[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1992, Book I)]
[April 23, 1992]
[Pages 628-630]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



[[Page 628]]

Remarks to the United States Academic Decathlon Winners

April 23, 1992
    Welcome all. And first, may I greet our distinguished number two 
over at the Energy Department, David Kearns, coming down here from a 
fantastic leadership role in American business to help us in this 
important America 2000 education program. So I'm delighted he's with us 
here today.
    I want to salute the president and the board of directors of the 
U.S. Academic Decathlon, all of them; thank particularly all of the 
corporate sponsors who make so much of this possible; and also single 
out Danny Ramirez, Chris Roorda, and Greg Rudnick, standing up here with 
me today; salute the coaches and the friends. And most of all, a warm 
Rose Garden welcome to our newest American champs, newest American 
heroes if you will, the 1992 Academic Decathlon champs, the team from J. 
Frank Dobie High in, yes, you guessed it, Houston, Texas. Now, where are 
they? Stand up. And they've got a good front-row seat, too. Thank you, 
guys, and welcome. It's a great feat for my hometown, the highest score, 
I'm told, in the history of the competition. And I'm very proud to 
welcome you all here. I hear that you wore ``Rose Garden or Bust'' pins. 
They work. And I'm wondering if you have an extra one for the fall. 
[Laughter]
    Congratulations also to our silver and bronze medalists from 
Mountain View High in Mesa, Arizona, Whitney Young Magnet High in 
Chicago; our regional winners from New Jersey, Alabama, Ohio, Nebraska, 
and California; our small school winner from Wisconsin; and our 10 
individual student scholarship winners, 9 from our top 3 winning 
schools, and then Mit Robertson here from Tupelo, Mississippi. Welcome 
all.
    I want to send special good-luck wishes to those who will represent 
us at the International Decathlon in a couple of weeks, the Academic 
Decathlon, that is. And since you're the star decathletes, tell me who 
is going to win at Barcelona, Dan or Dave? [Laughter]
    You've all done something remarkable. And this year's contest began 
with 30,000, more than 30,000 students at 3,500 schools coast to coast. 
And now it's just you. And not only did you work all year to conquer 
environmental science in a range of 10 categories, you also survived the 
blizzard of 25,000 pieces of test paper out in Boise. And I was 
impressed by your Habitat Earth Super Quiz questions like this one: ``In 
a molecule of methane, the carbon atom is at the center of what?'' For 
you out there in the press--[laughter]--the answer is ``a tetrahedron 
with four S-P-3 bonds.'' Did you get that one down? I'll be glad to 
repeat the question. Got it? Never mind.
    That was easy--not! Actually, pretty tough. But I know a category I 
could enter: computers. I was just in there with Secretary Kearns 
talking about it. I've been learning how to work one because one of our 
education goals is that nobody is too old to learn. I wrote my first 
program a while ago. I'm not sure what happened to it. It was called 
``Michelangelo.'' [Laughter]
    Now, you kids here today represent every team member from across the 
country. And I want to tell you and them what all of you have done for 
America. You've shown that great things can be achieved by commitment, 
perseverance, hard work, and yes, teamwork. And I salute you, and I envy 
you. And you've found the sheer joy of learning, beginning to understand 
the world.
    One day a scientist will discover the cure for cancer, the cure for 
AIDS. Other people will find new ways to feed the hungry. And there will 
be writers whose wisdom will touch lives. And right now, those men and 
women are kids in our classrooms or maybe even sitting right here in the 
Rose Garden.
    Remember, study hard, and one day one of you might grow up to be 
President. But let's face it, even then you'll never make as much money 
as your dog. [Laughter] Millie, who normally comes to events like this, 
but she used to just roll over on the grass, and now all she rolls over 
is her money market account with--in the street.
    But look, you've shown your peers that it

