20. Proclamation Concerning American Education Week, July 21, 1964 [Excerpts] Whereas education is the keystone to human advancement because it promotes understanding among all men of good will, makes possible scientific, industrial. and agricultural achievements that exceed our fondest dreams, and gives promise of an ever better world tomorrow; and Whereas education is basic to every facet of our individual lives and of the life of our Nation; and Whereas our longstanding and determined support of education has rewarded our people with a fulfillment and prosperity unparalleled in the history of mankind; and Whereas our educational framework must be responsive not only to the needs of individuals as they seek to solve the problems of today but must also anticipate the challenges of tomorrow; and Whereas our goal for these momentous times must be the creation with utmost haste of a great society-a nation without poverty or rancor and a world without fear; and Whereas education is the single most effective instrument by which we can make that goal a reality: Now, therefore, I, Lyndon B. Johnson, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate the period from November 8 through November 14, 1964, as American Education Week. I urge all Americans to take time during that week to consider the needs and the accomplishments of our schools and colleges and to acquaint themselves more fully with the activities and objectives of those institutions. I ask all our people to dedicate themselves to renewed and continuous efforts to improve the quality of education. We must avoid complacency and we must never be quite satisfied with our educational institutions, no matter how good they may be, and, instead, we must constantly strive to assure that each of our people has the opportunity to obtain the best education possible for upon the accomplishment of that task depends the realization of our hopes and aspirations for a bright future for our Nation and for our children. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States of America to be affixed." 21. Remarks of the President to Delegates to Conference on International Rural Development in the Rose Garden, July 28, 1964 [Excerpts] We have not put our capacities to work. Our cities show it. Our schools show it. Our rural areas show it. Our rivers and streams show it. The edges of our society show it. This is the source of our discontent. We haven't been keeping faith with tomorrow-or with ourselves-and we ought to realize it. If we are learning anything from our experiences, we are learning that it is time for us to go to work, and the first work of these times and the first work of our society is education. Without compromise-without favor-we must demand and we shall maintain respect for law and order in this country. But democracy never will solve its problems at the end of a billy club. We no less than generations of Americans before us-must put our faith in education at all levels for all the people. The institutions you represent are the foundation stones of our society today. Yet those foundations were put in place long ago—by the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, by the Land Grant Act of 1862, by the State support of their universities in the 1870's. 25 Ibid., July 22, 1964. Dr. Harry Ransom of my own University of Texas not long ago told the people of our State that, "The early frontiersmen thought more of us 100 years ago than we think of those who will be living in the year 2064." In our States and Nation we just simply must not let that indictment stand. We must rest our faith and our hopes for America on education-not for some but education for all. I am proud to say that we are trying to do just that. The 88th Congress has written its name in history as the "Education Congress" on the basis of the legislation that you already know well. We are very proud that it is going to be also the conservation Congress-more conservation and wider, more comprehensive legislation will be passed by this Congress than any Congress in our history, except perhaps during a period during Theodore Roosevelt's administration. But the_real_important point I want to make is that this is an education Congress for all. The first 60 days I was in office I signed three far-reaching educational pieces of legislation. More meaningful progress has been made this year than any other single year in this century. This is good, but there is much more that we can do. To meet the needs of an urban nation, I am directing that we push forward with discussions of what can be done to bring our city people those benefits that long were available to rural families through Extension Service. Likewise, we intend to continue and strengthen the effective relationship between the Federal Government and your institutions in support of research in all of your regions. I want to dwell on that in just a moment, but I have in the last 10 days seen the membership of 10 task forces from throughout this Nation who represent what we believe to be the best brains that are available in the Nation, because we think the best brains ought to be available to the President, and we have asked them to come here to study some of these vital subjects: the relation of Federal, State, and local governments; education, transportation, many of the things that will determine whether we have a great society or not, and they will burn some midnight oil in these task forces from now until the first of the year in preparation for the course that we will recommend that the Nation follow in the legislation to the Congress and the people in the countryside. I would like to point out to you this morning since the end of 1961, the number of AID-financed contracts with universities in this country has increased already 35 percent. The number of universities participating in those contracts has already increased 36 percent. The total amount of Federal contracts with universities is already up 44 percent. The Federal role in relationships with institutions of higher learning is not a role of control, as you men know. The record of the institutions