Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama's Back to School Event

Speech was copied early Tuesday morning from the White House site. This may not match his actual remarks. As a side note, I appreciate and acknowledge that the White House uses a single space after the end of a sentence.

Autosummarizing the speech to 25 percent
I’m here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we’ve got students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten through twelfth grade. When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn’t have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. A lot of times, I’d fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. Now I’ve given a lot of speeches about education. And I’ve talked a lot about responsibility.

I’ve talked about your teachers’ responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn.

I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren’t working where students aren’t getting the opportunities they deserve.

Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.

You’re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.

What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. 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. We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help 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.

Now 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 that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork.

There were times when I missed having a father in my life. I got a lot of second chances and had the opportunity to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams. Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn’t speak English when she first started school.

Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending time each day reading a book. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. 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 things, you become good at things through hard work. You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You’ve got to practice. The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.


Autosummarizing the speech to 10 percent
I’m here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. A lot of times, I’d fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. I’ve talked about your teachers’ responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn.

I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren’t working where students aren’t getting the opportunities they deserve.

Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.

You’re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. What you’re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.

If you don’t do that – if you quit on school – you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.

Now I know it’s not always easy to do well in school. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn’t speak English when she first started school. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.



Taking the 25 percent autosummarization and autosummarizing it to 10 percent
I’m here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. I’ve talked about your teachers’ responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn.

If you don’t do that – if you quit on school – you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.

Jazmin didn’t speak English when she first started school. Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.