Mr. President and Mrs. Sanchez, Senorita Portillo, boys and girls:
It is a great pleasure to be back at school. These colorful walls and the happy voices of you children revive many happy and bright memories for me.
Even the Latin names--Maria, Carmen, Pepe, Luis, and Carlos--ring of those days in my own native south Texas when I was a schoolteacher in a Mexican school.
My entire life has been enriched by my Latin friends. So it makes me very happy to be able to come here with your great President, President Sanchez, this morning, to see a school that bears my name. Muchas gracias, mis amigos.
I hope many good teachers and brave leaders will launch happy and rewarding lives here. I hope they will go on to college and become productive citizens.
When I gave up teaching and went into public life, I carried with me the burden of trust that I felt my pupils had placed upon me.
I hope I have kept my students' faith.
I share your dreams.
I also know that you have many unfulfilled dreams and many unfulfilled needs.
Most of the answers are here in these classrooms.
These free textbooks, this fine building, and--most important--these willing and able teachers such as yours. They offer the wisdom that can free you to live good lives. You must only work and study hard. I know how much this means to you parents--to see your children win the chance for happiness and fulfillment.
And now before I conclude my speech, I want to introduce you to one of the best teachers that I have ever known. She has been teaching me for almost 35 years-- Mrs. Johnson.
Now, on behalf of the people of our country, we want to give to the people of your country this new piano.
Our hope is that the students, the teachers and the parents, and the leaders of Central America will deepen their commitment to education, the revolutionary music of democracy.
And now I am going to go over and take the cover from the piano and ask my daughter Luci to see if the piano really works.
Thank you very much. I know President Sanchez must be very proud of you boys and girls, and I know you must be very proud of President Sanchez in your country.
Note: The President spoke at 11:38 a.m. in the courtyard of the Lyndon B. Johnson School for primary grades in San Salvador, El Salvador. In his opening words he referred to President Fidel Sanchez Hernandez of El Salvador, Mrs. Sanchez, and Senorita Valentina Portillo, director of the Lyndon B. Johnson School.
The two-story, eight-classroom structure was built by U.S. funds granted El Salvador following an earthquake that destroyed the small neighborhood school.
Lyndon B. Johnson, Remarks at the Lyndon B. Johnson School in San Salvador. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/236772