you represent is a record of real partnership in moderation between universities and colleges of this country and between the agencies of government at all levels-Federal, State, and local. In a short time, we will have another group of educators from not only all of the public school systems to get a representative group but also the State universities from each State in the Nation to get their views and their recommendations and exchange ideas with them as to what we can do to make tomorrow better living than yesterday. We do not want centralized control of our society because experience has taught us that the surest way to prevent such centralization is to support strong institutions of higher learning in every State, and that is what we are trying to do. This has been our Nation's course and it is the course that I am trying to steer today. But our Nation faces great challenges here at home and many serious problems abroad-challenges of military security and challenges of economic stability, and these challenges cannot be met by government alone or by business, that I conferred with last week, alone, or by labor, that met with me last Friday, alone, or by agriculture alone. What we must do is bring our great capabilities to bear on our problems and on our needs. We have learned and we do know that those capacities can be focused most effectively for us by reliance upon the leadership of our institutions of higher learning of which you are an integral part. So, ladies and gentlemen, you have a great trust to our society. We look to you for leadership. We plead with you to keep us moving. We vest in your great confidence, believing that a new age-an age of greater service, of greater influence, of greater contribution-is opening for all America and particularly for your institutions. The great President of the Republic of Texas said in another generation, in another century, that education is the guardian genius of democracy. It is the only dictator that freemen recognize and the only ruler that freemen desire." 22. Remarks of the President at the Meeting of School Superintendents, July 30, 1964 [Excerpts] If I had continued on the course I first began in life, I might be sitting where you sit now-as one of you. If I have an understanding of the work and the worries and the wishes of any Americans, I believe I understand what you face each day in your offices of trust and responsibility. That is why I say to you that no Americans have an opportunity—or an obligation-so great as yours now to serve and shape the future of our society. We are what we are in this land-and what we have become in the worldbecause we have placed our faith as a nation in public education. Onto my desk each day come the problems of 190 million men and women. When we consider those problems, study them, analyze them, evaluate what can be done, the answer almost always comes down to one word: education. This is true for economic problems as for social problems. This is true for the challenges of peace as for the challenges of preparedness. The simple, straight and sure truth of our times is that America in this decade must enlarge, must broaden, must deepen its commitment to the classroom as the central core of our society and our success. I am proud and deeply gratified-that the record of the 88th Congress clearly confirms that just such a commitment is being made by the American people. This Congress has set in motion what I believe are the grandest measures for American education of any Congress in our history. When you begin your school year this fall, you will have support America's educators have never had before to help your systems serve your communities. Within the past year, this education Congress has passed legislationfor vocational and technical education; for higher education facilities; for teaching handicapped children; for medical education; for public community libraries; for college libraries; for graduate schools; for technical institutes; for public community colleges; for student college loans; for guidance counseling and training; for science, mathematics, and foreign language instruction; for schools in federally impacted areas; for educational media; for educational research; for manpower development and retraining. Still being debated before the Congress are the antipoverty bill, with its major objectives for education; the nurse training act; the extension and expansion of the National Defense Education Act; and the extension and expansion of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act. I believe this Congress has earned from you—and from the Nation—a long round of applause. Ibid., July 28, 1964. These measures and this activity represent what I believe is a new maturity among Americans. We cherish our liberty. We are jealous of our freedom. We resent-and we would resist-inroads upon either from an all-powerful central government. But we have come to one profound realization today. The greatest guardian against centralization of power is the diffusion of knowledge throughout our land-to all our people. Men who neglect their schools neglect their liberty. The challenge of our times is to end the neglect of all on which our society stands our classrooms, our cities, our countryside, and our family fireside. I am conscious—as I know you are—of how much greater is the responsibility imposed upon our schools today than when my own teaching career began. Our schools are bearing many burdens once borne only within the family home. Upon you and upon your teachers rests today the responsibility of passing to tomorrow's leaders the values and the standards by which America has been led in all her past. The soul of our society is in your hands this year. You are leaders. I ask you to exercise that leadership. You are respected in your communities. You are respected and looked to and emulated by those who must lead America tomorrow. Your respect for law and order-your respect for human rights-will live long after you in the lives of those who look to your example now. This is a great and golden moment for America—a moment to unite, a moment to lay aside the burdens of the past, a moment to move ahead. I trust to your leadership to help us hold that course.