the president:hello everybody. audience: hi, mr.president. the president: areyou kicking us off? osman yaya: yup. the president:everybody ready? cameras ready? osman yaya: goodmorning, everyone. my name is osman yaya, andi'm a 6th grade student at bennett middle schoolin salisbury, maryland.
welcome to the white houseand discovery education's of the people series. we are live from anacostialibrary in washington, d.c. with students fromkramer middle school and brightwoodeducation campus. (applause) as well as studentsjoining us online from around the world. today we have a veryspecial guest with us --
the president ofthe united states. welcome, mr. president. the president: niceto meet you. thank you. osman yaya: what do you wantto talk about with us today? the president: well, we arein an outstanding library, part of the d.c.library system. but what i really want totalk about is how we can harness and take advantageof the amazing technological
revolution that's takingplace to help young people learn, to help youngpeople succeed, help young people read, andultimately help young people be able to get greatjobs and start their own businesses anddo great things. and so that's why it'swonderful to be with all the young peoplehere today. and, osman, i want to thankyou for being our host. osman yaya: thank you.
the president: very coolyoung guy, by the way. i've had a conversation withhim already and he's going to run a tight shipduring our little town hall meeting here. two other people iwant to acknowledge, though -- we've got ourmayor of washington, d.c., muriel bowser,who's here. and we have thesuperintendent of schools for washington, d.c. --kaya henderson is here.
so a while back, abouta year and a half, two years ago, we announcedsomething called connected. and the idea waspretty simple. it turned out that in mostschools around the country, people had a connection tothe internet and there were computers in the classrooms,but a lot of times you didn't have the kind ofconnections and wireless and high-speed broadbandthat would allow you to pull up information reallyquick on the computer.
or if you were in class, youmight have to wait in line to use all thecomputers. or the teachers weren'tplugged in as well as they needed to be. and so what we said was weneed to make sure that in all the schools in america,everybody has got a great internet connection anda wireless connection, so that if you're studyingastronomy and are learning about the planets, rightaway you can pull down
pictures and informationthat helps you learn. if you are learning worldhistory and you want to know about ancient egypt, rightaway you can start looking at how the pyramids werebuilt and read about that and create presentationsoff the internet. and so what we did wasworked with a bunch of different people -- bothcompanies, private sector, but also government andwhat's called the fcc -- this is the organizationfor the federal government
that's in charge of makingsure that phones and smartphones and televisionand all that stuff works properly -- and we made acommitment that we would start putting billionsof dollars into schools all around the country sothat all the schools -- 99 percent of the schoolswould have high-speed internet connections. and we're well ontrack to do that. so i'm reallyexcited about that.
but you also have to makesure that even if you've got a good internet connection,that we've got libraries and schools that aregetting resources, especially around readingand around books. and i'm somebody thatwhen i was young i used to love libraries,used to love reading. i still love reading, butthese days the stuff i -- i don't get to read for funas much as i do for my work. and so i've got a couple ofannouncements today where
we've got some amazingorganizations -- libraries from around the country --the new york public library system in particular istaking the lead on some work to make sure thatworking with book publishers, we're going to providemillions of e-books online so that they're availablefor young people who maybe don't have as manybooks at home, don't always have accessto a full stock of reading materials -- they're goingto be able to get about
$250 million worthof books online. and we're also creating newapps -- new applications -- that allow people to pulldown more information and more books. and i just want to thankall the publishers who are making all thesebooks available. and i want to thank thelibraries and the schools that are making allthese books available. what i'm also announcing isa drive to make sure that
young people have alibrary card in every city in america. and we've already got 30cities and library districts that are coming together tomake sure that everybody gets a free library card. because ultimately -- andthis is the last point i'll make and then we'll goto questions -- all the young people here, i know you guysare working hard in school, but how well you do over thelong term is going to depend
on do you love reading,do you love learning, do you know how tofind information, do you know how touse that information. and the way you learn to dothat is by reading a lot and learning how to thinkabout the material that you're reading. and you got great teachers,but you got to not just do it in the classroom,you got to do it in life, thinking about how you'reconstantly getting more
knowledge andmore information. and in the internet age,the best way to do that is making sure thatyou're plugged in. so i am really excited andthankful for the publishers, the libraries, theelected officials who are participatingin this. and the most importantpeople, though, to participate init are students, so that's why i wantedto talk to them.
