 What a beautiful day to be honoring presidential scholars, and what a magnificent setting in which to do this. It's a pleasure to join all of you here this morning in the presentation of these medallions of the presidential scholars, the class of 1983. You know in the face of the uncertainties that we face now in America, I think it's really heartening to know of the greatest of all of our natural resources, and that's you very bright and talented youth to know that you're so capable and to know that you've developed your talents to the capacity that you have. So it's my pleasure to congratulate each of you, to commend you for your hard work and for the dedication and the rigor with which you've pursued your academic endeavors and your artistic challenges. You've epitomized the excellence that we're striving to attain for all of American education. You really represent the promise of America in the future, and you stand as great examples for your fellow students, and I know all of you recognize that. You simply represent hundreds of thousands of other very talented young people who could also be here. And because of your outstanding achievements, we honor you here this morning, and in recognizing you as I said before, we want to give honor to students all across America who do so much and who work so hard and who achieve at the upper limits of their abilities. We hope that your good example will become contagious and that we'll bring up the achievement of all of America's students that so urgently needs to be increased as indicated by recent studies and evaluations of American education. I want to thank you parents who are here and you teachers, and I'm pleased this year that the presidential scholars honored their teachers in a ceremony yesterday. And for those of you that don't know, the scholars indicated the teachers that had been most influential in their lives, and we were very privileged yesterday to give them a certificate of recognition of their wonderful accomplishments. So we thank you for sharing with us your honoring and your respect for your teachers. I'm pleased that you students have developed a thirst and a hunger for learning that will help you in the years ahead. You need to keep learning in this society in which we live. I often say to young people as they look at this white hair and they think, well, maybe there stands an old fogey that the only thing worse than an old fogey is a young fogey. And a young fogey is a person who doesn't keep on learning and keeping up to date. And I know that you students know that you need to continue to do that and that this is just the beginning. Our National Commission on Excellence in Education highlighted this when they said the following, and I quote from that report, when you work to your full capacity, you can hope to attain the knowledge and skills that will enable you to create your future and control your destiny. But if you don't do this, you'll have your future thrust upon you by others. And the Commission admonishes all of us. Take hold of your life, apply your gifts and talents, work with dedication and self-discipline. Have high expectations for yourself and for others, and set a great example for them. So again, I say to you, presidential scholars, congratulations to each and every one of you on receiving this highest of all honors that you can receive in this country to high school graduates. May you continue to pursue your lives, may you have a rich and happy experience in your endeavors on from here, and may you make the contributions that we know you'll all make in your help and assistance and in the service that you'll be rendering to this great country in the years ahead. It's my pleasure to introduce the very distinguished Chairman of the Presidential Scholars Commission, Mrs. Beverly White, and she's going to join me as we now proceed to pass out the medallions. She will call the names, you'll come forward, and it'll be my great honor to present you with the gold medallion. Mrs. White. Alabama, Paula Baker, Rebecca Henson, and John Knox. Alaska, Lucy Lubichick, and Stephen Sherrod. Arizona, Rochelle Bagatell, and Stephen Hellman. Arkansas, Kelly Connor, and C. Craig Tatlock. California, Susanna Kim, C. Andrew Pierce, and Brian Scuttling. Colorado, James Myers, Jody Smith, Inger Thompson. Connecticut, Sian Abbott, Bonnie Boyd, Susan Diaz, Jennifer Gordon, David Sinek, Delaware, Octavia Biondi, Jr., and Karen Peaslick. Republic of Columbia, George Dick, Dorothy Jeffress, and Daniel Singer. Florida, Amy Dean, Lawrence Lipkin, and Pedro Pesaro. Georgia, Thomas Siseski, and Karen Kajyama. Hawaii, Mark Kunichika, Lori Sharraishi. Idaho, Amy Hellman, David Rotobock. Illinois, Kim Crawford, Phillip Kerwin, and Timothy Ying. Indiana, Carl Gordon, and Marta Hoylman. Margo Bender, and Mark Morris. Kansas, Margaret McCarthy, and David Studaker. Kentucky, Brian Jones, and