Remarks Upon Receiving the National Education Association's Bicentennial Commemorative Plaque.

LET ME thank you, Dr. Wise and Jim Harris, for the Bicentennial commemorative plaque which we will appropriately put in one of my little study rooms in the back here. It is very beautiful, and it is very greatly appreciated by me.

I was thinking this morning about the NEA. I have had a lot of contact with the MEA in Michigan, of course, and it is a very fine organization. I feel very strongly that we are fortunate in this country, some 200 years, of having adopted almost from the very outset a universal education. And we are the beneficiaries, you and myself along with millions of others, of that concept. I think it is something we have to maintain and expand. I believe it is good for the students. I think it is good for teachers. I think it is good for the country.

And I might just switch a bit on the Bicentennial. I can imagine teachers have a real inspiration in the Bicentennial Year to talk about 200 years of history, but at the same time to talk about the next century and what it can do to make that next 100 years an even more fruitful experience for 215-plus million people. We have got a lot to talk about, both in the past as well as in the future, and I should think teachers should have an exciting year in 1976.

Thank you.