Wednesday, September 9, 2009

9/9 Obama Speech Inspires Students Nationwide

Please read the 2 articles and write a short reaction on your Blog or on a Sites Page. How did the Presidents speech inspire you and other students around the country? Include information from 1 of the articles that you read.

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Obama Speech Inspires Students Nationwide

A plethora of news outlets covered President Obama's speech to schoolchildren, which took place at "Wakefield High School just outside Washington" on Tuesday. Most coverage was positive in nature, with some sources emphasizing students' reactions to the speech. The New York Times (9/9, Dillon) reports, "Millions of American schoolchildren, oblivious to the uproar that preceded a back-to-school speech by President Obama, heard him exhort them to greatness on Tuesday, watching, applauding and in some classrooms cheering a nationally broadcast address that urged them to set high goals, knuckle down in their studies and persevere through failure."
Education Week (9/9, Klein) reports, "In a speech that triggered advance controversy -- and logistical headaches for school officials -- President Barack Obama...urged America's K-12 students to study hard and stay in school, saying, 'What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country.'" The President's remarks "capped days of criticism, primarily from" his "conservative opponents...who asserted that Mr. Obama might use the address" and corresponding lesson plans from the U.S. Department of Education "to persuade children to support his political agenda."
The AP (9/9, Matheson, Rohr) reports that "for all the hubbub among adults over the back-to-school speech, many youngsters" nationwide "took the president's message to heart." After listening "closely to Obama's story of studying with his mother at 4:30 a.m.," William Geist, "a San Francisco fifth-grader who likes to sleep late," said, "Now since I heard this speech, I'm like, 'Man, I've got to get up early in the morning. I've got to get ready for school. I've got to do this.'"
The Miami Herald (9/9, Sampson, McGrory) reports that "kids interviewed by The Miami Herald called the speech inspiring and seemed incredulous that the 15-minute talk had sparked such outrage nationally." Pines Middle School seventh-grader Chanelle Missick, for instance, said, "I don't see what's wrong with him coming and talking to the kids, trying to give them responsibility and direct them in the right way." Meanwhile, 12-year-old Pines student Carlton Campbell "said he was encouraged when Obama talked about his own struggles. 'He really inspires me," said Carlton, 12. 'Because I was failing last year.'"
The Salt Lake Tribune (9/9, Stewart, Tribune) reports that "Utah students who watched the televised speech in class called it 'inspiring' and 'real.' Still, "some admitted to zoning out and others dismissed it as 'a political stunt.'" Nevertheless, the Salt Lake Tribune adds, after the speech was aired, "all the uproar over Obama using classrooms to push socialism or a hidden policy agenda seemed overblown." The Washington Post (9/9, 2:29 PM, Chandler, et al.) reports that in his speech, Obama "described his own upbringing, noting that he 'got in more trouble than I should have' as a youth. He told the students, 'There is no excuse for not trying. No one has written your destiny for you, because here in America you write your own destiny.'" Jack D. Dale, superintendent of Fairfax County Public Schools, called the speech "phenomenally good," noting that it focused on "the positive aspects of kids taking ownership of their education."
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (9/9, Staples), the Sacramento Bee (9/9), Richmond (VA) Times-Dispatch (9/9, Calos), the Washington Post (9/9, Chandler, Brown), Massachusetts's Republican (9/9, Flynn), The Providence (RI) Journal (9/9, Borg)the Los Angeles Times (9/9, Parsons), the Los Angeles Times (9/9, Blume, Landsberg) LA Now blog, the New York Times (9/9, Stolberg) The Caucus blog, and the also cover the story.

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