[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 47 (Friday, April 24, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3575-S3578]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 SENATOR KENNEDY AND THE EDUCATION BILL

  Mr. BYRD. Now, Mr. President, on another matter, I desire to 
compliment Senator Ted Kennedy on his stalwart, unstinting, and 
unyielding support of public education. I, on yesterday and on previous 
days, voted in opposition to Senator Kennedy's position on amendment 
after amendment to the education bill that was before the Senate, the 
bill which passed the Senate last evening. But Senator Kennedy never 
falters--never falters. I did not agree with him, and that is why I 
voted differently on some of the amendments and on the passage of the 
bill.
  But I, nevertheless, never hesitate to admire his supreme dedication 
to the education of our children and to the support of the public 
school system. He has done a magnificent job over the years. When I was 
majority leader, he was just as magnificent, just as unyielding in his 
support of public education, always a superb committee chairman and 
today a superb ranking member of the committee.
  He is undaunted always. He is always constant. You know where he 
stands.

     How hard it is----

  As we read from Caesar:

     How hard it is for women to keep counsel!
     But I am constant as the northern star,
     Of whose true-fix'd and resting quality
     There is no fellow in the firmament.

  That is pretty constant, isn't it? Let us go over it again.

     How hard it is for women to keep counsel!

  Now that is not a part of my thinking in this instance, but that is 
part of the quotation.
  Now I am thinking of Senator Kennedy.

     But I am constant as the northern star,
     Of whose true-fix'd and resting quality
     There is no fellow in the firmament.

  So even though I differ in my position, especially with respect to 
this bill that was passed yesterday, differ in some respects from my 
colleague, Senator Kennedy, I admire him and commend him and salute him 
for his constancy in standing for what he thinks is the best for our 
young people.
  And, of course, in differing with Senator Kennedy, I, too, stood for 
what I thought was best for our children. I deplore some of the things 
that are being said in an attempt to equate highways with schools or 
with education. The country needs both. The country is in dire need of 
investment in infrastructure in this country. Both highways and 
education, the education of our young people, both constitute 
infrastructure.
  And I think it is unwise to attempt to equate one with the other and 
say, ``Oh, we are spending billions of dollars on highways. Why should 
we not spend like amounts on education?'' I am for both. But why equate 
education with highways or highways with education? We cannot have one 
without the other. We have to have both. And so I hope the 
administration will get off that tack of trying to equate highway 
funding with education funding. We can be for both roads and schools 
and be for our children in being for both, without speaking 
disparagingly of either.
  My concerns, as I stated yesterday, grew out of the deplorable state 
of elementary and secondary education as

[[Page S3576]]

