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Presidential addresses and state papers, Volume 4 (of 7) cover

Presidential addresses and state papers, Volume 4 (of 7)

Chapter 44: TO THE BOARD OF EDUCATION OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA AND OTHERS, AT THE WHITE HOUSE, DECEMBER 18, 1905
By Theodore Roosevelt
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About This Book

A collection of addresses and official papers presented across a series of public appearances, offering speeches to civic clubs, universities, professional associations, veterans' groups, and ceremonial audiences. Themes range from advocacy for naval preparedness and deliberate foreign policy to reflections on civic duty, public service, and educational advancement, alongside local dedications and commemorative remarks. The pieces blend practical policy argument and administrative detail with rhetorical appeals to national character, urging measured conduct by officials and private citizens while connecting specific institutional concerns to broader questions of governance and responsibility.

TO THE BOARD OF EDUCATION OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA AND OTHERS, AT THE WHITE HOUSE, DECEMBER 18, 1905

Mr. Macfarland; Ladies and Gentlemen:

It is a peculiar pleasure to greet this body here to-day. As Mr. Macfarland has well said, the public-school system of our country is the most characteristically democratic and American feature of our national life. It has been my good fortune that all of my children have received, or are receiving, a portion of their education in the public schools of this District, in this city; and I feel that the advantage to them is incalculable. I certainly do not underrate the importance of the higher education. It would be the greatest misfortune if we ever permitted such a warped and twisted view of democracy to obtain as would be implied in a denial of the advantage that comes to the whole Nation from the high education of the few who are able to take advantage of the opportunity to acquire it. But while fully admitting this, it remains true that most important of all is the education of the common school. The public schools are not merely the educational centres for the mass of our people, but they are the factories of American citizenship. Incidentally to its other work the public school does more than any other institution of any kind, sort, or description to Americanize the child of foreign-born parents who comes here when young, or is born here. Nothing else counts for as much in welding together into one compact mass of citizenship the different race stocks which here are being fused into a new nationality.