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