Social Work 643:Community Work

--Obama Speaks to School Children Across Country--In our Social Work 643:Community Work class this week, we talked about President Obama and his speech to school children across the country and how they could achieve their goals through their experiences in school. I downloaded part of his speech here where you can view it if you missed it originally. The president explained to students that no matter what they wanted to accomplish in their lives, they would need an education, and that we as a country need them to develop their knowledge, problem-solving, and intellectual skills for the great challenges we will face in the future. He also said that "we can have the most dedicated teachers and parents as well as the best schools possible, but those things won't matter unless each child fulfills his or her responsibilities." (http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/thegaggle/archive/2009/09/08/full-text-of-obama-s-speech-)
It is thrilling to hear our president speak to children about their responsibility as citizens of this country as well as their teachers and parents. President Obama was speaking about the tradition in this country of civic responsibility. The first time I understood what that meant was when I heard the original inaugural speech given by President Kennedy on January 20, 1961 when he said..."ask not what your country can do for you-ask what you can do for your country." As the years have gone by since that time in history, we no longer expect that kind of civic duty from ourselves or our children. It seems that shopping has replaced civic responsibility as our "duty" as citizens.





I included the cartoon of President Obama and George Bush giving advice to children because it speaks to the obvious and important differences between these two men. It is important to remember that when a reporter asked former President Bush what the citizens of this country should do a few days after the 9/11 tragedy, his unbelievable response was that Americans should not be afraid to go out to our favorite stores and malls AND SHOP.

It is very difficult to make sense of the ugliness that permeated the news and internet sites with angry parents and Fox News broadcasters ranting about President Obama's speech to the school children of our nation. Being exposed to the words of the president of this country is an excellent civics lesson creating stimulating learning possibilities and stimulating dialogue between students, parents, teachers, and classmates.