Monday, September 7, 2009

The Back to School Speech

You can read the text of Obama's School Children speech here.

It says pretty much what it was expected it would say: study hard, don't give up. Pretty much the same thing parents are, or should be, saying everyday to their kids. He tells them to wash their hands and volunteer in their community. Pay attention to your teachers!

He tells them he was raised in Indonesia and that his father left when he was two. He's just like them:

"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. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday – at 4:30 in the morning. Now I wasn’t too happy about getting up that early. A lot of times, I’d fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I’d complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and say, 'This is no picnic for me either, buster.'"
Blather.

We'll be studying To Kill a Mockingbird in my class, and working on a new list of vocabulary words.

4 comments:

The Vegas Art Guy said...

I will probably show that speech at a later time when it fits the curriculum and when I can come up with a real lesson for it.

Red said...

Here's a new vocab for the kiddos: dissidence.
To Kill A Mockingbird is a favorite in our house.

Steve said...

A couple of months ago Pat and I stayed at her daughter's house. Her daughter was such a gracious host, and we had a great visit. Until around 2:00 in the morning, when I wanted to Kill a mockingbird. It was right outside of the window and wouldn't shut up.

Greta Perry said...

My kids will be watching it in St. Tammany. We will discuss it at home afterward. They need to learn respect for elected officials and also how to critically think. My oldest may be President someday - must give him all opportunities at 13.