The President’s Speech to School Children

I watched the speech on C-Span this morning (refreshingly sans network news comments), followed by call-ins from students, teachers, and “all others.” Don’t know about you but I agree with all of the callers: It was inspirational.

More than that, it was terrific to see so many students sit quietly in an auditorium and, with rapped attention, listen to every word a politician said. Those same students cheered wildly as one of their own introduced our president. It brought tears to my eyes.

President Obama’s message included some of the language he used during the campaign about how his Mother got him up at 4:30 in the morning to tutor him. The speech centered around a message that school takes work and that it’s worth it because you need an education if you want to succeed in life. It was a straight forward pep rally message but coming from our president, and more importantly, from our first African-American president, was a welcome message to teens at risk of dropping out, turning to drugs and crime, and/or just putting forth the minimum to get by.

I sincerely hope that we have not become so cynical that such a basic and inspiring message is scrutinized for hidden messages.