On September 8, 2009, President Barack Obama gave a speech to the students at Wakefield High School in Arlington Virginia. This speech was also viewed by students across the country by a live broadcast. The purpose of his speech was to tell students about the importance of their education to their future and to the future of our country. He wanted to stress the importance of staying in school and getting the best education possible. This speech was meant to show the responsibility we have to ourselves for our education.He started out by saying that each one of us has something special to offer. He says, “Every single one of you has something 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.” He then continues by saying that no matter what you need to do, that we will need to have an education to be able to do it. Obama says to we can’t just get a good paying job if we first don’t work to get an education.
Next Obama talks about the struggle he had while growing up. His father left his mother and him when he was just two years old. His mother struggled to pay the bills, and he was not able to get everything that all of the other kids had, which made him feel out of place. He had trouble as a kid, but got a second chance, which help him go to college and law school. Next he talks about people who have had tough lives just like him, but never gave up on their dreams. The names of these people were Jazmin Perry, Andoni Schultz, and Shantell Steve. These young adults are true role models. He shows us to never give up through these examples.Obama then starts talking about that sometimes on TV it seems like it is easy to become rich and successful, but then he says that the truth is being successful takes a lot of dedicated hard work. He then challenges the students that are listening by saying that many times you may fail, but if you keep trying someone will finally say yes. He uses J.K. Rowling as an example because her first Harry Potter book was rejected 12 times, until she finally found someone that would say yes. This quotes sums up what Obama thinks of failure, “These people succeeded because they understand that you can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time.”I think that this speech by Barack Obama, really taught a lot of students about how tough his life and education was when he was growing up. I never knew that his father left his family when he was only two, and that his mother struggled to pay the bills. I think that this speech has a very powerful message. I think that the main message of this speech was to set up goal, and to never give up on them no matter how many times you fail. Obama’s speech to students may have been very controversial, but I think that it had a good message. We can all learn a lot from this speech.
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