Joe Wagner. Louisiana, Lee Carnahan, and Baron Jeff. Maine, Kristen Ammerling, and Seth Lowry. Maryland, Kevin Berlin, Ronald Dove Jr., and Wendy Ling. Ann Lopez, still from Maryland. Ann Lopez, Rachel Pestan, and Deborah Sidon. Massachusetts, Danny Fane, and Jean Talbot. Michigan, Donald Gilbert. Elizabeth Holm, Hein Kim, Jason Novetsky, and Eric Vodberg. Minnesota, Jane Bailey. Steven England. Mississippi, Michael McMullen, Paula Womack. Missouri, Merlin Bruning, Melissa Parisi, and Hyura Teyima. Montana, Laurie Larson, and Patrick Rincon. Nebraska, Walter Anderson, and Judith Moore. Nevada, Barton Jacka, and Jennifer Miller. New Hampshire, Christina Tedero, John Wiggins Jr. New Jersey, Ariela Gross, Steven Perkins, Amelia Zoller. New Mexico, Sunid Bala, Rachel Mischke, Paula K. Walker. New York, Margaret Carroll, Steven Hayes, Rosemarie Johnson, and Carlos Rosada. North Carolina, Edward Gully, Nicholas Kitchen, and Kathy Nanny. North Dakota, Michael Sheldon, Elizabeth Vitalis. Ohio, Brian Bryant, and Jan Fisher. I would appreciate it if the parents that are here, if you would stand and a few students wouldn't mind, if you'd stand and turn towards them, and let's give them a big round of applause. Parents, many of us believe that of all the things that we can leave our children, probably the most priceless gift after a good character and those attributes is a good education. I put that ahead of a large inheritance and many other things, and I'm sure these students feel that way from the warmth of their response. I'd like to say that probably just as tough as winning a presidential scholar gold medallion as to be designated by a presidential scholar as the teacher that had the greatest influence upon their accomplishments. And so to you teachers, I would just offer a special thanks and congratulations. And I'm so pleased that this year, the Presidential Scholars Commission decided that we should honor the teachers and I'm so pleased that the students were willing to do that. And so we also express our thanks to you. You probably noticed in the President of the United States, if I kept you waiting. Thank you very much. This is not exactly the climate for me to have kept you waiting out here in the sunshine. I've been across the street in the executive office building doing all sorts of important things while I fidgeted watching the clock go by. It's a privilege to welcome such a distinguished group of high school seniors to the White House along with your parents, teachers, and members of the Congress. And on behalf of a proud nation, I congratulate the 1983 Presidential Scholars on their achievements. You are America's future and symbolize your greatest hopes. You're among our best young achievers not only in book learning, but in the arts and in leadership. Your very presence here represents the commitment of your communities in your country to excellence in education. For a democracy to function, its people must understand not only reading, writing, and arithmetic, but literature, history, and values. Someone once said that if you think education is expensive, you should try ignorance. And that sums up the situation pretty well. To be American means to understand that education is the key that opens the golden door of opportunity. And just as important, it's been the faithful guardian of our democracy. It's preserved the conscience and the character of our nation. We know that knowledge and freedom are inseparable. And so it's no accident that we are the freest people on Earth. And we, who are that, built an educational system unrivaled in the history of civilization. You're among its finest graduates, so a great deal of responsibility naturally falls upon you. Many of you wrote in your essays about the debt you owe your families, communities, and schools, and how you intend to pay them back. I'm glad you feel that way. America needs your commitment, your knowledge, and your education. Your country's made an enormous investment in you. And we're relying on your energies and abilities to carry us into the next century, free and strong and prosperous. While you finish your education, I plan to work with your parents and teachers and business and labor, civic, and government leaders in a national drive for educational excellence. Although your instruction obviously has been superb, a study commissioned by my administration warned that the overall quality of American instruction was declining dangerously. As a result, we're taking steps to ensure that every young person in America receives the best education possible. One priority is to weed out teachers who can't teach and promote those who excel. We're looking into ideas like merit pay and the master teachers programs. But perhaps most importantly, we want to make ours an agenda behind which all our people can unite. Your generation is coming of age in one of the most challenging and