奥巴马开学演讲稿My-education--My-future.docx

My education, My future.
——Barack·Obama

I am here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia.And we've got students turning in from all across American from kindergarten through 12th grade.And I am just so glad that all could join us today.And I want to thank Wakefield for being such an outstanding host.
Give yourselves a big round of applause.
I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school.
And for those of you in kindergarten, of starting middle or high school, it's you first day in a new school.
So it's understandable if you're a little nervous.
I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now with just one more year to go.
And no matter what grade you are in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer and you could've stayed in bed just a little bit longer this morning.
I know that feeling.When I was young, my family lived overseas.I lived in Indonesia for a few years.And my mother, she didn't have the money to send me where all American kids went to school, but she thought it was important for me to keep up with an American education.So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday.
But because she had to go to work the only time she could do it was at 4:30 in the morning.
Now as you might imagine I wasn't too happy about getting up that early.
And a lot of times I'd fall asleep right there in the kitchen table.But whenever I'd complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and she'd say "This is no picnic for me either, buster".
So I know that some of you are still adjusting to being back at school.But I'm here today because I have something important to discuss with you.I'm here because I want to talk with you about your education and what's expected of all of you in this new school year.
I've given a lot of speeches about education.And I've talked about responsibility a lot.I've talked about teacher's responsibility for inspiring students and pushing you to learn.
I've talked about your parents' responsibility for making sure you stay on track and you get your homework done and don't spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with the Xbox.
I've talked a lot about your government's responsibility for setting high standards and supporting teachers and principles and turning around schools that aren't working where students aren't getting the opportunities that they deserve.
But at the end of the day we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, the best schools in the world and none of it will make a difference and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities, unless you show up to those schools, unless you pay attention to those teachers, unless you listen to your parents and grandparents and other adults and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.
That's what I want to focus on today, the responsibility each of you has fro your education.
I want start with the responsibility you have to yourself.
Every single one of you has something that you're good at.Every single one of you has something to offer.And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is.That's the opportunity an education can provide.
Maybe you could be a great writer, maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper, but you might not know it until you write that English class paper that's assigned to you.Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor, maybe good enough to come up with the next iphone or the new medicine or vaccine, but you might not know it until you do your project for your science class.Maybe you could be a mayor or a senator or a Supreme Court justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.
And no matter what you want to do with your life, I guarantee that you'll need an education to do it.
You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You are going to need a good education for every single one of those careers.You can not drop out of school and just drop in a good job.You've got to train for it and work for it and learn for it.
And this isn't just important for your own life and your own future.What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country.The future of America depends on you.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 environments.You need the insights and critical- thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free.You'll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to built new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.
We need every single one of you to develop your talents and your skills and your intellect so you can help us old folks 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.
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.
I get it and I know what it's like.
My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mom who had to work and who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn't always able to give us the things that other kids had.
There were times when I missed having a father in my life.There were times when I was lonely and I felt like I didn't fit in.
So I wasn't always as focused as I should have been on school and I've did some things that I'm not proud of and I got in more trouble that I should have.And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.
But I was lucky.I got a lot of second chances and I had the opportunity to go to college and law school and follow my dreams.
My wife, the first lady, Michelle Obama, she has a similar story.Neither of her parents had gone to college and they didn't have a lot of money.But they worked hard and she worked hard so that she could go to the best schools in this country.
Some of you might not have those advantages.Maybe you don't have adults in your life who give you the support that you need.Maybe someone of your family has lost their job and there's not enough money to go around.Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don't feel safe or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren't right.
But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life, what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you've got going on at home, none of that is an excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude in school.That's no excuse for talking back to your teacher or cutting class, or dropping out of school.There is no excuse for not trying.
Where you are right now doesn't have to determine where you'll end up.No one's written your destiny for you because here in America, you write your own destiny.You make your own future.That's what young people like you doing every day, all across America.
Young people like Jazmin Peres, from Roma, Texas.Jazmin didn't speak English when she first started school.Neither of her parents had gone to college.But she worked hard, earned good grades and got a scholarship to Brown University, now is in graduate school studying public health on her way to becoming Dr.Jazmin Perez.
I'm thinking about Andoni Schultz.from Los Altos, California who's fought brain cancer since he was three.He's had to endure all sorts of treatments and surgeries one of which affected his memory so it took him much longer- hundreds of extra hours-to do his schoolwork.But he never fell behind.He's headed to college this fall.
And there's Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago Illinois.Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods in the city, she managed to get a job at a local health care center, start a program to keep young people out of gangs and she's on track to graduate high school with honors and to to college.
And Jazmin, Andoni, and Shantell aren't any different from any of you.They face challenges in their lives just like you do.In some cases they've got it a lot worse off than many of you.But they refused to give up.They chose to take responsibility for their lives, for their education and set goals for themselves.And I expect all of you to do the same.
That's why today I'm calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education and do everything you can to meet them.Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending some time each day reading a book.Maybe you'll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity or volunteer in your community.Maybe you'll decide to stand up for kids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you believe, like I do, that all young people deserve a safe environment to study and learn.Maybe you'll decide to take better care of yourself so you could be more ready to learn.And along those lines, by the way, I hope all of you are washing your hands a lot and that you stay home from school when you don' t feel well so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.
But whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it.I want you to really work at it.
I know that sometimes you get that sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star.Chances are you're not going to be any of those things.
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.
That's okay.
Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who've had the most failures.J.K.Rowling's, who wrote Harry Potter her first Harry Potter book was rejected 12 times before it was finally published.Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team.He lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career.But he once said "I have failed over and over and over again in my life and that's why I succeed."
These people succeeded because they understood that you can't let your failure define you.You have to let your failures teach you.You have to let them show you what to do differently the next time.So if you get into trouble, that doesn't mean you're a troublemaker.It means you need to try harder to act right.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 all things.You become good at things through hard work.You're not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport.You don't hit every note the first time you sing a song.You've got to practice.The same principle applies to your schoolwork.You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right.You might have to read something a few times before you understand it.You definitely have to do a few drafts of a paper before it's good enough to hand in.
Don't be afraid to ask questions.Don't be afraid to ask help when you need it.I do that every day.Asking for help isn't a sign of weakness.It's a sign of strength because it shows you have the courage to admit when you don't know something and that then allows you to learn something new.So find an adult that you trust, a parent, a grandparent or teacher, a coach or a counselor and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.
And even when you're struggling, even when you're discouraged and you feel like other people have given up on you, don't ever give up on yourself, because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.
The story about America isn't about people who quit when things got tough.It's about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.
It's the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago and went on to wage a revolution and they founded this nation.Young people.Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago, who overcome a depression and won a world war, who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon.Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google and Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.
So today, I want to ask all of you what's your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a President who comes here in 20 or 50 or 100 years say about what all of you did for this country?
Now your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions.
I am working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books and the equipment and the computers you need to learn.But you've got to do your part, too.So I expect all of you to get serious this year.I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do.I expect great things from each of you.So don't let us down.Don't let your family down or your country down.Most of all, don't let yourself down.Make us all proud.
Thank you very much, everybody.God bless you.God bless America.Thank you.
我现在和弗吉尼亚州阿林顿郡韦克菲尔德高中的学生们在一起，全国各地也有从幼儿园到高三的众多学生们通过电视关注这里，我很高兴你们能共同分享这一时刻。

