First Lady Meets with Student Poets, Highlights Importance of the Arts
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The White House(WASHINGTON) — First lady Michelle Obama met with five members of the 2014 class of the National Student Poets Program on Thursday, touting the importance of the arts as “key to success…in school and in life.”
The five poets, from grades nine through 11, were selected from a pool of National Medalists in Poetry through the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.
“What these young people are doing doesn’t just take talent, doesn’t just take hard work,” the first lady said, “it actually takes a lot of courage…to open your soul to the world.”
Mrs. Obama thanked the students’ parents and praised the poets for pushing through “endless drafts, the late night struggles with writer’s block and all those moments, I’m sure, of fear and doubt.”
The five selected poets read their poems aloud.
“The process for these young people isn’t just about how they create great works of poetry…it’s the key to success, period. In school and in life,” Mrs. Obama said Thursday. “That’s why it’s so critical that every child has access to the arts in schools.”
The first lady went on to call the arts “as essential as what [students] eat or drink or breathe in.”
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