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is as exciting to root for an academic team as an athletic one. And 
that's a point I wanted to make for our entire country. You've shown 
that it takes skill, stamina, and intensity to achieve in the classroom 
as well as in the stadium. And you've given them a priceless gift--your 
peers--the belief in their ability to reach out and shape their own 
lives.
    There is a new century coming, one with absolutely unlimited 
horizons. And we must make sure all our children enter this new world 
equipped with the skills that will let them dream dreams and know they 
can make them come true.
    One of the things that impresses me most about this decathlon is 
that each team is made up of A, B, and C students. And there's a great 
lesson there. What matters is simply that each kid be the best that he 
or she can be. As George Patton said, ``If a man has done his best, what 
else is there?'' We don't want the moon for our kids. We want something 
more important, a future.
    And so one year ago, I unveiled America 2000, our long-range 
strategy to achieve our six national education goals. And it's a 
challenge posed to each of us in communities throughout America to 
literally reinvent American education. It urges us to reach deep within 
ourselves to find answers so that our kids can reach for the stars.
    Changing our attitudes about education is too important to wait or 
waste a generation. To be competitive in this changing world, we must 
realize that we succeed economically at home; if we're to do that, we 
must lead economically abroad. Open markets, free trade, they mean jobs 
for American workers and economic growth for American companies. But we 
must be prepared to compete, ready to take advantage of these high-tech 
opportunities in the global marketplace. We know our economic health, 
our economic survival depend on how we educate ourselves to face the 
challenges of a new century. So we've set these six education goals to 
reach by the year 2000, when today's third and fourth graders will be 
taking part in this event, this Academic Decathlon, by then.
    And you all know these goals. One of them, the first one: Our kids 
will start school ready to learn. That's more than Head Start; Head 
Start's a part of that. Our high school graduation rate must be 90 
percent. The third one: Our students will be achieving world-class 
standards. And then fourth: We'll be first in the world in science and 
math, a particularly important one. And then the fifth one: Every adult 
will be literate; no one is too old to learn. And sixth: Every American 
school must be safe, must be disciplined, must be drug-free, in other 
words, an environment where people can learn.
    You will help us meet those challenges. Real excellence demands 
commitment from everyone as we create a new generation of American 
schools that demands more of the same choices of schools, public, 
private, or religious, for middle class and poor Americans that 
wealthier families already have. Give them a chance to choose.
    It demands new creative partnership among parents, teachers, 
businesses, and kids like the community involvement that encourages this 
decathlon and the local and national corporate partnerships that fund 
it. And by the way, I want to give a special note to the corporate 
sponsors with us today, whose leadership and vision make this decathlon 
possible. This bond really, I referred to it earlier, but this bond 
between industry and the individual is the keystone of the American 
spirit. The country needs to follow this decathlon's example in all 
these areas because for our future every citizen must now help every 
community develop a plan of action.
    Already 43 States and over 1,000 communities across this country 
have answered the call and have joined America 2000. This isn't Democrat 
or Republican or liberal or conservative. It is literally a move to 
revolutionize education. And together we are reinventing American 
education, neighborhood by neighborhood, community by community all 
across this country. And at the heart of it are you students, you kids, 
a new kind of campus hero with the good values you learn from 
disciplined determination, from a sharp mind that is not wasted on 
drugs, and from the confidence and pride that comes from proving 
yourselves. And you will help this America 2000 dream come true.

[[Page 630]]

    For a great example of this we don't have to look further than a 
woman who is not with us today, DC's Rhondee Johnson, a junior at 
Benjamin Banneker High who just won the National Academic Decathlon's 
Kristen Caperton Award for Inspiration and Courage. She takes her school 
responsibilities so seriously that she's helping her team at a track 
meet right now instead of joining us. And we all hope she wins the blue 
ribbon, but she's certainly winning it in life with her example. 
Rhondee's lived with the tragedy of violence. When her aunt was killed, 
her four children came to live with Rhondee's family, making 8-year-old 
Rhondee the oldest of nine kids in a single-parent household. She takes 
on a parent's duties, and she still manages a 4.0 average. She is an 
inspiration, accepting responsibilities and challenges and still 
striving to excel.
    She and all of you give a 1990's example of how Abraham Lincoln 
defined his own life when he said, ``I do the very best I know how, the 
very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing so until the end.'' I am 
proud of the message all of you winning decathletes send, that personal 
dedication, effort, and teamwork lead to success.
    And when one of you bright young people solves the problem of who 
created ``Michelangelo,'' just remember, my name is Dana Carvey.
    Thank you all very much for coming. Congratulations, and may God 
bless you all.

                    Note: The President spoke at 11:18 a.m. in the Rose 
                        Garden at the White House. In his remarks, he 
                        referred to Deputy Secretary of Education David 
                        T. Kearns; winning team captains Daniel Bruno 
                        Ramirez, Christine L. Roorda, and Gregory 
                        Rudnick; and comedian Dana Carvey.