Obama urges students to set goals

Recalling his own humble roots and fatherless childhood, President Obama on Tuesday asked the nation’s students to take personal responsibility for their future, imploring them: “Do your part.”

“I expect all of you to get serious this year, 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 down, don’t let your country down, most of all don’t let yourself down,” Mr. Obama told nearly 1,000 students at Wakefield High School in Arlington in remarks that were piped into schools across the country and also made available online.

The planned speech drew intense criticism last week when the Department of Education suggested in an accompanying lesson plan that students write letters “about what they can do to help the president,” language that the White House later clarified. The revised lesson plan was to write letters about their education goals.

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Conservatives spent several days suggesting Mr. Obama was attempting to “indoctrinate” American children or push his own policy plans on youngsters.

After the White House released Mr. Obama’s prepared remarks a full day ahead of the event, former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich and a top Florida Republican Party official who made headlines for saying he would keep his children out of school Tuesday changed their tune. They said the speech gave the right message and they no longer opposed it, and Mr. Obama received a bigger boost from former first lady Laura Bush, who heartily endorsed the speech Monday.

But critics still were making their point, with schools across the country refusing to show the speech to students.

Protesters were spotted on streets near the school with signs reading, “Children serve God, not Obama,” and accusing the president’s speech of “dumbing-down students.”

Mr. Obama did not mention the criticism and stuck closely to his prepared remarks.

“What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country,” he said. “The future of America depends on you. What you’re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.”

The students didn’t seem to mind the controversy — the teens cheered loudly throughout the morning as the gym’s bleachers filled up hours before the speech. Carrying cameras and with some wearing Obama campaign T-shirts, they cheered loudly for Mr. Obama.

“Today is truly about you,” Wakefield Principal Doris Jackson told the students. “Today is the most nontraditional and exciting start to school that you will ever have.”

She asked students to “take time to be in the moment” and to feel the “electricity” in the gym. “You will be telling this story for years to come,” she said.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan told reporters Tuesday morning before the speech he didn’t worry about the criticism.

He said no one asks why no president has spoken to schoolchildren in a national forum since former President George H.W. Bush in 1991.

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