we view it today and as we view its results. And as I cited on 
yesterday, certain reports indicate that we are not doing very well in 
the education of our young people. And while some people seem to be 
saying just spend more and more money, we cannot continue to just throw 
money at the problem and expect to resolve it.
  I have been voting for more money for elementary and secondary 
education now for 33 years, since the legislation was first passed in 
1965. For decades I have always been found at the gate protecting and 
supporting Federal funds for public schools and for our education 
programs.
  But when one goes the last mile of the way and concludes from what he 
sees, from what he hears, and from what he reads, concludes from 
analytical reports about public education that we are not doing well, 
that there is something wrong, then it seems to me that, in the 
interest of the public school system, we may have to try a little 
different approach, else the confidence of the American people in that 
system and the support of the American people for that system are going 
to erode. We see that happening.
  One of the things that I am greatly concerned about is the kind of 
textbooks that our children are being given in the schools--books that 
are almost devoid of history, according to one of the reports 
yesterday. Many teachers are putting textbooks aside, not using them, 
and depending upon materials that they--the teachers--develop for 
themselves. That is a sad commentary. One of the reports indicated that 
in many States the subject of history is no longer being taught. That 
is a tragedy. How are we going to be able to judge current events if we 
have no knowledge of what happened yesterday or in yesteryear or a 
decade ago or a century ago? These are guideposts, and history will 
help us to determine, with some amount of knowledge and wisdom, the 
solutions that are needed concerning events and problems of today.
  Byron, in speaking of history, said, ``History, with all her volumes 
vast, hath but one page.'' ``History, with all her volumes vast, hath 
but one page.'' Now, what did Byron mean by that? He meant that history 
does really, essentially, repeat itself. And I think it does. Why? 
Because human nature has never changed.
  When God created the world and the solar system and all of this 
universe and other universes--and he is still creating the universes, 
still creating stars, God created man, and gave him a will. If we read 
Milton's ``Paradise Lost,'' we read much about man's having been given 
the faculty of reasoning and having been given the power of the will. 
He may exercise his will.
  He has been given a memory. History is a compilation, in many ways, a 
compilation of memories. And if we don't have any sense of history, 
then we will find ourselves lacking.
  Cicero said with respect to history, ``To be ignorant of what 
occurred before you were born is to remain always a child.''
  I recall that Herodotus, the father of history, who lived circa 484-
424 B.C., wrote about Cyrus the Great of Persia. He wrote about Cyrus 
and Darius and Xerxes. Writing of Cyrus, he told the story of how Cyrus 
had been very successful as a ruler of Persia. Cyrus ruled in Persia, 
ruled as the king of Anshan, from 559 B.C. to 550 and then as the king 
of Cyrus, all the Persians and the Medes, from 550 to 529 B.C. As Cyrus 
was nearing the end of his reign, he desired to enlarge upon his 
provinces and he conceived the idea of going into the area of the world 
northeast of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, which was the land of 
the Scythians. The ruler of the Massagetae was a woman. Her name was 
Tomyris.
  Cyrus came to a great river. He called about him his wise men, his 
seers, his soothsayers and top generals, and asked them for their 
opinions as to whether or not he should cross the river and pursue his 
dreams of adding to his mighty provinces by defeating the Scythians. 
His advisors urged him to cross over the river. Some years earlier, 
Cyrus had defeated Croesus at the battle of Thymbra, in 546 B.C. 
Croesus was at that time the ruler of Lydia--Croesus, the richest man 
in the world, I suppose. But Cyrus didn't execute Croesus as one whom 
he had defeated, but he took Croesus into his court and used him as an 
advisor.
  On this occasion, Cyrus got one piece of advice from his generals, 
and he then asked Croesus what his opinion was. Croesus said 
this: ``There is a wheel on which the affairs of men revolve but its 
movement forbids the same man to be always fortunate.''

  What was Croesus telling Cyrus? He was saying that history repeats 
itself. And in my own life, in my perception of things, I have seen men 
successful for a while, but it doesn't always last. Croesus gave to 
Cyrus this good advice, which, indeed, was a warning.
  Let me just say briefly that Cyrus disregarded the advice of Croesus 
and crossed the river. And Tomyris, the ruling queen of the Massagetae, 
sent word to Cyrus, urging him to go back into his country, telling him 
that he had been a successful king; but promising him that, if he 
continued in his efforts to subjugate, to conquer, the Massagetae, he 
would get his fill of blood.
  Cyrus disregarded the words of Tomyris and there was a great battle. 
Cyrus lost the battle.
  Herodotus tells us that after the battle, Tomyris sent her men around 
the field to find Cyrus. They found his body. Tomyris prepared a large 
bag of skins and filled that bag with blood. When the body of Cyrus was 
brought to her, she had the head severed from the body. She thrust 
Cyrus' head into the bag that was filled with blood, and said, ``I 
promised you that, if you persisted in attacking my people, you would 
get your fill of blood. I have kept my pledge.''
  Now, Mr. President, I believe that history is exceedingly important 
for people who wish to become statesmen, for people who wish to become 
teachers, lawyers, ministers, doctors. Why would we want in our country 
to put history aside and to substitute social studies? One of the 
reports that I referred to on yesterday indicated that history had 
become a ``curricular swamp'' and indicated also that in many States 
among the 50, history is not even being taught as a study.
  What is happening to America? No wonder our children are going to 
grow into men and women without any idea as to what happened before 
they were born. Cicero would not have thought very well of that. There 
are people who think that we ought to get away from memorizing things. 
Well, how could I ever instantly come up with the answer to the 
question, ``How much is eight times nine?'' or ``How much is six times 
seven?'' if I hadn't memorized my multiplication tables?
  History, as I said yesterday, is a matter of dates and heroes. That 
was my own way of putting it.