back to you. osman yaya: i thinkeverybody completely agrees with you. and before we start, i thinkthe president and libraries all deserve a roundof applause for what they've done. so thousands and thousandsof questions were submitted online. and our first question isfrom mrs. cook's 2nd grade
class at pinegroveelementary school in alabama. they asked: as a child,did you enjoy reading? well, you saidyou loved reading, so that questionis done. and they also asked: if so,what type of books spark your imaginationand interest? the president: that'sa great question. when you're little, you readwhat your mom is reading
to you, or your dadis reading to you, so probably the books i readweren't that different from what you guyswere reading. like i'm still abig dr. seuss fan. i was into that. the "sneetches", and"horton", and all that stuff. but then as you get olderyou start making your own decisions about whatyou want to read. i was intoadventure stories.
there was something called"the hardy boys" back in the day -- i know you guysdon't read that anymore. and books like"treasure island, " which was about pirates. i really enjoyed that. later on, i startedgetting into things like "the lord of the rings"and "the hobbit, " which is stillpopular today. and then when igot a little older,
when i got into high school,then i started reading some classic books that when youguys get to high school you'll start reading --things like "of mice and men" and "the great gatsby"and things like that that are more novels that focuson adult experiences. but i also enjoyedreading science books, and i loved reading aboutplanets and dinosaurs. so it was sortof a mixed bag. what do youlike to read?
osman yaya: my favorite seriesmust be the alex rider" series, if you'veheard of those. the president: whatare they called? osman yaya: "alex rider." the president: i haven't. what's it about? osman yaya: it's about a boywhose parents pass away in a plane crash, and he liveswith his grandfather -- i mean, his uncle.
and his uncle one daydies in a car accident, and later did he know thatall the family worked in the m16 and the cia, so it's areally good storyline -- the president: oh, okay. osman yaya: and every book,he always has like secret gadgets, and there's alwayssomething he has to do. the president: so hebecomes like a young spy? osman yaya: pretty much. the president:that's pretty cool.
osman yaya: i can lendyou some books if you -- (laughter) the president: imight borrow them. they sound prettyinteresting. osman yaya: to makeyou feel younger, my best friend read"treasure island." the president: well, thatdoes make me feel better. the "harry potter" bookswere pretty cool, too. i read those to malia,starting when she was around
five, and we read all theway through all of them. i think we finished when shewas about 13 -- maybe 12. so that was kind of cool. osman yaya: yes. so that was the taste ofsome online questions. do you want toask the audience? the president: i do, iwant to ask the audience. who's got a question? this young manright here.
what's your name? audience member:i'm darrell. the president: darrell,hold on a second, we're going to get a micso everybody can hear you. audience member: mr. president,when you were young, in high school, my questionis, what did you study in school? the president: well,what grade are you in? audience member: 7th.
the president:you're in 7th grade. so probably the thingsi studied aren't that different fromwhat you study. you had math and science andenglish and social studies. we had art and music --which sometimes is forgotten about, but is reallyimportant, too, because you learn alot through the arts. but by the time iwas in 7th grade -- i guess i was doing algebra,i think, in 7th grade.
and i don't rememberwhat our math was. when i got to high school-- and the same thing will happen to you guys -- you'llstart studying the same subject matter, but it willbe a little more intense. you start getting alittle more homework. so instead of just socialstudies, generally, about how the u.s. government works, they might have you study the civil war and abraham lincoln,and how that war ended up shaping america and how it affected race relations when
the slaves were freed, what happened in the south when segregation came back. so you'll studythe same things, but you'll just kindof go deeper into it. but do you have a favoritesubject that you like? audience member: science. the president: science? so, in science, there's allkinds of different types of science, and typically,when you get to high school
you'll do some chemistry,you'll do some biology, you might dosome physics. and one of the things we'rereally trying to encourage is more young peoplestudying math and science, because we live in atechnological age and you got to know a little bitabout math and science. not everybody is goingto be an engineer, but everybody should knowsort of the basics of how the world works and how-- if you're using
a smartphone, howdoes that work. and you may decide at somepoint that you want to program and create yourown apps on a smartphone. and particularly forthe young ladies here, i want you guys to make surethat you look at math and science, because sometimesyoung women aren't going into some of those areaslike math and science as much, and they should. it's not because theydon't know how to do it;
it's because sometimesthey're discouraged, the idea being that somehowthat's traditionally more of a boy thing. and that's something thatwe've got to get rid of. i always tell malia andsasha i want boys and girls studying all the subjectsand getting good in all the subjects. you don't want to get pushedaside just because you're a girl.
