Obama's Back to School Speech

Obama gives back-to-school speech - 'The future of America depends on you'

US President Barack Obama has urged American schoolchildren to work hard and not to give up, in an education speech that has stirred a partisan row. In Tuesday's speech at a Virginia high school, Mr Obama told children their country's future depended on their educational achievement. But conservatives have complained he is trying to indoctrinate children to serve his political agenda. The wording of some teaching aids was changed following the criticism.

In his speech, Mr Obama told students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia, that in addition to teachers, parents and the government, they themselves are responsible for their educational success.
"No matter what you want to do with your life - I guarantee you'll need an education to do it," he said. As well as individual success, the future success of the country will depend on it, Mr Obama said. The speech was broadcast on a cable TV station and on the White House website.
"Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending time each day reading a book," Mr Obama said.
"Being successful is hard," Mr Obama added - and he pointed to figures such as JK Rowling and Michael Jordan, who he said overcame initial failures in order to find success.
"No-one's born being good at things."

But even before President Obama had delivered his speech, it was attracting criticism from conservatives. Some said it was not promoting education but aimed at indoctrinating children into supporting the president.

Last week, Florida Republican Party chairman Jim Greer said he was "absolutely appalled that taxpayer dollars are being used to spread President Obama's socialist ideology".(Oh, get real Mr Greer) Parents' complaints that the speech would be one-sided prompted some school districts not to broadcast it, and others to allow parents to withdraw their children.(Is all this fuss because he is black?)

On Monday, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs rejected the criticism, calling it a "sad, sad day that the political back-and-forth has intruded on anyone's speaking to schoolchildren and parents about the responsibilities they have".(hear, hear) But the education department acknowledged that a teaching aid which suggested students write about "how they could help the president" was poorly worded. It released an amended version.

Don't you think the reaction to this speech is a little extreme? This just isn't mature behavior for a sophisticated country with supposedly sophisticated politics . It's 2009 friends. The conservatives seem like panicky old ladies looking for communists under the bed. The parents who prevented their kids from seeing and hearing their president were acting out... something. I dare to think it has racial overtones. Is that what they meant by one sided; that the president would be addressing himself to black students only? How ignorant. The opposition is creating a tempest in a teapot.