  As a boy, I walked the red clay roads of Mercer County in southern 
West Virginia and attended a little two-room schoolhouse and studied 
Muzzey and his history of the American people. I studied Muzzey by the 
light of an old kerosene lamp--I memorized my history lessons. My first 
heroes were men like Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, 
Thomas Benton, Nathanael Greene. I studied about the Revolutionary War. 
We read about Francis Marion, the swamp fox, and Daniel Morgan. We read 
the story of Nathan Hale, who said, ``I only regret that I have but one 
life to lose for my country.'' Those were our heroes.
  Are we reaching a point in American history when young people no 
longer have heroes, except what they see on TV? Is that going to be the 
history that they will remember?
  As the story in the Washington Post had related, to which I referred 
on yesterday, textbooks are being written in ways that seek to avoid 
offending this little interest group or that little interest group or 
some other little interest group, as a result of which the pages are 
becoming so bland and meaningless that they end up offending everybody.
  If we want to really improve the public school system and the 
education received in the public school system, then we ought to demand 
textbooks that are meaningful and not just filled with pictures. ``A 
picture is worth a thousand words,'' but not a whole book of pictures. 
There has to be some substance that goes with the dessert--some beans, 
potatoes, cabbage, and corn bread to go along with the dessert, some 
substance that teaches high morals and teaches the basics, teaches our 
children to read and to write and to spell, and teaches them about 
arithmetic, science, history, and geography.

  We used to have our little spelling matches on Friday afternoons back 
in

[[Page S3577]]

that little two-room schoolhouse. I always looked forward to Friday 
afternoon. I looked forward to those occasions when I would be able to 
stand up with other boys and girls and see who was the last to be left 
standing. He or she was the champ. And then we would have contests in 
addition and multiplication, with a piece of chalk on the blackboard. 
Who was the best math student?
  Those teachers were dedicated when I was a boy. They loved us and we 
loved them. They inspired us and we, each of us, wanted to get that pat 
on the back, that pat on the shoulders from the teacher, saying, ``You 
did well.'' We were inspired by those teachers. They weren't paid much. 
I can remember that, during the Great Depression, teachers had to give 
up a certain percent of their paychecks in order to get them cashed. 
They were dedicated teachers. That was their life. We had great 
teachers. We had good textbooks. We had discipline in the schoolroom.
  My foster dad was not my natural father, but he raised me. He always 
told me that if I got a whipping at school, I would get another 
whipping when I came home. You will find most people of my age who 
received the same warnings from their parents. ``If you get a whipping 
at school, we are not going to the schoolhouse and beat up on the 
teacher. We are going to see you in the back room.'' We knew they meant 
business. The parents supported the teachers. They supported discipline 
in the school. How can children learn and how can teachers teach unless 
we have discipline in the schools? They can't do it. There has to be 
discipline in the schoolrooms.

  There is something more than just money that the public school system 
in America needs today. And the public school system had better get its 
act together. Here I am, after 33 years of giving solid support to the 
public school system in America, saying if there is another approach 
that will work. Let's try it. We are not doing too well, as it is, 
plowing this same old furrow. We have to make some changes. I think we 
need to start with the textbooks. Teachers ought to be paid well. Not 
all teachers are good teachers. Not all Senators are good Senators. 
People will take care of that sooner or later, hopefully. But not all 
teachers are good teachers. Yet, there are a lot of good teachers and 
there are a lot of good students.
  In speaking of good students, let me brag about my grandsons and 
granddaughters. I have a grandson named Darius, who has a doctorate in 
physics, a pretty tough subject, I would say. I doubt that his 
grandfather could do that well. Darius has a degree, a Ph.D. in 
physics. He was married recently. He married a young lady who is 
working on her Ph.D. in physics at the University of Virginia. I have 
another grandson who will receive his Ph.D. in physics just within a 
few weeks, before the summer is over. I also have a son-in-law who is a 
Ph.D. in physics. I could speak at great length about my sons-in-law 
and daughters and grandsons  and granddaughters. I will not do that 
today. But I have made my point. Those grandsons who have received 
Ph.D.s in physics didn't get those Ph.D.s in physics watching 
television. They didn't get those Ph.D.s reading trash. They read good 
books. They were taught by good teachers.

  We have a lot of young people in this country who want to learn. I 
have tried to encourage young people. My wife and I sent a young 
Chinese orphan through college some years ago. We paid her tuition and 
for her books because her mother had died of cancer. My wife and I knew 
that the mother, who had discovered that she had terminal cancer, was 
very concerned about her daughter. They were no relation to us. We 
happened to get acquainted with them because we visited in those days, 
a lot of restaurants in the area. At one point we had visited over 100 
restaurants in Northern Virginia and Maryland and the District of 
Columbia. We came to know this Chinese couple. When they were faced 
with this tragedy, my wife and I said to the woman, ``We are going to 
see that your child has a college education. If she continues to make 
good grades in school and graduates with good character, and if she 
will go to American University, we will see that she has her tuition 
and her books paid for.''
  I chose American University because I had graduated from there with a 
law degree at the age of 45. I never intended to practice law. Nobody 
told me to do it. I wanted the experience of being in a classroom with 
other law students. I went to law school for 10 years at night while 
serving in the House of Representatives and in the Senate. In fact, I 
just received my baccalaureate in political science from Marshall 
University in Huntington, West Virginia, in 1994.

