Czaro Strategic Communications

When it comes to leaders, you can’t get much higher on the food chain than President of the United States.

That’s why, when President Barack Obama delivered his back-to-school address to students across the country, I checked my first grader out of school (during her lunch/recess hour) to watch it at home. My wife and I thought it was important that our daughter hear the importance of working hard and getting an education. Especially at the age of six, when she’s just learning to read, add and subtract.

Her school refused to air the speech, but allowed parents to check out their kids. That decision saddened me, but what really got under my skin was that only one other parent checked her child out. Two children in a school with 400 kids, watched the President’s live address.

There was a tremendous amount of controversy surrounding the speech, specifically concerns that President Obama would politicize the speech. He did not.

Such a speech is not unprecedented. President George H.W. Bush delivered a nationally televised speech to students in 1991, encouraging them to work hard, stay in school and to say no to drugs. President Ronald Reagan delivered speech to students in 1988, but its message was more of a political message about taxes than an inspirational one.

It doesn’t matter what your political affiliation is, who you voted for, your race, gender – anything – when it comes to sharing a message with children about working hard and getting an education.

Obama focused on one overarching message, that you have a responsibility to yourself. That’s a message that children need to hear day after day. They need to hear it from their parents, teachers, siblings, relatives, and even the President.

I don’t want my first grader to be discouraged when she can’t sound out her words, or has problems with math. In a few years, I don’t want her to be afraid of geometry (like I was) or to struggle with reading comprehension (like I did).

I want her to be patient. I want her to work hard. And I want her to remember that the President wants her to make him proud.