While reminding students that education is the key to their futures, President Obama admitted Wednesday that he "wasn't always paying attention" in school and that he favored basketball in school to his ethics class.
"Now, if you promise not to tell anybody, I will let you in on a little secret: I was not always the very best student that I could be when I was in high school, and certainly not when I was in middle school. I did not love every class I took. I wasn’t always paying attention the way I should have.
"I remember when I was in 8th grade I had to take a class called ethics," the president continued. "Now, ethics is about right and wrong, but if you’d ask me what my favorite subject was back in eighth grade, it was basketball. I don’t think ethics would have made it on the list," Obama said during a speech at Benjamin Banneker High School in Washington, D.C.
In his third annual "Back-to-School" speech, Obama urged students to continue their education after graduating from high school, emphasizing that the job market would require some form of education past a high-school diploma.
"But the fact of the matter is, is that more than 60 percent of the jobs in the next decade will require more than a high-school diploma — more than 60 percent. That’s the world you’re walking into."
Obama also promised students that lawmakers were working to improve public schools across the country.
"People at every level of government — who are working on your behalf," he said. "We’re taking every step we can to ensure that you’re getting an educational system that is worthy of your potential. We’re working to make sure that you have the most up-to-date schools with the latest tools of learning."
