bigcock

Back to school

During the event “Back to school” President Barack Obama gave a speech at Wakefield high school September 2009. The speech doesn’t focus on teachers, school system or the parent’s duty to support and motivate their children going to school. It focuses on the responsibility every student has to him/herself.
The speech is directed to the students, because in the debate about education and school it’s often the teachers, parents or the school system that are getting blamed when it goes wrong, it’s never the students. (And) However, their effort is just as important as the teachers’s effort. If a student denies getting help and denies improving, is it then the teacher’s fault? Svarer Obama på dette? Kæd dit spørgsmål sammen med Obamas pointer, ellers lyder det som om du stiller dette spørgsmål, hvilket jo ikke er relevant for opgaven.

The speech can be divided into three parts; the first part is where he greets everybody and tells a story of his own life to get down to the audience level. In the second part he marks the importance of education for the students and for the country. (her er han inde på noget værdimæssigt- uddyb gerne denne pointe)In the third part he notifies that he knows that the way to success can be a challenging road and it doesn’t come easy to anybody.

Barrack Obama engages his audience by mentioning that there are some children from the kindergarten starting their first day in a new school and there are some seniors out there with just one year to go. “(…) 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 longer this morning … I know that feeling.”1 Og hvad er pointen med dette- hvorfor nævner han alle grupper- uddyb din pointe….

By saying this he becomes equal to his audience and this makes the audience think that there is no difference between them and the president as a human being. Barack Obama is now equal to the audience; this is a move that improves their interest in what he is saying and by that he strike up some of his messages.
An example is when he is talking about the kids who doesn’t have the advantages that some other kids might have, like not having money, doesn’t live in a safe neighbourhood or being in bad company. Then he says: “But at the end of the day (…) that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying”.2 He repeats “no excuse” three times and that makes his message “there is no excuse not for trying” strong.
Barack Obama’s intention is to give the students insight of how important an education is. “What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country”3 with this line he clarifies the importance of the students, in hope of that it will motivate them not to quit on school, because quitting on school is in a bigger perspective quitting on their country.

Barack Obama is aware of his audience’s age, so his language is down to earth.
In Back to school is Barrack Obama varies between using Ethos and Pathos, but Pathos is represented the most. Barack Obama is able to use the appeal form ethos because he is the president and the audience sees him as reliable. Uddyb dette- her nævner du en del gode pointer, men du gør det for kortfattet og uden eksempler- Nævner du disse ting- sprog- pathos, ethos og logos er du nødt til et uddybe

In the speech Obama tells three stories about kids who have had a hard time studying. One of them is Andoni Schultz. Barack Obama tells about how he’s fought brain cancer since he was three, and how the treatments and surgeries affected his memory. Even though Andoni he had a hard time concentrating he never stopped doing his homework, and now he’s in college. With this story he uses pathos to appeal to his audience’s emotions. And also there’s a clever hidden message in these stories. He’s implicitly saying: “there is no excuses not to try”
“Jazmin, Andoni and Shantell aren’t any different from any of you. They faced challenges in their lives just like you do. But they refused to give up. They chose to take responsibility for their education and set goals for themselves. And I expect all of you to do the same.“4 – These kids have faced some very difficult challenges, but they never stopped trying and it made them succeed. Again his words are equivocal: with this he’s not only telling about these children’s challenges, but also saying: “nothing is impossible if you work hard enough”. Godt- her er du netop mere uddybende inde på pathos- derfor skal du sætte dine pointe om pathos sammen med dette afsnit- overvej altså strukturen I din opgave.

In the last part of his speech Barack Obama makes the audience aware of that he know that sometimes failure is inevitable, but instead of making the failures define who you are, he says: “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”. 5

When everything comes to an end, every student has the school system and the teachers it takes to earn success. Every student contributes to the country and can be a part of the big picture. Some may have a hard time reaching success or some may have a longer road to get there – but if you really want to, there’s nothing stopping you.