To practice listening for understanding, you are going to listen to a statement by President Obama addressing high school students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia.
You may relate to this speech very strongly, or you might not relate to this speech at all. You may like or dislike President Obama, or you may have no impression of him. You might find his comments boring; you might find his comments very moving. All this makes no difference in the challenge of listening for understanding. These comments are addressed directly to young people who are in high school and who are making decisions about their futures. If you have made up your mind about your future and feel like there are no decisions left to make, or if you have given up on your dreams and are convinced that “hard work” and “not giving up” are just slogans that are, in your case, unrealistic, then you may not be receptive to what President Obama is saying. Your challenge is to listen anyway, to be able to hear what is said even if you don’t agree with it or relate to it.
After you listen, you will be asked to write answers to a few questions. You can probably predict what those questions will be, but in case you can’t, here they are: 1) What is President Obama saying to high school students? 2) What resistance did you have to what he is saying? Were you able to let this go so you could listen? 3) What is the perspective that President Obama has on this issue? Can you predict what a person who has the perspective that President Obama has would say to his own son or daughter facing difficulties dealing with the stresses and challenges of high school?
Listen to the comments at the link below, and then answer the questions that follow.
Source: Obama addresses school kids, UpTakeVideo, YouTube
Using your notes, write your responses to the questions that follow. Check your understanding after each one.
1. What is President Obama saying to high school students?
Sample Response:
At the simplest level, he is saying that you can make your own destiny and that success is hard work, but success is possible. He makes several points related to this topic: He says that circumstances are no excuse for not trying, that successful people fail and learn from failure, and that asking for help is what strong people do.
Close2. What resistance did you have to what he is saying? Were you able to let this go so you could listen?
Sample Response:
You might have resisted some of this speech for several reasons. You might have thought “I’ve heard all of this before.” You might have thought “It’s easy for you to say that circumstances are no excuse because everything worked out for you.” You might have thought “I know a bunch of stories about people who didn’t ever graduate from high school but nevertheless became billionaires.” You might have thought that President Obama wasn’t seeing success outside of fame and fortune. What about people who don’t make it big but nevertheless live happy, productive lives? If you thought any of these things or found anything else that made you resist listening to what President Obama was saying, that’s OK. In fact, that is good because it means that you were relating the content of the speech to your own perspectives and experiences. However, it is OK only if you were not prevented by these thoughts from listening to what President Obama was saying.
Close3. What is President Obama’s perspective on education? Can you predict what a person who has his perspective would say to his own son or daughter who is facing difficulties in dealing with the stresses and challenges of high school?
Sample Response:
President Obama is saying very little that is new, but he seems sincerely to believe that young people can make dreams realities if they work hard. He also stresses that education has to be part of that equation. Someone who has this vision of possibility will probably support a young person in pursuing dreams but, at the same time, not allow dreams which take hard work to be replaced by fantasies of easy success.
Close