The Controversial Address to American Student's

John F. Kennedy once said "ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country" and on Tuesday September 8th President Barack Obama looked at America's future, the children and instilled the importance of JFK's famous words in his Address to American Student's.

"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." This is only a portion of the speech President Obama gave, but his entire speech reflected the importance of educating young people across the country to stay in school, receive an education, and to never give up and to do this not only for themselves but for sake of their family, friends, and most of all their country.

While President Obama's speech may have been inspiring to those inside the school district it wasn't the same amongst politicians, pundits, and parents. The "importance of education" has now become a controversial topic and Jim Greer, Chairman of the Republican Party in Florida offered his opinion on the topic; he is reported to have said "the address does not allow for healthy debate on the President's agenda, but rather obligates the youngest children in our public school system to agree with our President's initiatives or be ostracized by their teachers and classmates." Theresa Walker, Editor of Orange County's news source reacted to this remark and others like this by writing "How dare he! Can you imagine telling kids to stay in school and do their best and maybe continue on with higher education? What is this country coming to? Sorry if my sarcasm offends anyone, but it's not like he's asking first-graders over to the White House to settle their playground spat over a beer."

Much of this controversy began when it was announced that the President was delivering what the White House is billing as "A National Address to the Students of America." Then opinions such as "President Obama has turned to American children to spread his liberal lies" started to arise. Tommy Vietor, White House Spokesman responded to this uproar by stating that "there would not have been such an angry reaction from some quarters had people actually heard the speech, which is focused exclusively encouraging children to stay in school and work hard, not policy or political issues."

When asking fellow UT student Samantha Chirichella what she though of the whole controversy she said, "It makes no sense, everyone wanted a better President for so long, one who would be a better speaker and be more inspirational not just to adults but all Americans and now we have that but of course people continue to find the bad in things. Parents are mad because he's making school districts make the ids watch the speech, well duh! It's a speech on how to be a better person and he uses actual examples to inspire students saying J.K Rowling of Harry Potter had her book denied 12 times before they published it, he's teaching students to never give up and parents and politicians are outraged? It makes me so mad how ignorant some people can be!"