all right? remember that. osman yaya: speaking abouthow people around the world are -- like womenand boys and girls, you all have to learnscience and math -- a question from noland at westlake middle school in texas. he asked: why is itimportant for kids across the country and the world tohave access to electronic books, and notonly paper copies?
the president: well, ilove traditional books, so we're here in alibrary and i still, when i have abook that i love, i love turning thepages and reading it. and when i was a kid,when i was reading, sometimes i'd write andtake notes in the margins, and i still have old bookswhere i could see things i underlined, and it remindsme of how you learn. but the truth of the matteris we live in a digital age.
how many people herehave a smartphone? right? so a lot of you do. and if you don't have onenow you're going to probably get one at some point. and so you're texting allday and you're looking at bine and instagram, andyou're looking at "grumpy cat" or some video of yourfavorite singer, rapper. and so more and moreinformation is coming
through in digital form. and what that means is, isthat we want to make sure that that becomes a toolnot just for entertainment, not just for talkingto your friends, but also for learning. and the good thing aboute-books is that it's really easy to carry. you don't have to have alibrary full of books in your house to be ableto suddenly have access
to every book in theworld, potentially. and for a lot of people,they may live in a home where they don'thave a lot of books. books can beexpensive. your parents may not beable to afford buying a whole lot of books. but if we're able to set up,because of these publishers and because of thelibrary system, a way in which people canpull all these books down
just through the internet,suddenly that can even things out between poorkids and rich kids. everybody has got theability to learn. everybody has got to haveaccess to information. now, the one thing i'vegot to say, though, is we're really proud ofwhat we're doing to make technology availableto kids everywhere, but ultimately you stillhave to have a hunger for learning inorder to learn.
you got to want to learn. you got to be curious andinterested in how does the world work, or whois shakespeare, or why is it that the earthrotates around the sun? you've got to be interestedin those things and want to learn inorder to learn. you can have the nicestcomputer in the world and the best books in the world,but if you're lazy and sitting around just playingvideogames and not really
interested in it, well,you're probably not going to be a great student. and if you are curious andinterested in learning, you're going to make surethat you figure out a way to learn, nomatter what. so we want to make sure thatyou have the best technology and the best information,but ultimately, the most powerful engine forlearning is between your ears and the attitudeyou have about learning.
osman yaya: i think attitudeand using your brain is really important. and i think the audiencejust was listening to what you're saying about howe-books are important and how regular books, they sortof change how people think of each other betweenrich and poor kids. so i think the audiencemight want to ask you something about why thisis happening and why that might be.
the president: okay, well,let's see what kind of questions we got. young lady right here. audience member:jaelyn. the president: hey, jaelyn. audience member: whatinspired you to be president? the president:i'll tell you, jaelyn -- how old are you?
audience member: 12. the president: you're 12. when i was 12, i didn'twant to be president. i think when i was 12, i wasthinking about -- first i wanted to be an architectfor a while and build buildings, which i thoughtwould be -- design buildings -- i thought that wouldbe really interesting. and then for a whilei thought i was going to be a basketball player.
