Highlight examples of pathos, ethos, and logos.

Remarks by the President in a National Address to America’s Schoolchildren

Hello, everybody! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. 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, it's your first day in a new school, so it's understandable if you're a little
nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now
-- with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade you're in, some of you are
probably wishing it were still summer and you could've stayed in bed just a little bit longer
this morning.( Personal Connection)

I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived overseas. I lived in Indonesia for a
few years. (Relevant bio details) And my mother, she didn't 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. So 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 wasn't too happy about getting up that early. And a lot of
times, I'd fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I'd complain, my mother
would just give me one of those looks and she'd say, "This is no picnic for me either,
buster."

Now, I've given a lot of speeches about education. And I've talked about responsibility a
lot. I've talked about teachers' responsibility for inspiring students and pushing you to
learn. I've talked about your parents' responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and
you get your homework done, and don't spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with
the Xbox.

I've talked a lot about your government's responsibility for setting high standards, and
supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren't working, where
students aren't getting the opportunities that they deserve. (qualifications,
experience/authority)

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 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.(Logic) That's
what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education.

And no matter what you want to do with your life, I guarantee that you'll 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? You're going to need a good education
for every single one of those careers. You cannot drop out of school and just drop into a
good job. You've got to train for it and work for it and learn for it.

And this isn't 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 of America
depends on you. What you're learning in school today will determine whether we as a
nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.

You'll 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 technologies and protect our
environment. 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. You'll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all
your 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 don't do that -- if you
quit on school -- you're not just quitting on yourself, you're quitting on your country.

Now, I know it's 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 it's like. My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was
raised by a single mom who had to work and who struggled at times to pay the bills and
wasn't 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 didn't
fit in.

So I wasn't always as focused as I should have been on school, and I did some things I'm 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 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 didn't 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 advantages. Maybe you don't have adults in your life who
give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job and
there's not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don't
feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren't 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 you've got going on at home -- none of that is
an excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude in school. That's no
excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. There is
no excuse for not trying.
Where you are right now doesn't have to determine where you'll end up. No one's written
your destiny for you, because here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your
own future.

That's what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.

The truth is, being successful is hard. You won't love every subject that you study. You
won't click with every teacher that you have. Not every homework assignment will seem
completely relevant to your life right at this minute. And you won't necessarily succeed at
everything the first time you try.

That's okay. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who've had the
most failures. J.K. Rowling's -- who wrote Harry Potter -- her first Harry Potter book was
rejected 12 times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high
school basketball team. He lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during
his career. But he once said, "I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And
that's why I succeed."

The story of America isn't about people who quit when things got tough. It's about people
who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less
than their best.

It's the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a
revolution and they founded this nation. Young people. Students who sat where you sit 75
years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and
put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google
and Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.

So today, I want to ask all of you, what's your contribution going to be? What problems are
you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a President who comes here
in 20 or 50 or 100 years say about what all of you did for this country?

Now, your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have
the education you need to answer these questions. I'm working hard to fix up your
classrooms and get you the books and the equipment and the computers you need to
learn. But you've got to do your part, too. So I expect all of you to get serious this year. I
expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of
you. So don't let us down. Don't let your family down or your country down. Most of all,
don't let yourself down. Make us all proud.

Thank you very much, everybody. God bless you. God