The 2011 State of the Union Address was 9 pm EST Tuesday. For those who don’t know, the State of the Union is regularly an annual address the current president gives to Congress, which is now broadcast on tv. President Obama spoke for about an hour on many topics, particularly jobs and innovation.

You can watch Obama’s complete State of the Union Address online.

The address also covered the topic of education. President Obama encouraged a college tuition tax credit that would make college more affordable for some students.

One mention that wasn’t expected was teaching.

‘With so many baby boomers retiring from our classrooms, we want to prepare 100,000 new teachers in the fields of science and technology and engineering and math,’ Obama said.

Not only did he mention the need for teachers, but called for undecided young people to go into fields of teaching. Teaching is generally considered a respectable profession, but is the president worried about young people not going into the field? According to the US Department for Education, the fourth most popular major in 2008 was education.

Most unexpectedly, President Obama finished his discussion of education by saying, “If you want to make a difference in the life of our nation, if you want to make a difference in the life of a child ‘” become a teacher. Your country needs you.’

What do you think of the State of the Union Address? What did you think of the president’s emphasis on education?

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