Obama Goes Back to School

Scholastic ^ | 9/15/2010 | Zach Jones

[LA Woman3]

Yesterday, President Barack Obama spoke to students across America from the Julia R. Masterman Laboratory and Demonstration School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He encouraged everyone to do his or her best in the new school year.

"Nothing—absolutely nothing—is beyond your reach," the President told students. "So long as you're willing to dream big. So long as you're willing to work hard. So long as you're willing to stay focused on your education."

The President said it's OK to be nervous about starting the school year. He said even his children felt nervous. Most important, he said, was that students focus on studying and discovering new talents.

"I couldn't be prouder of you," he said. "Keep it up. All of you, I know, are going to do great things in the future. And maybe sometime in the 21st century, it's going to be one of you who's standing up here speaking to a group of kids as President of the United States."

LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT

During the speech, the President quoted from a letter he received during the summer from a 12-year-old girl. "She told me about how hard she works and about all the community service she does with her brother," the President said. "And she wrote, 'I try to achieve my dreams and help others do the same. That is how the world should work.' That's a pretty good motto. I work hard to achieve my goals, and then I try to help others to achieve their goals."

The girl, Tamerria Robinson, and her family were stunned when the President called to ask her permission to mention her letter in his speech. Before starting seventh grade at West Chatham Middle School in Pooler, Georgia, Tamerria had decided to write to tell the President how much he inspired her. "I just wrote to him on lined paper," she said later. "I would have used stationery if I had known he was really going to read it."

[Mr. Mojo]

"Nothing—absolutely nothing—is beyond your reach," the President told students.

Except the speaker's college transcripts and birth cert.

[ConservativeStatement]

[dirtboy]

Obama Goes Back to School

Do we get to know his GPA this time around?

[FlingWingFlyer]

Somebody needs to tell little Tamerria that her beloved saviour has taken care of her “dreams” with his “stimulus” spending and government corruption. She’s already in debt up to her eyeballs thanks to her inspiration.

[LA Woman3]

From the speech.....

I know – because I didn’t always have it. I wasn’t always the best student when I was younger; I made my share of mistakes. In fact, I can still remember a conversation I had with my mother in high school, when I was about the age of some of you here today. It was about how my grades were slipping, how I hadn’t even started my college applications, how I was acting, as she put it, “casual” about my future. It’s a conversation I suspect will sound familiar to some of the students and parents here today.

[nascarnation]

Kids if you knew the debt burden I’m laying on your backs, you’d give me a max wedgie and swirl my head in the crapper.

[LA Woman3]

What a prize!

That’s the kind of culture of excellence you promote here at Masterman; and that’s the kind of excellence we need to promote in all America’s schools. That’s why today, I’m announcing our second Commencement Challenge. If your school is the winner; if you show us how teachers, students, and parents are working together to prepare your kids for college and a career; if you show us how you’re giving back to your community and our country – I’ll congratulate you in person by speaking at your commencement.

[McLynnan]

if you show us how you’re giving back to your community and our country – I’ll congratulate you in person by speaking at your commencement.

Yikes! Volunteers across America are resigning in record numbers.

[combat_boots]

I thought competition and uniqueness is now banned in the collective.........