Source 1 Speech to the U. S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (excerpt)
Washington, D. C., 2009
by Barack Obama
The source of America's prosperity has never been merely how ably we accumulate
wealth, but how well we educate our people. This has never been more true than it is today.
In a 21st
century world where jobs can be shipped wherever there's an Internet connection,
where a child born in Dallas is now competing with a child in New Delhi, where your best
job qualification is not what you do, but what you know-education is no longer just a
pathway to opportunity and success, it's a prerequisite for success.
That's why workers without a four-year degree have borne the brunt of recent layoffs,
Latinos most of all. That's why, of the 30 fastest growing occupations in America, half
require a bachelor's degree or more. By 2016, four out of every 10 new jobs will require at
least some advanced education or training. So let there be no doubt: The future belongs to the nation that best educates its citizens-
and my fellow Americans, we have everything we need to be that nation. We have the best
universities, the most renowned scholars. We have innovative principals and passionate
teachers and gifted students, and we have parents whose only priority is their child's
education. We have a legacy of excellence, and an unwavering belief that our children
should climb higher than we did.
And yet, despite resources that are unmatched anywhere in the world, we've let our grades
slip, our schools crumble, our teacher quality fall short, and other nations outpace us. Let
me give you a few statistics. In 8th grade math, we've fallen to oth place. Singapore's
middle-schoolers outperform ours three to one. Just a third of our 13- and 14-year-olds can
read as well as they should. And year after year, a stubborn gap persists between how well
white students are doing compared to their African-American and Latino classmates. The
relative decline of American education is untenable for our economy, it's unsustainable for
our democracy, it's unacceptable for our children—and we can't afford to let it continue...
What's at stake is nothing less than the American Dream.

Source 2
Speech to the United Nations (Excerpt)
United Nations, July 12, 2013
By Malala Yousafzai
Dear Friends, on the 9th of October 2012, the Taliban shot me on the left side of my
forehead. They shot my friends too. They thought that the bullets would silence us. But they
failed. And then, out of that silence came, thousands of voices. The terrorists thought that
they would change our aims and stop our ambitions but nothing changed in my life except
this: Weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage were born. I am
the same Malala. My ambitions are the same. My hopes are the same. My dreams are the
same.
The wise saying, "The pen is mightier than sword" was true. The extremists are afraid of
books and pens. The power of education frightens them. They are afraid of women. The
power of the voice of women frightens them. And that is why they killed 14 innocent
medical students in the recent attack in Quetta. That is why they are blasting schools every day . . Because they were and they are afraid of change, afraid of the equality that we will
bring into our society
I remember that there was a boy in our school who was asked by a journalist, "Why are the
Taliban against education?" He answered very simply. By pointing to his book he said, “A
Talib doesn't know what is written inside this book." They think that God is a tiny, little
conservative being who would send girls to the hell just because of going to school. The
terrorists are misusing the name of Islam and Pashtun society for their own personal
benefits. Islam says that it is not only each child's right to get education, rather it is their
duty and responsibility.
Dear fellows, today I am focusing on women's rights and girls' education because they are
suffering the most. There was a time when women social activists asked men to stand up
for their rights. But, this time, we will do it by ourselves. I am not telling men to step away
from speaking for women's rights rather I am focusing on women to be independent to fight
for themselves