President Barack Obama gestures as he addresses union workers and their families at the AFL-CIO Labor Day picnic at Coney Island in Cincinnati, Monday, Sept. 7, 2009.
President Barack Obama holds an umbrella as he disembarks Air Force One in the rain at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., after traveling to Cincinnati, Ohio, for the AFL-CIO Labor Day picnic, Monday, Sept. 7, 2009.
Take responsibility for your education. Go to class and listen. Don't let failures define you.
"We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems," Obama said. "If you don't do that — if you quit on school — you're not just quitting on yourself, you're quitting on your country."
"At the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents and the best schools in the world," Obama says. "And none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities."
"I expect great things from each of you," he said. "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."
That's the advice President Barack Obama will give schoolchildren Tuesday in a speech that drew fire even before he delivered it.
The White House posted Obama's remarks on its Web site Monday.
The president was to deliver the talk at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Va., a Washington suburb. The speech will be broadcast live on C-SPAN and on the White House Web site.
Obama's planned talk has proven controversial, with several conservative organizations and individuals accusing him of trying to pitch his arguments too aggressively in a local-education setting. White House officials, including Education Secretary Arne Duncan, have said the allegations are silly.
Obama makes no reference in his prepared remarks to the uproar surrounding his speech. Nor does he make an appeal for support for tough causes such as his health care overhaul. He uses the talk to tell kids about his at-times clumsy ways as a child and to urge them to set goals and work hard to achieve them.
Obama's address to schoolchildren found at least one ally on the right. Former First Lady Laura Bush said she found nothing wrong with Obama addressing schoolchildren. She credited the president with doing a commendable job under tough circumstances and criticized the polarization of American politics.
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