School: The Golden Rule

Navigating the familiar crowded hallways this ordinary Thursday, I’ve realized something that truly shocked me. What is it you might ask? Well, we’ve been in this place called school for exactly ten years. From the care free childish days of kindergarten to the scary hallways of middle school, to the even more frightening foyer of Kennedy High School. It’s unbelievable to me, that I’ve probably spent most of my life at school. In fact, on an ordinary weekday I probably spend more time at school than I do at home. With show choir practices, study sessions, and clubs, I hardly ever get home before five. This is a random thought, but obviously school is an essential part of our lives. Whether it’s the education, social skills, or clubs and extracurricular activities, school has become like a second home for me.

So imagine my surprise when I hear Barack Obama delivering his speech during third hour Spanish. Although I support Obama and believe that his way with words is tremendous and he is an outstanding leader, I thought this speech was aimed more at the unmotivated students, those who come to school, and barely even try. And I’ll admit, I have those days where I am one of those students, but for the most part I put in a lot of effort at school to receive good grades. Obama’s speech was obviously excellent articulated, but I feel like the overall gist of the speech was “Don’t drop out of school”. Although this is an excellent piece of advice I feel like it was not helpful for students like me, who could never even imagine dropping out of school. Whether it’s our parents, teachers, or even ourselves who are preventing us from doing so, we know that it just won’t happen. I deem that Obama’s speech could have potentially improved had he given advice or spoken about the students who are excelling at school and who are unlikely to drop out. In fact, I thought he was repetitive and said certain things that most of us already know. For example Obama stated “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 can't drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You've got to work for it and train for it and learn for it”. Now I don’t know about you, but this has been drilled into my mind by my parents, relatives, and teachers for years. I did not need the president of the United States telling me this also. However, I thought the purpose of the speech had a great intention; the message was not received very well. And I do not think he succeeded in persuading kids who are planning on dropping out of high school.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZZ6GrzWkw0