Obama's Education Speech

I'm still trying to figure out what the big controversy surrounding Obama's speech on education was yesterday. I know he addressed it specifically to America's youth, but his message was clear and simple: stay in school, work hard, and don't give up. Why any parent, teacher, or school principal could object to these steadfast messages is beyond me!

While watching this speech I became very grateful that we have a President who acknowledges these goals and doesn't overlook the value in repeating them regardless of how many times we may have heard them before. He is aware of his influential power (especially with the younger generation) and used it to remind us all of the importance in education. Here are some of my favorite take-aways:

"No one is born being good at all things. You become good at things through hard work."

"Many young people see through the media that people can become rich and successful without any hard work. The truth is being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject that you study. You won’t click with every teacher that you have. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right at this minute and you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try. After all, look at successful people such as JK Rowling. She had her Harry Potter book rejected 12 times. Michael Jordan was rejected from his high school basketball team."

"Don’t let your failures define you, let them teach you. If you get a bad grade it doesn’t mean your stupid, it means you have to study."

For my master's field project I created a series of life lessons plans for an inner city charter school in Salt Lake. The lessons focused on building their self esteem, setting goals, career planning and emotional and physical wellness. I hope to one day teach a class with the curriculum that I created to help our youth get or stay on the right path in life.