* 23. Remarks of the President at Signing of H.R. 11241—An Act To Amend the Public Health Service Act To Increase the Opportunities for Training Professional Nursing Personnel, in the Rose Garden, September 4, 1964 1 [Excerpts] The Nurse Training Act of 1964, which we have met this morning to finally sign and complete, represents the response of an enlightened Congress to the urgent need. The act contains four principal elements: It authorizes a program of grants to build and renovate nursing schools; it establishes a program to help schools of nursing strengthen and improve their training programs and to help diploma schools of nursing meet the costs which will come with increased enrollment; it expands the existing program of advanced training of professional nurses; it establishes a loan program which will enable many talented but needy students to undertake the professional training for a nursing career. All of this has very special meaning for the young women of our Nation; by removing some of the financial barriers to training it will enable many who are deserving and talented young women to enter the proud profession of nursing. So the Nurse Training Act of 1964 is recognition of the new needs of the profession, as well as the growing needs of all of our people. We feel a very special debt to those whose legislative effort and dedication and energy and hard work made this legislation possible. I particularly appreciate the efforts of Congressman Oren Harris, who is the author of much good legislation; and my good friend Senator Lister Hill, who is unable to be with us this morning; Congressman Kenneth Roberts, who chaired the subcommittee which held the Jetailed hearings; and the other members of the House and Senate committees that pioneered this legislation and are responsible for bringing it safely through both bodies. Ibid., July 30, 1964. Ibid., Sept. 4, 1964. You see them on the platform this morning. I am sorry that they are not outdoors people and they all like to get up in the shade, but they are here to receive what is properly theirs, a tribute for their pioneering effort in this field where we need this legislation so much. This is truly a notable achievement toward raising the standards of health care in the United States. I predict that down through the years to come that every person here this morning will be proud that they were permitted to be a participant in this historic legislation that will do so much to keep our Nation healthy and that will permit our suffering to at least be endurable as a result of a compassionate and concerned nurse. Thank you very much. 24. Remarks of the President to 200th Anniversary Convocation of Brown University, Meehan Auditorium, Providence, R.I., September 28, 19641 [Excerpts] ** I want to consider with you today the future of an old and fruitful American partnership-the partnership of campus and country. That partnership was formed in 1787 when our forefathers gave us the command that: "The means of education shall forever be encouraged." From that Northwest Ordinance to the Land Grant College Act, from the SmithHughes Act to the enactments of this present education Congress, America has kept faith with that command. In all history, no other nation has trusted education, invested in it, or relied upon it as a mean to national progress so much as we. A former great President of the Republic of Texas, Lamar, once said that the educated mind is the guardian genius of democracy. It is the only dictator that freemen recognize, and the only ruler that freemen desire. Yes, our partnership has paid us priceless returns. From a backward position American scholarship has flourished. Today, wherever our country leads, that leadership traces to the contribution of the campus. Our partnership is challenged now by new dimensions. From 1776 until the present time, our universities have grown. From 9 in the beginning to more than 2,000 today. From the present until 1980, our existing institutions must double in capacity, and 1,000 more must grow with average enrollments of 2,500 each. But before the total of American scholars has doubled, the sum of human knowledge shall have doubled or more. These are challenges that we should welcome, and that we should go out to meet. for the increase in scholarship is not a burden, but a blessing. The growth of knowledge is not a curse, but a cure for the ills of this age. Our concepts must change in both education and in politics. But our confidence and our courage must grow. At the desk where I sit in Washington, I have learned one great truth: The answer for all of our national problems, the answer for all the problems of the world, comes down, when you really analyze it, to one single word-education. Thus, I take a hopeful view, and I call upon you of this campus to join with us who are entrusted with the affairs of a country to help us chart a hopeful course. President Keeney said last week that knowledge is developing so rapidly that we can take no comfort in the belief that what appears to be the whole truth today will be the whole truth tomorrow. I believe that our partnership must be committed, deeply committed, to seeking the truth, for actually it is truth alone that will finally keep us free. Knowledge is not something which threatens to overwhelm us. Knowledge promises to be our salvation, and we must seek after it, and we must nurture its growth, and we must spread it, spread it among all of our people so each one of them have some of it. Over the years, leadership of our university system has come from a relatively few great institutions, public and private. Well, I believe we must regard our existing centers of excellence as natural resources to set standards, to supply teachers, to furnish researchers for the new centers of excellence that we develop. This is a first responsibility. A great Nation and a great civilization feeds on the depth of its scholarship as well as the breadth of its educational opportu nities. 1 Ibid., Sept. 28, 1964. |