MARIETTA - President Barack Obama spoke to the nation's school children on Tuesday, though many students around Cobb County did not watch it at school.

In a speech at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Va., and carried live on some broadcast and cable channels, the President spoke directly to students of all ages, encouraging them to focus on their future and take responsibility for their lives.

"Every single one of you has something that you're good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That's the opportunity an education can provide," Obama said. "Maybe you could be a great writer - maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper - but you might not know it until you write that English paper - that English class paper that's assigned to you. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor - maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or the new medicine or vaccine - but you might not know it until you do your project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a senator or a Supreme Court justice - but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team."

Among Cobb County schools that made the speech available for students to watch were Murdock and King Springs elementaries; Tapp, Pine Mountain, Barber and Awtrey middle schools; and Pope, Pebblebrook, McEachern, Lassiter, Kell and Campbell high schools.

Amid conservatives' outcries that the Democratic president would attempt to indoctrinate America's youth, Superintendent Fred Sanderson left the decision up to individual county schools. Marietta City Schools did offer the address for student viewing. Parents in both districts had the option to prohibit their children from watching the speech at school.

Salleigh Grubbs, whose son attends Marietta Middle School, is a conservative who has a hard time watching the president herself "because there's so many things he does that I don't agree with."

But she says she didn't want to opt-out her child, who ended up sick at home on Tuesday.

"I wasn't worried about anything Obama would say that would contradict values I teach in the home. My son is not weak-minded."

Teisha Moseley, whose children attend Garrison Mill Elementary in far east Cobb, said she read the speech online on Monday night and though it was wonderful.

"I was thrilled that my kids were going to hear that kind of thing," said Moseley, who was a corporate software trainer before staying home with her three daughters. "I did not vote for President Obama, but I have been trying to give him the respect he has not received from his dissenters. I thought it was an apolitical speech. A friend commented to me that it sounded like a very Republican speech, about personal responsibility and pulling yourself up by the bootstraps."

At Russell Elementary in Smyrna, 25 of the school's 691 students were opted out by parents.

Dr. Nancy Dipetrillo, the school's principal, said: "I thought the President did an excellent job of encouraging our young people to make good choices in their life and emphasizing the importance of education."