President Obama's Speech to Students-Sept. 8, 2009
It could be summarized in three words: Poignant; powerful; inspirational.
Its impacting excerpts:
“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 matte r 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 I mumbled to myself, “How many hundreds of students will still persist in thinking success in life is something that is supposed to be handed to them on a golden platter?”
My thoughts hastened back to my gruesome, struggling years (1970-1975) upon my arrival in Tampa, FL, my new self-assigned home. Armed with a B.A. degree and two full years of teaching experience, I was under the grossly-false impression that obtaining a teaching job would be nothing short of a “piece of cake.” All principals who would read my résumé would be crashing down my front door or ringing my phone off the wall in their infinite excitement to hire me on the spot. Within a a few weeks’ time, I noticed that my door remained on its hinges and the phone was still securely attached to the wall. The emotional, financial, and psycho-lightning bolts were intensifying. My fault. I failed to do my homework before moving from Boston. Worse, I did no homework at all. If done, I would have known the cruel fact: In 1968, a massive state teachers’ strike had occurred. Although many public school teachers had refused to re-enter their profession after the strike’s settlement, substitute teachers, certified or not, were hired to take their place. My gruesome bottom line: No positions were available in my chosen, certified field. All teachers and substitutes remained steadfast in holding onto their positions. My plight: work at minimum-salary jobs ($1.70/hour): punching an adding machine at a wholesale food company, working construction sites, driving a Tampa City Bus, delivering auto parts for a major dealership, working as a janitor for First National Bank of Tampa, and finally having to pay an Employment Agency (8% of my salary) to find me a teaching job in a private school (Miami, FL) at an astounding wealthy salary of $6K per year – a school that shut down on me after one year. I was again “back out on the street” without a job. The demonic demoralizing effect on my soul was rapidly taking its toll. Although tempted, I refused to give up or listen to the pleas of my family members to return to Boston to live with them until some half-decent employment could be found. Over the past decades, I often thought, “If someone had offered me a golden platter, I must’ve had cataracts. Somehow, I missed it."
“...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.”
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"Mr. Obama," I mumbled as I listened intensely, glued to the TV, “I hope they listen. For too many students, all of those are excuses for not trying. It’s the Blame Game: 'Life is mean to me; therefore, I’ll be mean to it, especially to those in authority. If I don’t like a rule, I simply won’t follow it. If I don’t like a subject that others determine will contribute to my success in life, I’ll simply put less time into it, not more. Society is to blame, not I. Besides, I can dribble a basketball and therefore, I’m going to be in the NBA in a few years. I’m also in the Drama Club and that’s going to be a one-way ticket as a Hollywood celebrity. Success is nothing else but how much money I can make.'”
“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. ….The truth is, being successful is hard.”
I yelled at the President on the screen, “Say it again, Obama! Maybe you can get through to them! Tell ‘em it’s a question of self-pride, self-dignity, perseverance and a dogged determination to achieve anything! Tell 'em success and money are not synonymous and that the latter is only a potential result of the former! Tell 'em if they can't move the mountain, to go around, through, over, or underneath it. If these maneuvers produce little or no results, tell 'em to throw a few lit sticks of dynamite at it -- anything -- as long as they get to the other side! Remind 'em that both the correct spelling of sUccess -- and the reality of it -- doesn't happen unless there's a U (You) in it!"
“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.”
How I remembered my early years as a young-educator-knight in shining armor – supposedly sanctified and blessed from the Deity Himself as the Chosen One in front of the classroom -- one who had all the answers to all life’s problems. How often I excitedly taught the lesson non-stop, like a runaway train for most of the period, and as the then-pedagogical rules had it, simply ask, “Any questions?” There were few -- always relevant ones, too: “What time is lunch?” “Can I go to the bathroom?” “Are we getting any homework tonight?” I have no idea how many months it took me to never ask the question, and to simply convert it into an invitation: “If you have any questions, please raise your hand, come to my desk, and I will assist you on a one-to-one basis.”
"Yes, Mr. President,” I said, “you slammed the nail on its head. That’s what students believe: To ask a question signifies a sign of weakness, stupidity, or not paying attention – and your message is made more powerful when you stated you yourself have to ask questions of your staff every day. Hopefully, it impacted the students for a lifetime.”
“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.”
Remaining stunned at the impact and relevance of the entire speech, and hearing this striking conclusion, I told the President, as he waved good-bye and strolled down to the student-audience to shake their hands, “Obama, if you didn’t get through to them, no one will.”
WJK-Sept. 8, 2009 |
