Washington ? Though it inspired a swirling controversy about politics in the classroom over the past week, President Barack Obama’s back-to-school address to America’s students on Tuesday ended up being decidedly motivational rather than political — and even won praise from some Republicans.

Speaking to students in a nationwide broadcast from a suburban D.C. high school, the Democratic president urged school children to rise above their mistakes and challenges to succeed in school, offering himself as an example of “a goof-off” who went on to make good.

“You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job,” Obama said. “You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.”

Former first lady Laura Bush defended the president’s decision to give the speech, saying she thinks there’s “a place for the president of the United States to talk to schoolchildren.”

A conservative GOP candidate for Senate in Pennsylvania applauded the address as “inspiring” and “moving.” And after the speech was over, former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich even said the country would be “much better off” if Obama could replicate the tone of the school speech when he addresses Congress today.

But while the president’s sharpest critic on the matter joined in the chorus of approval of the final product, he also suggested that criticism in the run-up to the delivery may have shaped the event itself.

“My kids watched it and I thought it was appropriate,” Florida Republican Party chairman Jim Greer said in an interview with Tribune Newspapers. “The White House responded to the concerns of parents and educators across this country.”

White House officials were not sure how many schools had shown the speech.