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 in 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 — that's no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That's no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That's 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. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future. That's what young people like you are doing every day, all across America. Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn't speak English when she first started school. Hardly anyone in her hometown went to college, and neither of her parents had gone either. But she worked hard, earned good grades, got a scholarship to Brown University and is now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to being Dr. Jazmin Perez. I'm thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, Calif., who's fought brain cancer since he was 3. He's endured 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, and he's headed to college this fall. And then there's Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Ill. Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods, she managed to get a job at a local health center, start a program to keep young people out of gangs and she's on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college. Jazmin, Andoni and Shantell aren't any different from any of you. They faced challenges in their lives just like you do. But they refused to give up. They chose to take responsibility 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 to 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 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 kids deserve a safe environment to study and learn. Maybe you'll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn. And along those lines, I hope you'll all wash your hands a lot and stay home from school when you don't feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter. 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 the 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, when chances are, you're not going to be any of those things. But the truth is, being successful is hard. 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. And you won't necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try. That's OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who've had the most failures. J.K. Rowling's first "Harry Potter" book was rejected 12 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. But he once said, "I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." These people succeeded because they understand that you can't let your failures define you — you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn't mean you're a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. 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'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. It's the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or 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 for 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. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don't know something and to learn something new. So find an adult you trust — a parent, grandparent or teacher, a coach or 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 of 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 found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame 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, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other. So today, I want to ask 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? 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'm working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you've got to do your part too. So, I expect 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 or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it. Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.
Now you have read the speech so judge for yourself how bad it really is; that some racist-tinged Americans cried foul and even denied their children the opportunity to partake in the president's pep-talk? Icheoku says, until Americans decide to walk the talk on racial equality, it is going to remain same old same old; with some people not ever wanting to hear or even see "that one" remain in "their" White House, irrespective of how meaningful his actions and well -intended his intentions! Wherein the speech is the socialist-indoctrination that the far right-wingers cried foul about? Where is the brain-washing that made some right wingers decry that the speech is to convert their children into "community organisers" that Icheoku asks, if community organising gets you into the White House, why not? Where in this speech which you just read was the divisive partisan attack the right wing Americans alleged President Obama planned? The heavens have not fallen except that we are now seeing the real America CNN, FOX, NBC, CBS do not show you; an American where one is still judged by the color of his skin and not the content of his character or his proven ability! Anyway, it does not matter any longer as the ceiling has been broken and the history books forever altered, as a "nigger" has occupied the White House and no amount of denial will wish that fact away. Those racists Americans can only wait for the next four years to vote otherwise; but happily enough these people crying blue murder never voted for Barack Obama in the first place. They were the wildebeests who would have voted for a dead white pig than for an articulate intelligent person of color! This is the reality of America and wishing otherwise is a wishful thinking; but we have survived the darkest days and it can only be brighter thence! I saw a woman who was shedding crocodile tears on a television newscast because her child would have been "forced" to watch that speech? and you wonder if this woman was not acting the usual script as nothing elicited the tears being shed? But who knows what moves these people to so hate and not tolerate another human-being just because of skin pigmentation? Anyway, America shall overcome, someday but the road ahead is steep and arduous and long! Conservative right-wing activists blasted the speech as socialist. Loony racist parents called for boycotts. Some school administrators struggled over whether to let their students hear it at the pain of being fired or voted out of office. So Icheoku asks, what is wrong with a president towing the path of former presidents George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan in urging American students to work hard, stay in school and follow their dreams? Nothing, just that in their mind's eyes, the incumbent president does not fit the template of such presidents that would give such an inspirational speech? Even a person who you expect should know better, Jim Greer, chairman of the Florida Republican Party, said that he is "absolutely appalled that taxpayer dollars are being used to spread President Obama's socialist ideology." And you wonder how a fit and proper person leading a political party could make such a buffonery of a statement; admitted he later made a beltated u-turn but never apologised for his initial racist outburst? Another republican operative Alexa Marrero, an aide to Republican Rep. John Kline of Minnesota, said, "Parents, teachers and local school leaders were not wrong to look with suspicion on a federally developed curriculum to accompany this speech." What led to the suspicion if not a warped jaundiced eyes with which white Americans look at anything colored - always asking why? What is the motive here? So America, you now know who the real enemies of American children are - the conservative racist right wingers especially of the republican party!