Obama tells students to 'get serious'

President Obama's speech to schoolchildren Tuesday struck a chord with 13-year-old Randy Vega of Minneapolis, who admitted that he hasn't been a great student recently -- that he's disrespected his teachers and ignored his homework.

"It made me feel better about myself," said Vega, an eighth-grader at Jefferson Community School who has promised his mother and some teachers that this year he'll try harder.

"I'm thinking that I can go farther than what I'm doing right now," he said, inspired in part by Obama's message about his own struggles after his father left his family.

The closely watched speech was a late addition to the lesson plans for some Minnesota students, most of whom returned to school on Tuesday. The rare nationwide address by a sitting president to schoolchildren was telecast via cable TV and the Internet. It wasn't clear how many students in the Twin Cities and elsewhere viewed the 20-minute back-to-school message. Many districts left the decision up to individual teachers and principals in light of the controversy in recent days.

Parents, teachers, administrators and public officials had tussled since last week over whether Obama's speech was appropriate. Amid complaints that the telecast smacked of an attempt at indoctrination, the speech hewed to a narrow exhortation for students to work hard and stay in school.

"Where you are right now doesn't have to determine where you'll end up," Obama said, prodding students to overcome adversity they face in their own lives. "No one's written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future."

In Minnesota, Republican officials including Gov. Tim Pawlenty had criticized Obama's planned address. Some parents, locally and nationwide, said they'd pull their kids out of school if necessary to keep them from being exposed to the speech.

On Tuesday Pawlenty said the speech was "fine and apolitical," but that it was potentially disruptive because it took kids away from their school curriculum and "probably didn't need to be upwards of 20 minutes long," according to spokesman Alex Carey.

But Vega, the Minneapolis eighth-grader, said that all the controversy was "pretty stupid."

"He's trying to tell us that we can do so much better," he said.

First day of school

Tuesday was the first day of school for most of the students who watched Obama's speech.

"We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems," Obama said. "If you don't do that -- if you quit on school -- you're not just quitting on yourself, you're quitting on your country."

The message about the difficulties of combining life and learning was especially meaningful to the 130 or so students enrolled at Volunteers of America's Phoenix High School in Minneapolis. As a contract alternative school, Phoenix is filled with students facing difficulties and obstacles such as foster care, homelessness, poverty, gangs, violence, pregnancy or a lack of language skills.

"The issues that he talked about are the issues that our kids face every single day," said Principal Sonal Redd. "So yeah, the speech probably had a bit more relevance to them."

At Champlin Park High School, Principal Rhoda Mhiripiri walked a thin line by encouraging teachers to show the speech while also assuring concerned parents that no student would be forced to watch it.

About 30 parents contacted the school. Some asked to pull their students for the day.

"I told parents that would be an unhealthy and unnecessary measure," she said. "Kids need to be here on the first day of school."

In Dan Bordwell's third-period government class at Champlin, students' early fidgeting and chatter ended as Obama's speech progressed. Some took issue with parts of the speech.

"When he was talking about controlling your destiny, I think you can, but there's a part of you that says you can't," said 10th-grader Aida Jackson. Citing the cost of college and family expectations, Jackson said, "Sometimes there's only so much you can do."

'Get serious this year'

At Jefferson, several hundred students gathered in the school's auditorium for an assembly that segued into Obama's speech.

"It was awesome," said Principal Ray Aponte. "The president and his remarks connected with what inner-city kids are going through."

The speech was shown in every classroom at New Prague High School, said Superintendent Craig Menozzi, who watched it with a social studies class.

"The kids were really quiet, and they were really engaged with it," he said.

Teachers were reminded to tell students that watching the speech wasn't required, but Menozzi said he doesn't think many opted out. Younger students in the district did not watch the speech, he said, because the district felt it would be most relevant to older students who are close to graduating.

At the end of the speech, Obama encouraged students to "get serious this year."

"I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do," he said. "I expect great things from each of you. So don't let us down - don't let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.

Staff writers Maria Baca, Heron Marquez Estrada and Sarah Lemagie also contributed to this report.

Emily Johns • 612-673-7460