[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 29, Number 46 (Monday, November 22, 1993)]
[Pages 2372-2373]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 6623--Geography Awareness Week, 1993 and 1994

 November 14, 1993

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    From ancient times, when prehistoric peoples used colored clay and 
charred sticks to draw primitive maps on cave walls, our ancestors have 
sought to identify their relationship to their surroundings.
    Geography, from the Greek ``geographia''--earth description--is the 
field of knowledge that examines those connections that link the earth 
and its inhabitants.
    After a recent decline in the emphasis placed on the study of 
geography, it is once again receiving the attention it deserves as a 
necessary element in the education of our citizens. The world has become 
smaller--politically, economically, and socially--and geographic 
literacy, knowledge, and understanding of other cultures have 
increasingly become more and more essential.
    America must keep pace with the rest of the world. Our Nation's 
ability to interact in a global environment depends greatly upon our 
capacity to comprehend and operate within an interconnected sphere. 
Young Americans must possess the tools necessary to succeed in this 
endeavor. They must exhibit a basic understanding of the relationships 
between countries, between peoples, and among themselves. Without this 
knowledge, our future leaders will run the risk of taking a narrow and 
uninformed view of the world as they pursue international initiatives.
    My Administration's education reform legislation, Goals 2000: 
Educate America Act, proposes to specifically include geography in the 
National Education Goals, and we support the development of voluntary 
national curricular standards to include geography.
    We are making progress. By committing ourselves to this goal, we 
expect results--and we have already begun to see them. Many schools 
around the country are engaged in wonderful activities to improve their 
students' understanding of our mutually shared planet. We must build on 
these burgeoning efforts for the future of this Nation and for the 
future of the world.
    To recognize the special value of geography to the well-being of our 
country and all its citizens, the Congress by Senate Joint Resolution 
131 has designated the weeks beginning November 14, 1993, and November 
13, 1994, as Geography Awareness Week and has authorized and requested 
the President to issue a proclamation in observance of these weeks.
    Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United 
States of America, do hereby proclaim the weeks of November 14, 1993, 
and November 13, 1994, as ``Geography Awareness Week.'' I call upon the 
people of the United States, governmental officials, educators, 
volunteers, and students of all ages to observe these weeks with 
appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this fourteenth day 
of November, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-three, 
and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred 
and eighteenth.
                                            William J. Clinton

[[Page 2373]]

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 2:17 p.m., November 16, 
1993]

Note: This proclamation was released by the Office of the Press 
Secretary on November 15, and it was published in the Federal Register 
on November 18.