Let's know a little more about Barack Obama and his school years...
Barack Obama became the first African-American President of the USA on 20 January 2009. He was one of the most powerful people in the world. But his early life was quite difficult. He was born in 1961 in Hawaii. His mother was from Kansas in the United States. His father was from Kenya. When Obama was just two years old, his father returned to Kenya. Obama only ever saw his father again once, when Barack was ten years old.
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| Barack Obama became the first African-American President of the USA on 20 January 2009 |
Obama's mother remarried and in 1967 the family moved to Indonesia. Obama lived in Indonesia for four years. Then his mother wanted him to go to school in the USA, so he went to live with his grandparents in Hawaii. However, although he enjoyed school school, he had his first experience of racism there. When he was just ten years old, a boy asked him if his father ate people!
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| For many people, Barack Obama is a symbol of the American Dream. |
Obama's mother got divorced from her second husband and returned to Hawaii in 1972. In a speech in 2008, Obame said that he was proud of his mother because she had looked after him on her own. As he got older, he started to ask more questions about his identity. He went to a good school, but sometimes it was strange for him because there were very few black students there. He got into trouble at high school. His mother talked to him and told him to work harder. He listened to her advice, worked hard and went to Occidental College in Los Angeles, in 1979 and then Columbia University in New York in 1981. Barack Obama didn't have an easy childhood, and sometimes he had problems at school, but he didn't give up.
References: Text by Granger, C & Stannet, K.; Hot Spot 4; Ed. Macmillan.