but i wasn't that good. i was pretty good. i played in high school. but i wasn't going tobe good enough to play at pro basketball. then i thought aboutbeing a lawyer, and i did end upbecoming a lawyer. but i think it wasn't untili was in college that i really started thinkingabout what i wanted
to do with my life, and irealized that the people who really inspired me we're peoplewho were giving something back to the community or makingthe neighborhood better. and i was really inspired bythe civil rights movement. a lot of people have heardabout dr. king and you guys in school see the "ihave a dream" speech. that's all important, anddr. king was one of our greatest leadersof all time. but the reason that thecivil rights movement worked
so that we endedsegregation, and people could go toschool together and sit at a lunch counter together,and segregation eventually went away, was because of thework of all kinds of ordinary people -- nursesand bus drivers and maids who started marching, andthey met in churches, and they let the countryknow that they were being treated unfairly, and showedthe world and the country that everybody should betreated with dignity and
respect and you shouldn't bejudged based on your race. and i was reallyinspired by that. so i thought tomyself, well, how can i do thatkind of work? and that's the work that idid before i even went to law school andgot a law degree. and in some ways, that'show i got into politics and eventually beingan elected leader, was trying to figure out howi can be helpful to people.
and the good news isthat you don't have to be a politicianto help people. there are a lot of peoplehere in this neighborhood who are teachers, and thathelps a lot of people. you probably have ateacher who is really an inspiring teacher. you like that teacher andthey're making you try harder and learn more. well, that's anincredible contribution.
you might have somebodywho's working in a church and helping to feedhomeless people, maybe helpingthem get housing. that's reallyimportant. so that's whatinspired me. and then it turned out iwas pretty good at it -- osman yaya: prettygood at it. the president: -- andeventually i had the opportunity torun for president.
but i'll be done beingpresident in a couple of years, and i'll stillbe a pretty young man -- not compared to you guys, buti'll still be pretty young. and so i'll go back to doingthe kinds of work that i was doing before, just trying tofind ways to help people -- help young peopleget educations, and help people get jobs,and try to bring businesses into neighborhoods that don'thave enough businesses. that's the kind of workthat i really love to do.
osman yaya: also, before weget another question from the audience, since you'retalking about people doing what they want to be, howyou started out being an architect -- or youwanted to be an architect, and you were a lawyerand then president, and like how it's never tooold to be something that you want to -- a little birdietold me that you were an author and youwrote a book. the president: iwrote two books.
osman yaya: can you talkabout that to them? the president: well, i wrote-- my first book was about me growing up andwhat my life was like. my dad left wheni was very young, so i never reallyknew my father, and i was raised basically bymy mom and my grandparents. and so my first book was metelling my story about how i made sense of the world,not knowing my dad, and then eventually kind oftracing back and finding out
who my father was and whathad happened to him -- because he hadcome from kenya. that's where igot my name from. and so that was kind ofa real personal book. and then the second book iwrote was more about some of the issues that i wasworking on when i was a u.s. senator. and i also wrote achildren's book while i was doing that that wasabout great american heroes.
so that wasn't about me. but i love writing. i don't have as much timeto write as i used to. osman yaya: and sinceour audience is so big, not only here, online,and around the world, one of our students fromgolden oak montessori in california --danica -- she asked, what is your favorite way toget rid of writer's block? and explain that.
just talk about whatis writer's block. the president: well,everybody has had writer's block. so you get an assignmentfrom your teacher that says, i want you to write aone-page essay about what you didlast summer. so you sit there andthere's a piece of paper, and you got your pencil oryour pen and you're sitting there, and then you say, idon't know what to write
about, i don'tknow what to say. that's writer's block. and there's only one way toovercome writer's block. what do you think it is? anybody got an idea? what do you do when you'vegot writer's block? what do you do? audience member: what i dois just read books and try to find ideas from thebook that i'm reading.
the president: well,that's interesting. so the idea of readingbooks to give you ideas -- that's one wayof doing it. audience member: what iusually do is outline something before ieven start my draft. the president: so you justsit there and brainstorm -- kind of think about,okay, what ideas might be interesting. anybody else?
yes. audience member: paula. the president: hi, paula. are you 12 as well? audience member: no,i'm 13. the president: 13. audience member: what ido is i listen to music. the president: yeah? does it matterwhat music it is?
