Proclamation 4603—American Education Week, 1978

Our founders assumed that an educated electorate was essential to a strong, healthy democracy. Freedom of speech, thought and inquiry are part of the basic structure of our society, and we share a fundamental belief that education can provide the key to overcoming all our problems. We have come long way toward providing access to schools for all our people, and we provide enormous resources for education. We can be proud of that progress, as we are proud of the progress of many of our students, both youngsters and adults. But we must also recognize that many young Americans still emerge from our schools inadequately prepared to take up the responsibilities of adult life. Others have not been sufficiently challenged to develop their full potential.

Teaching has never been easy, and inspiring students is more difficult still. Perhaps it is even harder today than in the past, but it is no less crucial to the wellbeing of our people and of our society.

The theme of this year's American Education Week, "Education Can Turn Things Around," expresses our faith in the power of education. We expect our teachers to provide the skills, knowledge and background for understanding that will allow all Americans to make the best use of their God-given abilities. If they are to succeed, we must support these goals for human achievement in all aspects of our society. We can do this by placing our priorities and our emphasis on the lasting instead of the trivial, by rewarding quality and accomplishment, by respecting true knowledge, by raising important questions and seeking honest answers, by valuing and nurturing the capabilities of every human being.

Now, Therefore, I, Jimmy Carter, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate the week beginning November 12, 1978, as American Education Week.

It is appropriate that we honor what is right and good in education in America today?the dedicated, searching teachers who demand much of themselves and their students, who push beyond failure and discouragement to light the spark of understanding. It is appropriate, also, to recognize our responsibility as parents, grandparents, neighbors and citizens, to support the efforts of our schools to meet our high expectations, so that now and in generations to come our people may become a truly educated people.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-eighth day of September, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred seventy-eight, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and third.

JIMMY CARTER