Attending junior high and high school in Utah, I recognize that it is indeed possible for teenagers to be downright, upright, outstanding citizens. It seemed like most of my high school comrades got their Eagle Scouts and pageant tiaras before they could drive a car. But I’m not sure how plausible it is that a majority of the nation’s pubescent teenagers were completely tuned in to the leader of the free world on Tuesday, Sept. 8, when President Obama addressed the nation’s school children. The speech was slightly anti-climactic for those opposing parents worried about the Obama socializing and democratizing their kids — he avoided political discussion and basically urged kids to remember their responsibilities.

Sure, President Obama trotted sprightly up the stairs to the podium. He gave an exciting ‘How’s everybody doin’ today?’ to the crowd at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And yes, the 48-year-old father of two admitted to getting in more trouble than he should have when he was a teen. But he quickly slid into a didactic “when-I-was-your-age” sermon about getting up at 4:30 a.m. every morning to be schooled by his mother when he lived in Indonesia. At one point I questioned whether Mr. Obama was in cahoots with the administration at BYU when he exhorted children to wash their hands often and stay home from school if they had flu-symptoms! (Read the transcript here).

Throughout the speech, the camera would pan over to the attending students and reveal a sea of bored teens, occasionally showing interest in the president’s speech when taking a video of him on their cell phones. DU opinion editor Heather Wrigley saw the same thing. I couldn’t help but think, are those kids really listening?

While watching the speech, a knock came on my apartment door. As is custom, my roommate and I fled to our bedrooms, forcing our third roommate to answer the knock. I knew it was safe to come out when I heard the voice of a teenager who may have well been straight off the YouTube screen full of texting, trend-wearing teens. He was selling the well-known subscription to Provo’s Daily Herald in order to help him save up for college. I learned that his name was Zane and that he planned to apply to BYU to study business and/or graphic design. When I could get a word in the middle of his motoring sales-pitch, I told him he was just about the best 17-year-old salesman I’d ever met. He thanked me like he already knew it. My next thought was boy was I wrong about those youngsters! I’ll bet this kid was inspired by President Obama’s speech! So I asked him if he watched Obama’s speech on Tuesday.  To my consternation, he replied with a half-hearted, “Yeah, some of it — about staying in school and all that.”

I’ve been a fan of Obama from the beginning, but I just don’t know if he reached his audience on Tuesday. His speech was indeed inspiring and somewhat fulfilled the FDR-esque fireside chat Americans could very well need right now. But it seems to me his discourse on setting goals and taking responsibility was better suited for a crowd of devotional-attending Cougars (like this diligent forum writer) than for bopping teens.

What do you think? Was Obama’s speech a hit or a miss with the texting, twittering generation of our younger siblings? Did they get it?