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Prepared text of President Barack Obama's back-to-school address,
as released by the White House:
 OBAMA:
Hello, everyone -- how's everybody doing today? I'm here with
students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we've
got students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten through
12th grade. I'm glad you all could join us today.
I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And
for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school,
it's your 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're in, some of you are probably
wishing it were still summer, and you could've stayed in bed just a
little longer this morning.
I know that feeling. 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."
So I know 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.
Now I've given a lot of speeches about education. And I've talked a
lot about responsibility.
I've talked about your teachers' responsibility for inspiring you,
and pushing you to learn.
I've talked about your parents' responsibility for making sure you
stay on track, and get your homework done, and don't spend every
waking hour in front of the TV or with that Xbox.
I've talked a lot about your government's responsibility for setting
high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning
around schools that aren't working where students aren't getting the
opportunities they deserve.
But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers,
the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world and
none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your
responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention
to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other
adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.
And that's what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of
you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility
you have to yourself.
Every single one of you has something 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 good writer -- maybe even good enough to write
a book or articles in a newspaper -- but you might not know it until
you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an
innovator or an inventor -- maybe even good enough to come up with
the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine -- but you might not
know it until you do a 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're going to
need a good education for every single one of those careers. You
can't drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You've got
to work for it and train 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. 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 environment. You'll
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
build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.
We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and
intellect so you can help 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.
Now 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. I know what that's like. My father left my family when I
was two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled
at times to pay the bills and wasn't always able to give us things
the other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father
in my life. There were times when I was lonely and felt like I
didn't fit in.
So I wasn't always as focused as I should have been. I did some
things I'm not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have.
And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.
But I was fortunate. I got a lot of second chances and had the
opportunity to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams.
My wife, our first lady Michelle Obama, has a similar story. Neither
of her parents had gone to college, and they didn't have much. 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 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, California, who's
fought brain cancer since he was three. 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,
Illinois. 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. JK Rowling's first Harry Potter
book was rejected twelve 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 twenty or fifty or one
hundred 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.
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