**US President Barack Obama is to urge American schoolchildren to work hard and not to give up, in an education speech that has stirred a partisan row.**In Tuesday’s speech at a Virginia high school, Mr Obama will tell children their country’s future depends on their educational achievement.
But conservatives have complained he is trying to indoctrinate children to serve his political agenda.
The wording of some teaching aids has been changed following the criticism.
‘Work hard’
In his speech, Mr Obama will tell students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia, that in addition to teachers, parents and the government, they themselves are responsible for their educational success.
OBAMA’S ADDRESS
President Barack Obama’s address to school children, 8 Sept 2009
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“No matter what you want to do with your life - I guarantee you’ll need an education to do it,” he will say.
As well as individual success, the future success of the country will depend on it, Mr Obama will say in the speech, a text of which was released in advance and which will also be broadcast on a cable TV station and on the White House website.
“Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending time each day reading a book,” Mr Obama will say.
“Being successful is hard,” Mr Obama will say - and he will point to figures such as JK Rowling and Michael Jordan, who he will say overcame initial failures in order to find success.
“No-one’s born being good at things.”
‘Socialist ideology’
But even before President Obama had delivered his speech, it was attracting criticism from conservatives.
Some said it was not promoting education but aimed at indoctrinating children into supporting the president.
“Perhaps I am wrong that it is inoffensive: maybe ‘No-one’s born being good at things’ is close to communism”
Mark Mardell, BBC North America editor
Last week, Florida Republican Party chairman Jim Greer said he was “absolutely appalled that taxpayer dollars are being used to spread President Obama’s socialist ideology”.
Parents’ complaints that the speech would be one-sided prompted some school districts not to broadcast it, and others to allow parents to withdraw their children.
On Monday White House spokesman Robert Gibbs rejected the criticism, calling it a “sad, sad day that the political back-and-forth has intruded on anyone’s speaking to schoolchildren and parents about the responsibilities they have”.
But the education department acknowledged that a teaching aid which suggested students write about “how they could help the president” was poorly worded.
It released an amended version.
In light of the change, Mr Greer said he now approved of the address, reported Associated Press.