Importance of education
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.
The speech is being televised live
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, what you’ve got going on at home — none of that is an excuse for having a bad attitude in school. Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up.
You can decide to have a different future. But you have to do things to get there.
Now, your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need. I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books and the equipment and the computers you need to learn. But you’ve got to do your part, too.
If you don't make an effort it doesn't matter if you have dedicated parents or teachers. If you don't do your part, these efforts will be for nothing.
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.
The speaker also would like to rest more.
He also would like to stay at home.
Andoni 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 it took him much longer — hundreds of extra hours — to do his schoolwork. But he never fell behind. He’s headed to college this fall.
A student with brain cancer and severe memory problems didn't give up on school, although it was extremely difficult.
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!
Accepting our mistakes and asking for help shows you want to be better
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.”
Waking up early and giving lesson to young Obama was also difficult for his mother
Shantell 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 center, start a program to keep young people out of gangs.
She didn't have a home and instead of giving up she started a program to keep other kids in her community out of gangs.
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.
You need to plan how to achieve your goals and act accordingly.
What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. The future of America depends on you.
To have good doctors, good teachers, good mechanics, people to solve problems, etc, you will need an education.
Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. J.K. Rowling’s — who wrote Harry Potter — her first Harry Potter book was rejected 12 times before it was finally published.
The author of Harry Potter suffered a lot of rejection before her novel was published. But she kept trying
When you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, that then allows you to learn something new.
To be better you have to accept that you are wrong.
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.
If people don't develop their talents, who will solve the problems of the country?
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.”
The failure Michael Jordan experienced motivated him to learn from his mistakes.
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 the country. The story of America is about people who kept going, who tried harder, and who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.
Even when things are difficult giving up affects more than just yourself.