By Tyra Sparks – Student Writer, RCSHS
President Barack Obama gave a speech last Tuesday addressing the youth of the nation; this particular speech was intended to focus on the responsibility of students in schools all over the United Sates.
There was controversy about what he was “doing speaking to us.” Past presidents haven’t spoken specifically to the youth in many years, what makes our new president so different? Is it possible that he truly wants to encourage students, or is it that he wants a few more votes next time around? That's a question you must ask yourself, but regardless of his intent, the message that he conveyed was exponentially influential and motivating to many students including myself.
Of course most teenagers have a complex about wanting to be included, which is one reason why President Obama’s speech attracted the attention of the students of Rowan County Senior High School. Another reason always includes wanting to waste class time to do anything and everything that isn't school work; however, teachers were instructed to create an assignment that followed the speech if they planned on allowing their students to view it. This time students didn't get away with sleeping through another "boring" broadcast: they truly had to pay attention to what was being said, if they wanted a good grade.
Good grades, that's exactly what President Obama talked about Tuesday, good grades, achieving your goals, listening to your parents, contributing your talents to society, etc. Teenagers have heard this same motivational speech a thousand times over. What makes it so different for our president to motivate us in the same way? The speech mentioned nothing about any political issue, why is it such a horror to allow the president to speak to the students then? Are we not the future of America? Do we not have a right to be addressed by the government specifically? Are we not entitled to formulating our own perspectives as individuals about who the president is and what he wants? Too many times our parents and other influences in our lives make up our minds for us about what we have to want and what we have to be, which is good when you're still young and indecisive but what about when we're older and running this country? I do not agree with all of President Obama's decisions, but I do respect him in his position and believe that it's about time that this country's youth be motivated by someone we never would have thought cared.
One of the most famous quotes in history was JFK's "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." It was then, is now, and always will be important for each individual person to contribute something to society, and that's what President Obama stated in his speech: "What's your contribution going to be?" "What problems are you going to solve?" "What discoveries will you make?" We should be asking ourselves these questions daily, we depend too greatly on the generations ahead of us to do all the hard work and expect nothing of us but what happened to our expectations for ourselves and each other? It shouldn't take a speech from the President of the United States to motivate us to achieve our goals, but if that's what it takes, then why not?
I would suggest each and every student in Rowan County and all others to really step it up because whether or not you agree with this president, you may be surprised to see who the next one is, maybe even someone you know.
