Back to School Event

Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama: Back to School Event

In this essay there will be an analysis and comments on Barack Obama’s speech: Back to School, from September 8th, 2009, in Arlington, Virginia. Though the analysis, there will be focus on the way he addresses the audience, and on the values he advocates. The speech was broadcasted to students across America.
Barack Obama starts his speech with saying “Hello” to everyone, and expressing his gratitude for everyone who is shown up, watching and listening, which of course tells the audience that he is happy to be there. He starts to tell about his own childhood, and relating to everyone there, by saying that he knows how it is on first day of school. How it is to be in kindergarten, how it is to be raised by a single mother, how it is to be a senior, with just one year to go, and so on - and because of his relating to all the young people, it makes the speech more personal, for each person. He tells about how his mother home schooled him, because they didn’t had the money to send him to school, and how he hated to wake every single morning at 04:30 am, and how he sometimes fall asleep on the kitchen table, but also how his mother every single time, got him waked up, for studying.
Barack Obama explains that he is there to discuss education. It’s the first day of a new year, and he wants everyone to know, that this year is going to be very important. He is talking about that everyone has a responsibility. The teachers’ responsibility for inspiring, the parents’ responsibility, and last but not least, the government’s responsibility, for setting high standards. They should know, that America want’s all the students their best, and that they only deserve the best. Everyone should know that a lot of people out there in America are willing to help them.
Next he says that everyone has something they are good at:
“Maybe you could be a good writer – maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper – but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor – maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine – but you might not know it until you do a project for your science class…”

Again he is using “you”. It makes him appear trustworthy, and it gets the students to feel that he is one of them, and not “just” the president of America, but a person close to them. With this, he is saying that they have a responsibility for themself, but he is also saying, that if they quit school, it’s not just quitting on themselves, it’s quitting their own country.
He explains that he knows the hard days of school. He knows, that some of the students don’t felt good at home, and some of them have challenges in their life, that can makes it hard to focus on school. That some of them might not have any advantages, and maybe some of them don’t have adults in their life, to give the support everyone needs in life.
He is relating again, to his own life. That his father left him, and his family when he was two years old, and he was raised by a single mother, who struggled at times to pay bills. That he didn’t focused so much on school some times, but also how fortunate he was. He got a new chance, and got the opportunity to go to college, and to follow his dreams.
He uses many examples. He is talking about young people, who had everything in life against them, and how they still got through it, and became something successful. These three people he uses in the text, is three people who never quit. No matter what, they fought their way through.
By using these examples with people they can identify themselves with, it might help the students to open their eyes, and letting them know, that it is impossible, to be successful – even if they come from poor home.
After playing on emotions, he takes it to a more serious matter. He is explaining that success only comes with hard work. That America needs all these young people, and their families, their teachers, and he is doing everything they can, to make sure that all of them, is going to get an education they’ll need to answer a lots of questions, and that everyone around them, is willing to help them, anytime – all in all means it, that the country will succeed.
The speech is very good, and Barack Obama is very well formulated, and easy to understand. He uses words, even children in kindergarten will understand, and his use of “Ethos” and “Pathos” are judiciously.
He is joking in the begging by saying: “But whenever I’d complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and say, “this is no picnic for me either, buster”.” He is also referring to parallel situations thought the whole speech. - With this, you can see that he is using “Ethos”. “Pathos” is expressed though the whole speech, because he repeatedly evoke feelings in the students, but also the reader. If he had used “Logos”, he would have lost his young audience.
This essay has shown that the speech is successful. Barack Obama comes right out to these young students, by using simple language, and by using all the examples, makes it credible. The speaker is not a random person, but the president of the United States, and it have certainly done that more of the students have listened to these words, and taken it to heart.