Ignoring a simmering controversy among political opponents over the planned speech, which was broadcast live coast-to-coast, Obama exhorted students at Wakefield High School to stay in school, ask for help when they need it and resist giving up when school gets difficult. "You can't drop out of school and into a good job. You've got to work for it and train for it and learn for it."
After a handful of talk show hosts, including Dana Loesch on her radio program The Dana Show, complained about the speech and urged parents to keep kids home from school, districts across the USA gave parents the choice to let their kids opt out of the televised speech.
As they arrived Tuesday morning, most Wakefield students said they were either unaware of the controversy or uninterested in it.
Popping iPod buds out of her ears, Phuong Tran, 15, a sophomore, said, "It's kind of like a big mess, because the students aren't paying attention."
Across the street, protesters waved signs that read, "Children Serve God Not Obama" and "Another Duped Child for Obama."
A few critics, including Florida GOP chairman Jim Greer, last week likened the planned speech to "indoctrination," saying it was an improper use of school time. In the gym, Roxana Hernandez, 16, said someone complained that Obama planned to "brainwash kids to stay in school. And I'm like, 'That's a bad thing?' "
The speech had a mixed reception elsewhere in the country.
•At Fort Collins High School in northern Colorado, many students chose to skip the speech.
"They're just going to tell us things we already know," said Sydney Pesina, a sophomore, as she sat in a friend's car in a Sonic parking lot.
•In the Indianapolis area, administrators in Hancock County's Mount Vernon Schools didn't broadcast the speech because they weren't given enough time to plan for it, Superintendant William Riggs said.
•In suburban Detroit, an Internet problem kept about 150 students at River Rouge High School from seeing the speech, but those who listened said Obama tried to send a strong message. "I think he was just trying to tell us to do our best, even when it's hard," said freshman T'Kaira Montaque, 14.
•At Tuttle Middle School in South Burlington, Vt., teachers arranged for the school's 580 students to see the speech.
"It's no different than what we've been talking about," Principal Joe O'Brien said. "Set good goals; make good relationships; work hard."
Rhonda Lee, who lives across the street from Wakefield, watched most of the speech on TV and said she was a bit dismayed by all the fuss.
"I'm a Republican. I didn't vote for him, but I was kind of upset that there was so much 'badspeak' ahead of time," she said. But she added, "I wouldn't want to see him doing it once a month. I think there are more important things" for Obama to focus on.
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