1、奥巴马开学演讲词美国总统奥巴马 9月 8日开学演讲 英文全文For Immediate Release September 8, XXREMARKS BY THE PRESIDENTIN A NATIONAL ADDRESS TO AMERICAS SCHOOLCHILDRENWakefield High SchoolArlington, VirginiaTHE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. All right, everybody go ahead and have a sea
2、t. How is everybody doing today? (Applause.) How about Tim Spicer? (Applause.) I am here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And weve got students tuning in from all across America, from kindergarten through 12th grade. And I am just so glad that all could join us today. A
3、nd I want to thank Wakefield for being such an outstanding host. Give yourselves a big round of applause. (Applause.)I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, its your first day in a new school, so its unde
4、rstandable if youre a little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now - (applause) - with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade youre in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer and you couldve stayed in bed just a little bi
5、t longer this morning.I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived overseas. I lived in Indonesia for a few years. And my mother, she didnt have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school, but she thought it was important for me to keep up with an American education. S
6、o she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday. But because she had to go to work, the only time she could do it was at 4:30 in the morning.Now, as you might imagine, I wasnt too happy about getting up that early. And a lot of times, Id fall asleep right there at the kitchen
7、table. But whenever Id complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and shed say, “This is no picnic for me either, buster.“ (Laughter.)So I know that some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But Im here today because I have something important to discuss with you. Im he
8、re because I want to talk with you about your education and whats expected of all of you in this new school year.Now, Ive given a lot of speeches about education. And Ive talked about responsibility a lot.Ive talked about teachers responsibility for inspiring students and pushing you to learn.Ive ta
9、lked about your parents responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and you get your homework done, and dont spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with the Xbox.Ive talked a lot about your governments responsibility for setting high standards, and supporting teachers and principals, an
10、d turning around schools that arent working, where students arent getting the opportunities that they deserve.But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, the best schools in the world - and none of it will make a difference, none of it will matter
11、 unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities, unless you show up to those schools, unless you pay attention to those teachers, unless you listen to your parents and grandparents and other adults and put in the hard work it takes to succeed. Thats what I want to focus on today: the responsibility
12、 each of you has for your education.I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself. Every single one of you has something that youre good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. Thats the opportunity an edu
13、cation can provide.Maybe you could be a great writer - maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper - but you might not know it until you write that English paper - that English class paper thats assigned to you. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor - maybe even good e
14、nough to come up with the next iPhone or the new medicine or vaccine - but you might not know it until you do your project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a senator or a Supreme Court justice - but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.And
15、 no matter what you want to do with your life, I guarantee that youll 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? Youre going to need a good education for every single one of tho
16、se careers. You cannot drop out of school and just drop into a good job. Youve got to train for it and work for it and learn for it.And this isnt just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. The future
17、 of America depends on you. What youre learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.Youll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy tech
18、nologies and protect our environment. Youll 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. Youll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your
19、classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.We need every single one of you to develop your talents and your skills and your intellect so you can help us old folks solve our most difficult problems. If you dont do that - if you quit on school - youre not just quitt
20、ing on yourself, youre quitting on your country.Now, I know its not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork.I get it. I know what its like. My father left my family when I was two years old, and I
21、 was raised by a single mom who had to work and who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasnt always able to give us the things that other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and I felt like I didnt fit in.So I wasnt always as f
22、ocused as I should have been on school, and I did some things Im not proud of, and I got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.But I was - I was lucky. I got a lot of second chances, and I had the opportunity to go to college and law school and
23、follow my dreams. My wife, our First Lady Michelle Obama, she has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didnt have a lot of money. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.Some of you might not have those adva
24、ntages. Maybe you dont have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job and theres not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you dont feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know ar
25、ent right.But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life - what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what youve got going on at home - none of that is an excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude in school. Thats no excuse for talking back to your tea
