Proclamation 3863—American Education Week, 1968

Education—universal, equal, and excellent—is a goal which we have cherished since our country's birth.

In the last decade, however, we have sought to fulfill this goal with greater zeal, greater commitment, and greater success than at any period in our history.

We began with new laws, creating the legal authority to translate our vision of educational opportunity into reality. This year we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the first great new Federal education law, the National Defense Education Act.

This historic law—and dozens which have followed it— has already had a profound effect on American life, and has increased immeasurably our most precious resource: the knowledge and understanding of our people.

To encourage and strengthen America's national fervor for education and to broaden support for America's schools and colleges, I, Lyndon B. Johnson, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate the period of November 10 through November 16,1968, as American Education Week.

It is my deep conviction that our noblest national task is to lead each citizen to fulfill his own potential. In the belief that our national strength derives from the strength of individual citizens, I call upon every American to work toward an even better educational system in America—a system which will truly deepen and enrich American thought, and truly ennoble life for every man.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-seventh day of August in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and sixty-eight and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and ninety-third.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON