Remarks to a Group of Young People Representing the Vocational Industrial Clubs of America.
I AM very proud of what we have been able to do in the vocational education field.
I have observed nothing in my contacts with young people--and I have two or three groups a day, in the hope that I can learn something from them and keep contact with them, and maybe they can learn something from coming here--that pleased me more than your presentation. I don't think I have heard a better one.
The fact that you were aware that you were in the presence of Jackson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt, and tied it into the remarks you had to make, and where the wood came from, is just another indication that our school system is doing a pretty good job in this day and time.
All we hear sometimes are challenges to our future. A lot of people wonder about what our young people are doing, then we see a demonstration like you put on here this morning. It makes me think that every dollar we have invested in our schools has been returned with interest.
Yes, I served with Mr. Doughton of North Carolina for a long time. He was a great leader of the Ways and Means Committee. I have had a rather intimate association with the Members of Congress from your State. My grandfather came from your State.
I am so proud we are producing 18-yearolds in this Nation who can come in the presence of the President in the Cabinet Room and probably make a better presentation than either the President or the members of the Cabinet. I hope the people you represent are as proud of you as I am. I hope you will tell your family what an excellent job the President thought you did.
We are very, very strong for vocational education. We are very proud of the landmark legislation we passed. Under 35 Presidents, the primary legislative matters in the educational field were in the field of vocational education, the George-Deen Act, the Smith-Hughes Act, and creating the Office of Education itself, in Andrew Johnson's time.
But when you added all of those educational matters together, you had less than you could count on your fingers in 35 previous administrations. Because the emphasis has been on learning and moving forward in the 21st century, and the need to know, driving ignorance from our midst, we have passed three times as many bills in the last 4 years in the educational field as we did in all the other 35 administrations put together. We see that it is paying off in all of you.
Thank you.
Note: The President spoke at 11:50 a.m. in the Cabinet Room at the White House. During his remarks he referred to the late Robert Lee Doughton, Representative from North Carolina from 1911 to 1953.
Prior to the President's remarks he was presented with a gavel in appreciation of his efforts in making opportunities for vocational training in industry and technology more available to young Americans. The presentation was made by 18-year-old Lynn Register of Columbus, Ga., president of the Vocational Industrial Clubs of America. The gavel is the work of VICA member Terry Lovelace, 16, a carpentry and cabinetmaking student at Allegheny High School, Sparta, N.C. Its handle is of white hickory from The Hermitage, home of Andrew Jackson in Nashville, Tenn.; its mallet of oak from the Old State House in Springfield, Ill., where Abraham Lincoln delivered his "House Divided" speech; and its sounding block of wood from the Hyde Park estate of Franklin D. Roosevelt. The gavel and sounding block are mounted on a base of wood grown on the farm of the late Representative Doughton. On a plate affixed to the base are engraved the words: "To Lyndon B. Johnson, America's Great Education President."
The Vocational Industrial Clubs of America, organized in 1965, is a national youth organization providing leadership, citizenship, and character development programs and activities for secondary and college students in the technical, industrial, and health occupation fields. VICA clubs in 35 States, Puerto Rico, and Guam number some 71,000 members.
As printed above, this item follows the text released by the White House Press Office.
Lyndon B. Johnson, Remarks to a Group of Young People Representing the Vocational Industrial Clubs of America. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/237500
