundreds of extra hours to do his score

but he never fell behind he’s headed to

college this fall and then there’s

Chantel Steve from my hometown of

Chicago Illinois

even when bouncing from foster home to

foster home in the toughest

neighborhoods in the city she managed to

get a job at a local health care care

center start a program to keep young

people out of gangs and she’s on track

to graduate high school with honors and

go on to college and Jasmine and Dhoni

and Chantal aren’t any different from

any of you they face challenges in their

lives just like you do in some cases

they’ve got it a lot worse off than many

of you but they refuse to give up they

chose to take responsibility for their

lives for their education and set goals

for themselves and I expect all of you

to do the same that’s why today I’m

calling on each of you to set your own

goals for your education and 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 some 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

young people deserve a safe environment

to study and learn maybe you’ll decide

to take better care of yourself so you

could be more ready to learn and along

those lines by the way I hope all of you

are washing your hands a lot and that

you stay home from school when you don’t

feel well so we can keep people from

getting the flu this fall in winter but

whatever you resolve to do I want you to

commit to it I want you to really work

at it I know that sometimes you get that

sense from TV that you can be rich and

successful without any hard work that

your ticket to success is through

rapping or basketball being a reality TV

star

chances are you’re not going to be any

of those things the truth is being

successful is hard you won’t love every

subject that you study you won’t click

with every teacher that you had not

every homework assignment will seem

completely relevant to your life right

at this minute and you won’t necessarily

succeed at everything the first time you

try that’s okay some of the most

successful people in the world are the

ones who’ve had the most failures JK

Rowling’s who wrote Harry Potter her

first Harry Potter book was rejected 12

times before was finally published

Michael Jordan was cut from his high

school basketball team he lost hundreds

of games and missed thousands of shots

during his career but he once said I

have failed over and over and over again

in my life and that’s why I succeed

these people succeeded because they

understood that you can’t let your

failures define you you have to let your

failures teach you you have to let them

show you what to do differently the next

time so if you get into trouble that

doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker it

means you need to try harder to act

right

if you get a bad grade that doesn’t mean

you’re stupid it just means you need to

spend more time studying no one’s born

being good at all 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 the same principle applies to

your school you might have to do a math

problem a few times before you get it

right you might have to read something a

few times before you understand it you

definitely has to do a few drafts of a

paper before it’s good enough to hand in

don’t be afraid to ask questions don’t

be afraid to ask for help when you need

it I do that every day asking for help

isn’t a sign of weakness it’s a sign of

strength because it shows you have the

courage to admit when you don’t know

something and that then allows you to

learn something new so find an adult

that you trust a parent a grandparent or

a teacher a coach or a counselor and ask

them to help you stay on track to meet

your goals and even when you’re

struggling even when you’re discouraged

and you feel like other people have

given up on you don’t ever give up on

yourself because when you give up on

yourself you give up on your country the

story of American 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 the story

of students who set where you sit 250

years ago and went on to wage a

revolution and they founded this nation

young people students who set where you

sit 75 years ago who overcame a

depression and won a world war who

fought for civil rights and put a man on

the moon

students who sat where you sit 20 years

ago

who founded Google and Twitter and

Facebook and changed the way we

communicate with each other so today I

want to ask all of 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 20 or 50

or a hundred years say about what all of

you did for this country you know your

families your teachers and I are doing

everything we can to make sure you have

the education you need to answer these

questions I’m working hard to fix up

your classrooms and get you the book

from the equipment and the computers you

need to learn but you’ve got to do your

part too so I expect all of you to get

serious this year expect you to put your

best effort into everything you do I

expect great things from each of you so

don’t let us then don’t lay your family

down or your country down most of all

don’t let yourself down

make us all proud thank you very much

everybody

god bless god bless america