audience member:no, it doesn't. the president: but itkind of loosens things up a little bit, makes youa little more relaxed? audience member: yes. the president: well,so those are all good strategies. but ultimately, the one wayto get through writer's block is to justwrite something. i mean, the reason you getwriter's block is because
you're trying to writesomething really good. but i don't know if yourteachers have sometimes told you that sometimes the bestthing to do is just to start putting some things on papereven if it's not good. but at least it makesyou kind of get going. it's not as intimidating ifthe page isn't blank, right? if you've already gotsomething on paper, you can just kind of scratchout ideas and write down anything thatcomes to your mind.
and then you can sit back,maybe listen to some music, take a break, take alook at it and see, okay, which one of theseideas i had are good. and then you canstart outlining it. look, i still getwriter's block sometimes. sometimes i have to writespeeches -- big speeches -- and i'm sitting there,and i'm thinking, well, i don't know whati want to say. or sometimes i knowwhat i want to say,
but i don't know how to sayit, or how to start it. but you can't beafraid of that. you just -- a lot of timesthe reason people get blocked is because they'reworried that what i'm going to do is not goingto be that good. well, nothing is very goodthe first time you do it. you're first draft --everybody here has been learning how to -- inyour english classes, that you writedrafts, right?
you try something, youwrite it the first time. listen, even thebest writers, usually it's not that goodthe first time they write it. and i think you sort ofcovered everything about that question. the president: okay, youthink i'm just going to -- osman thinks i've been talking too long. osman yaya: no, no.
i think you just -- the president: no,let's move it along. i got you. osman yaya: speakingof writing and how -- who here has writtensomething in the past month in their reading class? okay, i think everybody has. i wrote something in thelast month in my reading class.
the president: okay. osman yaya: and i think somestudents here in the back maybe might have a questionon how you get started, and just how books are goingto help them in life later on in theirwriting skills. the president: well, whydon't i just -- does somebody have a question ora thought about how reading is affecting them? i'd be interested in that.
or they could tell me howtechnology in your classroom and computers, howyou're using them. are their problems in yourclassroom sometimes with not having enough resourcesand connections? i would just be interestedin how you guys are using technology andreading in schools. okay, this youngman right here. good. introduce yourself.
audience member:i'm antoine. the president: antoine. audience member: the way iuse technology in my art classes, sometimes i get artblock a lot because i stress out because i'm justthinking about how i'm going to do it, and i have it inmy head but i just can't put it on paper sometimes. so some things that ido is i ask my teachers, can i use their computers tojust look up random things
about art anddifferent styles. so you might pull upsome painting by picasso or something? or you might look at somegraphic design and it would just kind of help you getgoing and inspire you a little bit? audience member: yeah. the president: do youwant to be an artist when you get older?
the president: do you likeall kinds of different art, drawing, painting, sculpture-- or are there particular kinds of artyou like to do? audience member:for right now, i'm just workingon drawing. the president: just drawing. well, that's the basefor a lot of art that you can do later. anybody else want to talkabout sort of how they're
using technologyin the classroom? i'm going with -- you'vebeen talking some good, and i reallyappreciate it. this young lady righthere, what's your name? audience member: myname is sheree. the president: sheree. audience member:in our school, we have something calledthe blended learning model. like, for 30 minutes of theday we're on our computers
-- working at ourown individual pace. the president: right. audience member: and forthe other 30 minutes, we're talking with ourteachers and getting other information on thetopic we're on. are you using that for allyour different topics -- math, science, english? the president: and whenyou're doing individual study, are you working withthat computer the whole
time, doing most of thework on the computer? they'll mostly work indifferent projects, like for computer class,we type powerpoints and sometimes we'llstart using excel. and in math class, it willhave visuals of what we're learning andthings like that. the president: that'sgreat. and is there a computerfor every student? so you don't haveto wait and use it?
the president: sothat's a great example. and that's exactly why wewant to make sure every school is able to dojust what you described. because the good thing abouthaving computers and this kind of model learning thatyou just described is, if you're just sitting thereand somebody is just doing all the talking, that canbe boring sometimes, right? but if your there doingproblems and projects yourself, and then you talkto the teacher about the
things you've done, andthen you talk as a group, it keeps your moreengaged, it keeps you more interested. okay. osman yaya: if anyone hasa last question they want to ask. the president: anyother questions? audience member:hello, mr. president. my name is mulagetta, ihave one question for you.
