【正文】 like the ones you have here at Mastermanteachers who are going above and beyond the call of duty for their it’s going to take parents who are mitted to your , that’s what we have to do for ’s our ’s our you’ve got a job, ’ve got to show up to school on ’ve got to pay attention in your ’ve got to do your ’ve got to study for ’ve got to stay out of ’ve got to instill a sense of excellence in everything that you kind of discipline, that kind of drive, that kind of hard work, is absolutely essential for I can speak from experience here because unlike Kelly, I can’t say I always had this , I can tell she was always wasn’t always wasn’t always the best student when I was made my share of still remember a conversation I had with my mother in high was kind of a I was about the age of some of the folks my grades were hadn’t started my college was acting, as my mother put it, sort of casual about my was doing good was smart enough that I could kind of get I wasn’t really applying so I suspect this is a conversation that will sound familiar to some students and some parents here decided to sit me down and said I had to change my attitude was what I imagine every teenager’s attitude is when your parents have a conversation with you like was like, you know, I don’t need to hear all ’m doing okay, I’m not flunking I started to say that, and she just cut me right said, you can’t just sit around waiting for luck to see you said, you can get into any school you want in the country if you just put in a little bit of gave me a hard look and she said, you remember what that’s like? Effort?(Laughter.)Some of you have had that conversation.(Laughter.)And it was pretty jolting hearing my mother say eventually her words had the intended effect, because I got serious about my I started to make an effort in everything that I I began to see my grades and my prospects I know that if hard work could make the difference for me, then it can make a difference for all of I know that there may be some people who are skeptical about you may wonder if some people just aren’t better at certain know, well, I’m not good at math or I’m just not really interested in my science it is true that we each have our own gifts, we each have our own talents that we have to discover and everybody is going to catch on in certain subjects as easily as just because you’re not the best at something today doesn’t mean you can’t be if you don’t think of yourself as a math person or a science person, you can still excel in those subjects if you’re willing to make the you may find out you have talents you never dreamed one of the things I’ve discovered is excellingwhether it’s in school or in lifeisn’t mainly about being smarter than everybody ’s not really the secret to ’s about working harder than everybody don’t avoid new challengesseek them out, step out of your fort zone, don’t be afraid to ask for teachers and family are there to guide want to know if you’re not catching on to something because they know that if you keep on working at it, you’re going to catch ’t feel discouraged。don’t give up if you don’t succeed at something the first again, and learn from your ’t feel threatened if your friends are doing well。be proud of them, and see what lessons you can draw from what they’re doing , I’m sort of preaching to the choir here because I know that’s the kind of culture of excellence that you promote at I’m not just speaking to all of you, I’m speaking to kids all across the I want them to all here that same message: That’s the kind of excellence we’ve got to promote in all of America’s ’s one of the reasons why I’m announcing our second Commencement of you may have heard of your school is the winner, if you show us how teachers and students and parents are all working together to prepare your kids and your school for college and a career, if you show us how you’re giving back to your munity and your country, then I will congratulate you in person by speaking at your year I was in Michigan at Kalamazoo and had just a wonderful I got to admit, their graduating class was about 700 kids and my hands were really sore at the end of it because I was shaking all of them.(Laughter.)But the truth is, an education is about more than getting into a good ’s about more than getting a good job when you ’s about giving each and every one of us the chance to fulfill our promise, and to be the best version of ourselves we can part of that means treating others the way we want to be treatedwith kindness and that’s something else that I want to municate to students not just here at Masterman but all across the kids can be mean to other ’s face don’t always treat each other with respect and ’s true for adults as well, by the sometimes that’s especially true in middle school or high school, because being a teenager isn’t ’s a time when you’re wrestling with a lot of I was in my teens, I was wrestling with all sorts of questions about who I had a white mother and a black father, and my father wasn’t around。he had left when I was so there were all kinds of issues that I was dealing of you may be working through your own questions right now and ing to terms with what makes you I know that figuring out all of that can be even more difficult when you’ve got bullies in a class who try to use those differences to pick on you or poke fun at you, to make you feel bad about in some places, the problem is even more are neighborhoods in my hometown of Chicago, and there are neighborhoods right here in Philadelphia where kids are doing each other serious , what I want to say to every kid, every young personwhat I want all of youif you take away one thing from my speech, I want you to take away the notion that life is precious, and part of what makes it so wonderful is its diversity, that all of us are we shouldn’t be embarrassed by the things that make us should be proud of them, because it’s the thing th