请为你们自己热烈鼓掌！

我知道，对你们中的许多人来说，今天是开学的第一天。
你们中的有一些刚刚进入幼儿园或升上初高中，对你们来说，这是在新学校的第一天。
因此，假如你们感到有些紧张，那也是很正常的。
我想也会有许多毕业班的学生们正自信满满地准备最后一年的冲刺。不过，我想无论你有多大、在读哪个年级，许多人都打心底里希望现在还在放暑假，以及今天不用那么早起床。

我可以理解这份心情。小时候，我们家在印度尼西亚住过几年，而我妈妈没钱送我去其他美国孩子们上学的地方去读书，因此她决定每周一到周五自己给我补课

不过她还要上班，所以只能在清晨四点半给我上课。
显然，我不太情愿那么早就爬起来。

很多时候，我趴在餐桌上就睡着了。每当我埋怨的时候，我妈总会用同一副表情看着我说：“小鬼，你以为教你我就很轻松？”
所以，我可以理解你们中的许多人对于开学还需要时间来调整和适应。但今天我站在这里，是为了和你们谈一些重要的事情。我要和你们谈一谈你们每个人的教育，以及在新的学年里，你们应当做些什么。
我做过许多关于教育的讲话。也常常用到“责任”这个词。我谈到过教师们有责任激励和启迪你们，督促你们学习。

我谈到过家长们有责任看管你们认真学习、完成作业，不要成天只会看电视或打游戏机。

我也很多次谈到过政府有责任设定高标准严要求、协助老师和校长们的工作，改变在有些学校里学生得不到应有的学习机会的现状。

但即使这一切都达到最好，即使我们有最尽职的教师、最好的家长、和最优秀的学校，假如你们不去履行自己的责任的话，那么这一切努力都会白费。——除非你每天准时去上学、除非你认真地听老师讲课、除非你把父母、长辈和其他大人们说的话放在心上、除非你肯付出成功所必需的努力，否则这一切都会失去意义。

而这就是我今天讲话的主题：对于自己的教育，你们中每一个人的责任。

首先，我想谈谈你们对于自己有什么责任。
你们中的每一个人都会有自己擅长的东西，每一个人都是有用之材，而发现自己的才能是什么，就是你们要对自己担起的责任。教育给你们提供了发现自己才能的机会。
或许你能写出优美的文字——甚至有一天能让那些文字出现在书籍和报刊上——但假如不在英语课上经常练习写作，你不会发现自己有这样的天赋；或许你能成为一个发明家、创造家——甚至设计出像今天的iPhone一样流行的产品，或研制出新的