HW 44: Big Expectations for School

Personally I thought Obama's speech was really inspirational. When I first heard it, it gave me a new sense of hope and encouragement. When you look at it more carefully though, it's easy to identify a feeling of "baby patriotism" as Sam had said. He makes a constant reminder that the amount of work we do today will determine the future of our nation. If we quit, not only are we quitting on ourselves, we are "quitting on [our] country." It is surprising to hear the president give us a speech that we've heard so many times before. I agree that education has its benefits, but the way he expresses it makes it seem like our sole purpose is to serve the country as opposed to following our dreams (ie. basketball star, singer etc.) His transcendent belief offers us a concrete route to achieve success in the future. However, his focus on the future contradicts the immanent mode which focuses on the here and now, thus providing little incentives for students. This reminds me a bit of The Stranger, and about how while the rest of society was living according to the future's absolute, Meursault chose to only live for the moment and disregarded everything else.