Is Obama hinting to our children that, yes indeed, he is passing on today’s debt problems as a burden they must address by political revolution?
And this isn’t just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you’re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.
You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You’ll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You’ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.
We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don’t do that - if you quit on school - you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.
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The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.
It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.
So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?
I find the context of his speech terribly interesting. Conservatives are complaining about Obama indoctrinating our students with a single speech- too bad they are the ones that passed the No Child Left Behind act which put the Presidents initiatives front and center of our nations educational policy. Did they not think that possibly, someday, we might elect a liberal Democrat? Does it really matter if it’s Obama or the Department of Education that is giving the marching orders?
But I digress.
Reading between the lines he is admitting that none of today’s under-the-table problems will be solved. He seems to be suggesting that the establishment powers of the left-right paradigm are vacant and void of any new ideas or talent and that it will take a social revolution on our part to overcome these obstacles.
Another interesting take: this speech seems to fully move Obama from the ‘change’ candidate to the establishment leader. He is admitting that ingenuity still needs to yet come at a future date. He is admitting that today’s problems will still need to be addressed by some future leader. He is essentially stating- I campaigned on change, but instead will complete the political process of statism handed down to me. I am here now and realizing that I will be incapable addressing ideas that affect everyone. We will do whatever it takes to educate and support you so that you have the best chances of being able to tackle what we could not.
I encourage everyone to read Obama’s speech. Try to find the context and the meaning. You may just come away stunned the profoundness and candor of the message.