President Obama & Education

I was talking to my mom on the phone this afternoon and somehow we started talking about President Obama's speech to school children today. First, a little background information: I voted for Obama, my mom voted for McCain; she watches FOX News, I do not. My mom was down right SHOCKED when I told her who I was voting for in the 2008 presidential election. A little more background information: my parents are very conservative and I grew up with very conservative views, many of which I still have today. I was always one of the few "republicans" at high school and college and I was always very opinionated on topics such as immigration. I was the lone person at San Diego State who voted for George W. Bush twice (gasp!). But as I grew up, graduated from college, got married and was not living at home anymore, my views began to change.

Anyways, back to the lecture at hand....

As soon as we started talking about President Obama's speech, the first words out of my mouth were "You're not one of those weirdo's who would of kept their kids home today because of this speech" and she said "oh yes I am!". Now at this moment, both of us had not seen or read the transcript of the speech. I have since watched it and was very impressed with what was said. I don't understand why parents would not want their children to hear the following statements President Obama made today:

-"...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, 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 for your education."

-"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."

-"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."

Education has always been important to me. I may have been on the "8 year plan" for college, but I graduated and have a Bachelors Degree. Growing up, I always wanted to be a teacher - I majored in Social Science for Secondary Education - but by the time I graduated I realized that I still wanted to be a part of education, just not in the classroom. But I know that the time I spent in school was and is not wasted. Education can never be wasted.

All in all, I was impressed by what President Obama said on the importance of education and individual responsibility. Even though I am not in school anymore and President Obama was not speaking directly to me, I still take his words to heart: "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."