President Barack Obama was greeted with a standing ovation, thunderous applause, and camera flashes when he walked into the Masterman auditiorium in Philadelphia for his annual back-to-school speech.
With “My Education, My Future” splayed all over the backdrop on Tuesday evening, Obama lead his speech with a discussion of the current economic downturn and its affect on education. The president went on to stress the fact that even though we are living in tough times, children should make school a priority and work towards success.
“There is nothing more important that what you’re doing right now. Nothing is going to have as great an impact on your success in life as your education, how you’re doing in school,” Obama said.
Obama made this declaration in front of students and faculty several prominent political figures. In attendance was Pennsylvania governor, Ed Rendell; Philadelphia mayor, Michael Nutter; congressman Chaka Fattah, congresswoman Allyson Schwartz, and Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan. Materman principal, Marge Neff, and school superintendent, Arlene Ackerman were also in the audience. Obama went on to discuss how society owes children educational opportunities but, also how children owe society responsibility and effort.
In order to bring home this point, Obama spoke about his own personal story of triumph. He talked about how his blase attitude towards school wasn’t enough for his mother, and the fact that she really pushed to instill effort into his everyday vocabulary made him the man he is today.
“But eventually her words had the intended effect, because I got serious about my studies. And I started to make an effort in everything that I did. And I began to see my grades and my prospects improve,” Obama said.
After his anecdote, Obama announced his second Commencement Challenge. The purpose of the challenge was to motivate everybody to work together to prepare children for life after hight school and at the same time give back to their community and country. If their school is the winner, Obama will personally congratulate the students at their commencement. Obama’s last point was about diversity and the need for acceptance. He discussed the importance of children realizing it is okay to be different and to welcome other’s uniqueness.
“If you take away one thing from my speech, I want you to take away the notion that life is precious, and part of what makes it so wonderful is its diversity, that all of us are different,” Obama said. Obama concluded his speech by reiterating how proud he is of US students and hopes they continue working hard.
“Keep it up. All of you I know are going to do great things in the future,” Obama said.