  It never gets too late to learn. Solon, that great lawgiver who was 
one of the seven wise men of Greece, said, ``I grow old in the pursuit 
of learning.'' One never gets too old to learn, and it is one of the 
best ways to stay young--continue to study, to learn.
  As I was saying yesterday, in 1969 I decided I wanted to establish a 
little recognition for the high school valedictorians in West Virginia. 
I came up with the idea of having a ``Robert C. Byrd Scholastic 
Recognition Fund.'' At that time I bought, out of my own pocket, a $25 
savings bond for each high school valedictorian. It only cost $18.75, I 
believe. But if and when it matured it would be worth $25. It wasn't a 
great amount of money. Nobody gave me a bond when I graduated from high 
school. But I wanted to give a little recognition to the exceptional 
students in the high schools of West Virginia. I remember in one high 
school there were seven students, I believe, who tied with a 4.0 
average. I gave seven $25 bonds to the students in that school. A 
little recognition like that is what our young people need. In recent 
years, I have established a trust fund, and the bond is a $50 bond.
  I often talk with the pages here. I try to take a little time out of 
my day once in a while to tell them some good stories written by 
Tolstoy or by other great authors, like Chaucer. We talk about 
wholesome, good works by great authors; a little encouragement along 
that line. We never know when we toss a pebble in the water where the 
ripples will end. They go on and on. We don't know where a little word 
of encouragement to these young people might take them.
  Then a few years ago, I devised legislation that would provide for a 
national scholarship of $1,500 to be awarded to the same number of 
students in each State as there are representatives from each State in 
the House of Representatives and the Senate. The criteria require that 
those children excel in scholastic studies. What they do as athletes 
doesn't count. Neither do extracurricular activities.
  There is a rightful place for sports. But the country's values are 
made to stand on their heads when people revere a little too much the 
athletes while not recognizing the young people who are working in the 
laboratories and in the libraries and in the schoolrooms poring over 
textbooks day and night.
  So what I am saying is, we ought to readjust our values. Let each 
have its proper place. But no ball game ever changed the course of 
history. I do not say that disparagingly about ball games. We all like 
to watch them. But it is the young people who study science, math, 
algebra, history, physics, these other disciplines; they are the people 
who keep this country with its finely honed cutting edge in technology; 
they are the people who put an American on the Moon.
  Let's get back to basics. Let's recognize our young people and 
encourage them to study, to read good books, get away from the trash 
that is on TV. It might be a good thing for some adults, too. Get off 
that couch and quit watching so much of that junk. It is junk, most of 
it. I have seen some good movies on television. Alistair Cooke used to 
have some great movies. But for the most part, TV programming is lousy. 
I am not sure, if my daughters were growing up today, that I would even 
have a television set in my house. It is a great medium for good, but 
it is very destructive, the kind of programming of which we see all too 
much today.

  I have taken some time this afternoon because I wanted to compliment 
Ted Kennedy. I also wish to compliment Senator Coverdell and all those 
who worked hard for the bill yesterday as well as those who opposed the 
bill. They all have at heart the welfare of the children of this 
country. I thought a little bit of my own homespun philosophy thrown in 
while no other Senator seeks the floor this afternoon, wouldn't hurt 
either.


[[Page S3578]]


     A Builder builded a temple,
     He wrought it with grace and skill;
     Pillars and groins and arches
     All fashioned to work his will.
     Men said, as they saw its beauty,
     ``It shall never know decay;
     Great is thy skill, O Builder,
     Thy fame will endure for aye.''

     A Teacher builded a temple
     With loving and infinite care,
     Planning each arch with patience,
     Laying each stone with prayer.
     None praised her unceasing efforts,
     None knew of her wondrous plan,
     For the temple the Teacher builded
     Was unseen by the eyes of man.

     Gone is the Builder's temple,
     Crumbled into the dust;
     Low lies each stately pillar,
     Food for consuming rust.
     But the temple the Teacher builded
     Will last while the ages roll,
     For that beautiful unseen temple
     Was a child's immortal soul.

  Mr. President, I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.

                          ____________________