Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 84 Part 2.djvu/917

 84

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PROCLAMATION 4005-SEPT. 24, 1970

Sailing in the service of the Spanish Crown, Cliristopher Cohimbus established the first permanent European colony in the Americas, and heralded the great migration of peoples to this hemisphere. Many men and women have come and settled here from Italy, the native land of the great Captain, as so many others have come and settled from places throughout the world. In the United States we are justly proud to count ourselves heirs to the spirit and determination of Christopher Columbus. We rightly honor the memory of that indomitable faith which sustained him on his historic voyages and resulted in the development of this great nation of ours. I n tribute to the achievement of Columbus, the Congress of the United States, by a joint resolution approved April 30, 1934 (48 Stat. 657), requested the President to proclaim October 12 of each year as Columbus Day. NOW, THEREFORE, I, RICHARD NIXON, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate Monday, October 12, 1970, as Columbus D a y; and I invite the people of this nation to observe that day in schools, churches, and other suitable places with appropriate ceremonies in honor of the great explorer. I also direct that the flag of the United States be displayed on all public buildings on the appointed day in memory of Christopher Columbus. I N W I T N E S S WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand, this eighteenth day of September, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred seventy, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred ninety-fifth.

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36 USC i46,

(^ZJL^-'I^:.:^ Proclamation 4005 AMERICAN EDUCATION WEEK, 1970 By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation

When Horace Mann gave up a fine legal practice and a promising position in the State legislature to take on the poorly paid and obscure role of Secretary of the State Board of Education in Massachusetts, many of his friends thought he had made a terrible mistake. But Mann explained his decision this way in a letter to his wife in 1837: "If I can be the means of ascertaining what is the best construction of [school] houses, what are the best books, what is the best mode of instruction; if I can discover by what appliance of means a nonthinking, non-reflecting, non-speaking child can most surely be trained into a noble citizen... if I can only obtain and diffuse throughout the state a few good ideas on these and similar subjects, may I not flatter myself that my ministry has not been wholly in vain?" Horace Mann went on to become America's first great educational reformer. But the fundamental questions which he asked of his wife in 1837 are questions which great educators still ask in our day. How should we design and build our educational plants? How should we write our textbooks and other educational materials? What are the best modes of instruction? How can we best encourage a noble citizenry? These problems now demand answers that will be as

September24, i97o

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