exciting times in our history. And we must be certain that you're prepared. High technology is revolutionizing our industries, renewing our economy, and promising new hope and opportunity in the years ahead. There's a dazzling new world waiting for you. You must be sure to have the training and skills to compete for its rewards with anyone anywhere. And we must also be sure that you have the vision to use them wisely. I know all of you want to pursue your dreams in a peaceful and secure world. Like every other generation, you want the world you inherit to be one of hope, free from conflict. I have no higher priority than to make such a world possible. The prevention of conflict and reduction of weapons are subjects that concern us all. I know many of you and your friends back home are concerned by the destructive capability the world's nuclear weapons. Well, I want to make something very plain. I pray for the day when nuclear weapons will no longer exist anywhere on Earth. During this administration, the United States has launched the most far-reaching programs of arms reduction initiatives and negotiations in history. Never before has any nation engaged in so many major simultaneous efforts to limit and reduce the instruments of war and were determined to follow them through day after day after day until we succeed. We are now better able to do this because of more truly bipartisan support of our arms control proposals. With patience, resolve, and national will, I am convinced that we can reach equitable, verifiable agreements and actually reduce nuclear arsenals on both sides. As you know, a very important ingredient of a good education is to learn well the lessons of history. Your studies must show in painful detail all that your parents and grandparents have sacrificed so that you can be free. You can be proud today that your country is contributing to this valiant struggle for peace. We are keeping our military strong for only one reason. To deter any adversary from thinking it can achieve its goals through war. The Americans who came before you learned horrible lessons about taking the easy way out of challenges to freedom. No war in this century started because America was too well-prepared. Everyone was triggered because some tyrant somewhere figured we were off guard. The highest costs in American lives were paid not because we were too strong but because we were thought to be weak. In these last two and a half years the enormity of my responsibility to preserve the peace has made my commitment to peace even deeper. But it is a complex and a difficult subject. Some may wish we could unilaterally disarm because they imagine others would follow. Well, we tried that. It didn't work. You have a responsibility and a right to speak out about your concerns. Here, as well as back home, we have that right because we're Americans. But let us always remember with that privilege goes a responsibility to be right. We live in a free country. There's no room for dissent in other societies with which we're too familiar. There, such dissent will cause a noted scholar to be committed to a mental hospital or stripped of his rights to study and work with his colleagues. We must not ignore those powerful forces who have no respect for our traditions of freedom and who would like to make the world over in their image. It is the responsibility and historic obligation of each of us to do what we can to ensure that America is strong enough economically, militarily, spiritually to remain both free and at peace. I commend those of you who have earned your medallion in the right to the title Presidential Scholar. Let this award be both a recognition of past accomplishments and a challenge to excel in the years ahead. Your parents, teachers, and others deserve all our thanks for encouraging you this far. But now it's up to you. What you've learned is a beginning, not an end. Keep your minds open to new thoughts, new ways of thinking. We're counting on you to understand and shape a better world tomorrow. We're waiting to pass the mantle of responsibility to you for the freedom and prosperity of generations of Americans waiting to be born. Remember one thing, freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. Every generation has the responsibility to preserve it and then pass it on to the next generation, or it will be gone forever. So I congratulate all of you and thank all of you very much. God bless all of you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Thank you. You're not here for the future. Out here, we're looking. We want to remain the outstanding people that are most important to us. We recognize them before we get to the future. Thank you very much. Thank you. This concludes our activities here. We look forward to greeting all of you at the reception at the State Department tonight. Thank you so much. I know. I'm going to give it to you.