Wow ! It’s such an honour !!

@monicahp2009(WBM) If you were a conservative parent I’d be confused why you say this goes against CCD. Don’t you know the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops supports Healthcare reform? Do you even know the 7 principles of Catholic Social Teaching? The church teaches that every person has dignity and worth and deserves care regardless of their situation. Healthcare should not be limited privilege to the rich. The Catholic church is neither Republican or Democrat. The values transcend party boundaries. They are certain issues here and there that both parties are better at but neither one properly represents Catholics as a whole.

But anyway, that’s a whole other subject. This is just a motivational speech about education and I’m happy to see a Harry Potter reference. As an HP fan, this kind of thing always makes me giddy no matter who is the one talking.

hmm 12 times…think that’s any reason for the recurrence of ‘12’ throughout the series? o.O and yay for the reference to Rowling! :) I honestly don’t see what the fuss is all about with some in such an uproar over this speech, he’s not pushing any politics. Honestly, some parents act like children themselves and need to realize there are worse things to worry about…

re: why some parents wouldn’t want there parents to listen to the speech.

i think it has less to do with the actual message of the speech (which, i’ve just read and agree is a great thing for kids to hear, things they need to hear. one of the biggest problems in our schools is that kids are not motivated to learn.) but more with the idea that the government might be removing the freedom to choose not to watch it if the parent’s decided. parents have the right to censor what goes into their children’s life. a parent might not let their child watch pg-13 movies, maybe even after the child is older than 13, and the parent has that right as head of the household, whether you agree with the decision. maybe a parent doesn’t want their child to watch a certain tv show (i wasn’t allowed to watch the simpsons growing up, or rugrats or other tv shows where, children were very disrespectful of their parents, didn’t obey, were rewarded for bad behavior, parents were made to look stupid, incompetent, etc. because my parents didn’t want me to think that that was okay or rewarded behavior) other families might not have had any problem with those tv shows, but maybe they didn’t want their children to watch certain shows on the discovery channel because of some graphic pictures of animals mating or something- who knows. the point is that the parents should have the authority to make those type of decisions in the lives of their children. and many people are not comfortable with the idea of having that freedom taken away from them, of having the government force themselves into the home and childraising aspect. this speech seems okay, but what if later there is another speech that is telling children to do something that the parents don’t agree with, perhaps against certain religious values or something.

the point is that it shouldn’t be something parents can’t preview beforehand and should be something they can opt out of if they have some reason they wish to. parents have to sign permissions slips for their children to go on field trips or watch movies in class. this is similar.

that’s awsome, I wish my president would do the same

@Kirk: Not just children hold JK Rowling in high esteem. Millions of people all over the world and of all different ages, races, and gender respect her so much.

But President Obama is right. Perserverance is one of the most important traits a person can possess. If people just gave up whenever they encountered failure then no one would succeed. We would have nothing.

I love Obama and Harry too, but I don’t like it when people mix politics (unless it’s for a super-good cause) and Potter. Harry Potter is supposed to be my escape from the real world.

I find Obama’s lack of win disturbing.

@Rinny I agree with you that parents have the right to choose what their children under the age of 18 can or cannot watch. I’ve just been reading quotes by some misinformed parents in news articles who think the president is pushing, in their words, his so-called ‘socialist agenda’ with this speech. I just believe people need to get all the facts before they make judgements and for this reason I’m glad the speech is being released ahead of time in text form.

I am so happy that President Obama is reaching out to young people and talking to them about education. I can’t fathom HOW that could possibly be a bad thing. His whole motto is about what we CAN do if we put our minds to it. And I think the Harry Potter reference in there was smart, also. Good for him.
Here’s to the President, and may he repair our Umbridge-filled school system!

Great speech.

I remember Obama commenting that he read the HP books with his daughters.

This is one of the many many reasons why Obama is just great!

Wow Obama mentioned Harry Potter that is so cool. Think it’s very ignorant of people to bring up how health care is bad and all this crap when this posting was on obama mentioning harry Potter. If it was based on health care sure but common, can i go somewhere on the internet and not have rich people tell me that health care should only be for them and not anyone else. I agree with hermionerules1844 and let’s keep political opinion away.

Don’t understand all the uproar, people just want to complain I guess. Great speech.