President Barack Obama wasn’t the most studious youngster. Indeed, he was more interested in basketball than his subjects, the president admitted in a speech to students at Benjamin Banneker High School in Washington, D.C., Wednesday.
"Now, if you promise not to tell anybody, I will let you in on a little secret: I was not always the very best student that I could be when I was in high school, and certainly not when I was in middle school. I did not love every class I took. I wasn’t always paying attention the way I should have,” Obama said, according to
The Hill.
"I remember when I was in eighth grade I had to take a class called ethics. Now, ethics is about right and wrong, but if you’d ask me what my favorite subject was back in eighth grade, it was basketball. I don’t think ethics would have made it on the list."
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.