President Obama Includes Harry Potter Story in Education Speech
Books
Posted by: Melissa
September 07, 2009, 10:12 PM
Tomorrow President Barack Obama will address the nation as it goes back to school; the pre-released text of his speech (which you can read here) includes remarks on the beginnings of Harry Potter as proof that not all great ideas or ventures are accepted as such to start:
But the truth is, being successful
is hard. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with
every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely
relevant to your life right this minute. And you won’t necessarily
succeed at everything the first time you try.
That’s OK. Some of the most
successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most
failures. JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve
times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his
high school basketball team, and 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 is why I succeed."
These people succeeded because they
understand that you can’t let your failures define you – you have to
let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do
differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re
a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a
bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to
spend more time studying."
Pres. Obama will deliver the address at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Va., at 10 a.m. MDT; it will be live on the C-SPAN cable channel and streamed life at
whitehouse.gov/live.
4881 Points
It was a good speech all in all, don’t understand why some people are complaining. And it’s something that applies to every student in the world-not just the US. But I agree with some of the above. This article had a reference to HP and that’s what we should focus on. The fact that JKR got denied publishing her book over and over, didn’t mean anything because in the end she got the recognition she deserved-I bet all the publishers that had previously turned her down are now all banging theirs heads against a wall or sth!!!
208 Points
Why parents would prevent children from hearing an inspirational speech about working hard and setting goals, I’ll never know.
Anyway, I bet the publishers that rejected HP are all kicking themselves where it hurts. :)
56 Points
President Obama seem to most of us foreigners as a rare gift to the United States.It is a pity that most voices of opposition to his agenda in the US are not founded on mature ideology but on prejudice and old stereotypes(the “socialist agenda” accusation is just ridiculous).A national healthcare system has nothing to do with either socialism and strict national supervision.It does not contradict freedom of choice.(most of the capitalist countries in Europe have national health care).
Anyway, his speech is surely remarkable.The fact that some parents do not allow their children to listen to this proves something JKR once said.That many parents actually have very little respect and trust towards their children and their own abilities to distinguish what is right and wrong, fiction or reality.
I too wish we had a president like him in my country….
594 Points
aj_ellybean I’ve been thinking that way for years now, that the publishers who rejected Philosopher’s Stone must be mentally kicking themselves really hard nowadays. :-D They’ve “only” lost, what, a few hundred million sold copies of the seven books. No biggie. :-D
594 Points
aj_ellybean I’ve been thinking that way for years now, that the publishers who rejected Philosopher’s Stone must be mentally kicking themselves really hard nowadays. :-D They’ve “only” lost, what, a few hundred million sold copies of the seven books. No biggie. :-D
580 Points
okay, so im English, but i have to say
Obama is a bit of a legend like!
It was a good speech all in all, don’t understand why some people are complaining. And it’s something that applies to every student in the world-not just the US. But I agree with some of the above. This article had a reference to HP and that’s what we should focus on. The fact that JKR got denied publishing her book over and over, didn’t mean anything because in the end she got the recognition she deserved-I bet all the publishers that had previously turned her down are now all banging theirs heads against a wall or sth!!!