Obama's Education Speech

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/09/07/raw-data-obama-speech-american-school-children/

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.

Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.

Good message, but way to guilt trip the kids. I ask, is it really your duty as a citizen to provide solutions for the country? I would argue it is not because you have the freedom to choose what to do with your life. If you want to give up, that's your choice. Are you letting yourself down, sure, the country, not so much. If you are the kind of person to drop out of school, I don't want you anywhere near solving our most difficult problems.

I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work -- that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you're not going to be any of those things.

Again, good message however, if those are the things you are good at, you shouldn't be shooting down kids dreams. It's dreaming big that makes America great.

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.

Disagree, freedom flourishes when government stays out of the way. The insinuation here is that the more education you get the better you will be able to solve problems. The problem isn't lack of intelligent people, the problem is that too many people think they are intelligent enough to solve problems through the government.

I'm working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn.

The problem isn't the lack of books, equipment, or computers, i.e. more money is needed. The problems are the poor curriculum and the lack of a proper incentives system for teachers. Study after study has shown that an increase in money to education does not yield increased benefits Therefore, the problem lies elsewhere.