After all the brouhaha leading up to President Obama’s back to school address to America’s students, he gave them a first-rate pep talk that no-one in their right mind could disagree with. It was about taking responsibility for one’s own path in life, discovering what they are good at, setting goals and putting in the serious work to achieve them.

But the president was not peddling rugged individualism; he appealed to the kids as American citizens called to contribute to the common good:

And this isn't just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. The future of America depends on you. What you're learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.

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We need every single one of you to develop your talents and your skills and your intellect so you can help us old folks solve our most difficult problems. If you don't do that -- if you quit on school -- you're not just quitting on yourself, you're quitting on your country.

Because of the disadvantages in his own background, and his wife’s, Obama was able to deliver a strong message about not making difficulties into excuses:

But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life -- what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you've got going on at home -- none of that is an excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude in school. That's no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. There is no excuse for not trying.

Where you are right now doesn't have to determine where you'll end up. No one's written your destiny for you, because here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.

He encouraged them to set themselves goals for their education -- simple goals for the here and now -- and commit to them, work at them. And not to quit:

I know that sometimes you get that sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work -- that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star. Chances are you're not going to be any of those things.

Anyway it’s not true, said the president; being successful is hard. J K Rowling had her first Harry Potter book rejected 12 times before it was published; basketball star Michael Jordan lost hundreds of games.

These people succeeded because they understood that you can't let your failures define you -- you have to let your failures teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently the next time. So if you get into trouble, that doesn't mean you're a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to act right. If you get a bad grade, that doesn't mean you're stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.

Ask for help he urged them. “Find an adult you can trust: a parent, a grandparent or teacher, a coach or a counsellor -- and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.”

Finally, an appeal to a healthy kind of pride:

So I expect all of you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don't let us down. Don't let your family down or your country down. Most of all, don't let yourself down. Make us all proud.

All good stuff. It’s not a whole programme of life, but if parents and teachers followed through on that much advice they would be doing well.

And, by the way, what was so wrong with the original draft of his speech which asked children to think about what they could do to “help the president”? Parents who consider Obama wrong about certain things -- important things -- could teach their children how to politely make their views known to the president, and others, and so help him to understand them better.