美国总统奥巴马开学演讲
About responsibility Now, I\'ve given a lot of speeches about education.And I\'ve talked about responsibility a lot. I\'ve talked about teachers\' responsibility for inspiring students and pushing you to learn. I\'ve talked about your parents\' responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and you get your homework done, and don\'t spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with the Xbox. I\'ve talked a lot about your government\'s responsibility for setting high standards, and supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren\'t working, where students aren\'t getting the opportunities that they deserve.
But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, the best schools in the world -- and none of it will make a difference, none of it will matter unle all of you fulfill your responsibilities, unle you show up to those schools, unle you pay attention to those teachers, unle you listen to your parents and grandparents and other adults and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.That\'s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education.
I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.Every single one of you has something that you\'re good at.Every single one of you has something to offer.And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is.That\'s the opportunity an education can provide.
About neceity of education Maybe you could be a great writer -- maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper -- but you might not know it until you write that English paper -- that English cla paper that\'s aigned to you.Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor -- maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or the new medicine or vaccine -- but you might not know it until you do your project for your science cla.Maybe you could be a mayor or a senator or a Supreme Court justice -- but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.
And no matter what you want to do with your life, I guarantee that you\'ll need an education to do it.You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You\'re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers.You cannot drop out of school and just drop into a good job.You\'ve got to train for it and work for it and learn for it.
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 homelene, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free.You\'ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your claes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.
We need every single one of you to develop your talents and your skills and your intellect so you can help us old folks 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.
About being succeful
I know that sometimes you get that sense from TV that you can be rich and succeful without any hard work -- that your ticket to succe is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star.Chances are you\'re not going to be any of those things.
The truth is, being succeful is hard.You won\'t love every subject that you study.You won\'t click with every teacher that you have.Not every homework aignment will seem completely relevant to your life right at this minute.And you won\'t necearily succeed at everything the first time you try.
That\'s okay.Some of the most succeful people in the world are the ones who\'ve had the most failures.J.K.Rowling\'s -- who wrote Harry Potter -- her first Harry Potter book was rejected 12 times before it was finally published.Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team.He lost hundreds of games and mied thousands of shots during his career.But he once said, \"I have failed over and over and over again in my life.And that\'s why I succeed.\"
These people succeeded because they understood that you can\'t let your failures define you -- you have to let your failures teach you.You have to let them show you what to do differently the next time.So if you get into trouble, that doesn\'t mean you\'re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to act right.If you get a bad grade, that doesn\'t mean you\'re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.
Never give up
No one\'s born being good at all things.You become good at things through hard work.You\'re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport.You don\'t hit every note the first time you sing a song.You\'ve got to practice.The same principle applies to your schoolwork.You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right.You might have to read something a few times before you understand it.You definitely have to do a few drafts of a paper before it\'s good enough to hand in.
Don\'t be afraid to ask questions.Don\'t be afraid to ask for help when you need it.I do that every day.Asking for help isn\'t a sign of weakne, it\'s a sign of strength because it shows you have the courage to admit when you don\'t know something, and that then allows you to learn something new.So find an adult that you trust -- a parent, a grandparent or teacher, a coach or a counselor -- and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.
And even when you\'re struggling, even when you\'re discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you, don\'t ever give up on yourself, because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.