the president: go ahead. audience member:actually, two. the president: all right. audience member: what'syour favorite subject? and what subjectwere you best at? the president:that's interesting. when i was your age, iwas actually best at math and science. but as i got older, thesubjects i loved the most
were english and history. so i still enjoyedmath and science, but i loved hearing aboutother people's stories. i loved hearing about howpeople lived, what happened, and i liked reading aboutit in fictional form, in novels. but i also liked readingabout what actually happened in history. and that's why, by thetime i got to college,
i ended up majoringin political science. but it really -- a lotof that was history and how governmentworked. and then i had aminor in english. so i ended up readinga lot of books, as well -- fiction. what's yourfavorite subject? audience member:social studies. the president:social studies.
okay, we're sort of onthe same wavelength. anybody else havea last question? this young lady, youget the last question. here we go. audience member:my name is hannah. the president: hey, hannah. audience member: what kindof technology did you have when you were in school? the president: oh,that's a great question.
when i was in school,we had pencils. and we had pens and wehad some colored markers anderasers, scissors. we had rulers, staplers. no, i'm serious. we didn't even really usecalculators that much until i was pretty faralong in college -- or in high school. and nobody had acomputer in school.
so by the time yougot to high school, you had to learnhow to type, and you would starttyping your papers. and typing was a hasslebecause, first of all, you had to learn how to typeso you weren't just going one letter at a time. and then once youlearned how to do that, you'd still makesome mistakes, and then you'd have to getthis thing called white-out,
which was like this littleliquid that you'd kind of cross out the letter. and then you'd haveto wait till it dries, and you'd blow on it. then you'd type again. (laughter) and thensometimes you got a tape that you couldslip in there, but that was hard to do. and so all through collegei had to type stuff.
and you'd have to figure outlike where the margins were at the bottom. and if you were tryingto do footnotes, you'd have to guess whereyou needed to stop. and the whole thing was --sometimes it took you longer to type the paper thanto write the paper. and you didn't have booksonline or articles online, so you had to gointo the library, and you'd have to getbig stacks of books.
if you were doing areport or project, you'd have a big stackof books like this. you'd have tocarry them home, and then you'd have toremember to return them on time -- otherwise,you'd get fined. so you guys don't even knowhow good you've got it. my first computer ididn't get until i was at law school. i didn't get to use acomputer -- i didn't own
one, but that was thefirst time that i was using computers. i was 27, 28 years oldbefore i was regularly using a computer. and i didn't own my owncomputer until i was -- i take that back. i guess i was about 26 --25-26 is when i started using a computer and actuallywas able to buy one. so that just shows youhow much more information
you have at your fingertipsand how much faster you can learn than oldpeople like me. but you got to takeadvantage of it. remember what i said. we're going to make surethat every school has computers, and every schoolhas the kind of internet connections so you canpull up stuff fast. and you guys are part of ageneration that can learn more, faster, and getinformation from around the
world better thananybody in human history. you've got more informationavailable on your phone than the great scholars of thepast had in the biggest libraries in the world. you've got more just rightthere in that phone you got in your little back pocket. but you still got totake advantage of it. you still got towant to learn. you've got to want toread, and be curious.
and if you do, you guysare going to be incredible leaders in the future. all right. really proud of you. thank you for theexcellent questions. everybody give osman abig round of applause. he was outstandinghosting. osman yaya: andnow, his turn. the president: thankyou very much.
you did a great job. osman yaya: any finalwords you want to say? the president: no. i just want to say you guysare great and i'm looking forward to seeing greatthings out of you. and for everybody whoparticipated digitally, thank you for beinga part of this. osman yaya: well, mr.president, on behalf of discovery education,
thank you for comingout today with us. and answers to any questionsthat we didn't get to will be on discoveryeducation.com/ofthe people. and an archiveof today's video, if your friendsdidn't get to see it, will be on that link also. thanks for watching,everybody. the president: good job.
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