Third-graders Octavia Lee and Miguel Popa were among the D’Abate students who heard the president’s speech, as read by teacher Amy Lopes.

The Providence Journal Frieda Squires

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Principal Brent Kermen was stoked for the big Obama speech. A school partner had donated two 60-inch televisions. Lunch schedules were shuffled. Shortly before noon, 400 youngsters filed quietly into the gym, where they sat on the floor.

A technician fiddled with the channels. One screen was dark. The other only broadcast local channels. The children began to squirm. President Obama began his address to the nation’s 50 million students at noon, but no one at the William D’Abate Elementary School off Manton Avenue could see or hear him.

“I feel like I failed you,” said Kermen, who was sweating. “But you know what? I’m over it. I’m going to move on.”

With that, Amy Lopes, a fifth-grade teacher, stood up in front of the entire school and gave a dramatic reading of the president’s address.

“I’m pretending to be President Obama,” she told the well-behaved children, who began chattering a few minutes earlier when a popular cartoon flashed across the television. “I should be so lucky.”

In a booming voice, Lopes did her best to step in as Mr. Obama’s understudy, reading excerpts from his 20-minute speech, which was broadcast live from Wakefield High School in Virginia. Despite the technical glitch, the students seemed captivated by Lopes’ address.

Mr. Obama described a childhood (an absent father, a single mother who sometimes struggled to pay the bills) that parallels the lives of many of the children here, youngsters whose parents come from someplace else, who are trying to navigate an unfamiliar culture.

“Now I know it’s not always easy to do well in school,” Mr. Obama, said. “I know a lot of you have challenges in your life right now that can make it hard to focus on your homework. I get it.

“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 — that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude.

“No one’s written your destiny for you,” he said. “Here in America, you write your own destiny.”

Kermen, who took over last fall from a fabled principal of 39 years, was determined to take advantage of the moment, however flawed. When the address was over, Carmen Rodriguez, a third-grade teacher, jumped up and peppered the students with questions:

“What’s the message of this speech?”

Several hands shot up. “Even though it’s hard to go to school, you have to do your best,” said 10-year-old Mirella Azziaza.

Never give up, one child said. Do your homework. Pay attention to your teachers.

Afterward, a few students stayed behind to share their thoughts with a couple of visitors.

“School is important because you get to learn new things,” said Evelyn Lopez, a fifth grader.

“I think maybe the president loves kids,” added Leonardo Olvera, age 10.

And Gabriella Donis said that finishing school is valuable because it is the only way to get a good job.

Although conservatives used the speech to stir up public outrage, claiming that Mr. Obama was trying to indoctrinate children with his “socialist” ideology, Kermen said he couldn’t think of a better person to deliver the message that education matters.

“Sure, there’s politics,” he said, “but we’re about education.” Obama mentions Brown alum

•A 2009 graduate of Brown University, a child of poverty who worked hard, earned good grades, and went to an Ivy League school on scholarship, earned a mention as a role model in President Obama’s speech to schoolchildren Tuesday on the importance of being the best they can be.

 Jazmin Perez, who majored in biology and English, is a graduate student in Houston at the University of Texas Health Science, pursuing a master’s degree in public health and “on her way to being Dr. Jazmin Perez,” Mr. Obama said in his back-to-school speech.

 He said, Jazmin, from the small Texas border town of Roma, “didn’t speak English when she first started school. Hardly anyone in her hometown went to college, and neither of her parents had gone, either.”

 But Jazmin’s hard work has paid off, the president said, holding out her perseverance as an example to millions of other young people.

 At Brown, her academic adviser, Kenneth Miller, called Jazmin “a delight,” in remarks released by the university.

 According to the university, Miller, a professor of biology, said Jazmin worked especially hard during her first several semesters at Brown to fill in gaps in her academic preparation for college. Miller described her as “upbeat, energetic and determined to succeed.”

 Perez told Houston television station KHOU that she hopes her story will motivate others to stay in school and work hard.

lborg@projo.com