‘There is no excuse’

By Jennifer J. Foster

Published: September 8, 2009

I watched and listened a little while ago as President Obama delievered his much-ballyhooed speech to schoolchildren across America.

A little background:

I first heard about this on Wednesday afternoon from a conservative friend who asked me what I knew about it. I went home and checked it out. I didn’t find the idea of the president speaking to kids at school in at of itself objectionable, so I wondered what all the fuss was about.

I read a few stories about the growing controversy, and I read about the lesson plans the Department of Education was intent on distributing as part of the event. I didn’t find any fault with the stuff they had put together for kidergarten through 6th graders, but I did find a bit of overreach in the materials provided for 7th through 12th graders. In particular were the prompts asking how kids could help the president and what part of what he said in the speech inspired them. I think it would have been much more relevant to ask kids what goals they planned to set for themselves in response to the speech instead of asking them anything about the president. The speech was, after all, all about how they can succeed in school.

I remember distinctly the day back in 1991 when President George H.W. Bush came to my town and spoke at a local orange juice factory (Tropicana Products in Bradenton, Fla.). I was in the marching band, and we had been invited to play for the president. I remember thinking how cool, how unbelievably cool that was. We were going to play for the president. We learned “Hail to the Chief” and a couple of other things. On the big day, I could hardly see the president at the podium for all the people between us and the platform. But I could see him, if only a little, and it was awesome.

I don’t remember anything about what he said that day. I’m pretty sure it had something to do with jobs and/or the economy; or maybe it was something about international trade. I just know it wasn’t about us. But I remember that he was there, and I was, too.

So last night, I read the text of the address (check it out here).

It is fantastic.

Some critics say that President Obama might have retooled the speech between last week and its release over the weekend, thanks to the controversy it originally created. White House aides, including Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, say that’s nonsense.

Who cares?

The speech is all about personal responsibility. Here are some excerpts:

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.

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.

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.

The “That’s no excuse” line in the prepared remarks became “There is no excuse” in delivery this morning. That was the president’s message this morning, and that’s why it’s the title of this post.

Here’s the bottom line: If this speech had been delivered at this time last year by President George W. Bush, Republicans would be hailing it from sea to shining sea.

And consider this: Obama’s live audience for this speech was the student body at a high school where Hispanic and black students comprised about 70 percent of the school’s enrollment last year. Now, think about Barack Obama’s life: His father wasn’t around for him. His mother shouldered the load. He found himself in trouble. He even did some drugs.

Despite all this, he became the first black president of the United States.

Now, couldn’t we make the argument that—beyond having the ability to deliver a speech to the nation’s schoolchildren—this president has an obligation to deliver this charge to kids? Think about it: Because of who he is and what he has experienced, President Obama is, indeed, one of the only people who can deliver such a message with credibility to these kids—kids who live in economically depressed areas, who come from single-parent homes, whose fathers have abandoned them, who struggle with gang pressure on a daily basis, who live in a cauldron of drugs and crime, whose worldviews are steeped in the excesses and laziness of the MTV culture.

If this speech had been delivered at this time last year by President George W. Bush, Republicans would be hailing it from sea to shining sea, yes—but it wouldn’t have meant much to those kids.

These kids identify with President Obama. Let’s hope, for our country’s sake as well as their own, they will heed his message about personal responsibility and never giving up.