President Obama

Barack Obama, the president of the United States, is the one who held the speech at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia in 2009. He spoke very much about how education affects your future and the responsibility that comes with it.

Obama uses a simple language that youngsters can identify them with. His audience is from 5 to 6 year old right up to 17 to 18 year old, so he has to use a milder vocabulary. Throughout his speech he appeals to his audience's lives and backgrounds. He gives an example from his own childhood and youth. "Now I wasn't too happy about getting up that early. A lot of times, I'd fall asleep right there at the kitchen table" He is using pathos to reach his listeners attention. I have something important to discuss with you, says Obama in his speech. It is not the typical way to speak like that to a room full of adults. It is the same way he is speaking to his own children, when they are going to have a serious conversation.

One word often pops up in the speech "I expect". He really wants his listeners to focus and every time he mentions that word, you will focus a lot more about what he has been saying in the speech. When students rapidly hears that word they actually understand what he is been trying to do. He is trying to make them understand how important theirs education is.