vailed in some quarters, and in fact, the entire country appeared for a
time to have lost its balance. But the appraisal we made of our weak-
nesses during that period, it seems, was as deficient as the appraisal we
made of the strength of our adversary, and afterwards we proved to
ourselves and to the world that we, too, could build satellites and send
missiles into space. And in so doing, we regained our good senses and
recovered our composure, attaining an equilibrium of mind that better
equipped us to make a valid assessment of the reason why we had fallen
behind in a desperate race with calamity. A calm self-appraisal con-
vinced us that what was needed above everything else was a more
thorough and a more rigorous training of the intellect of our people—
that despite all the progress we have made in education, the money and
the resources we have put into it, what we had done was not enough.

The report made to the President two weeks ago by the Science
Advisory Committee illustrates the new attitude we have assumed to-
ward education and the use we are to make of it in this great effort to
continue our civilization and our way of life. This report, which is called
"Education for the Age of Science, " places new emphasis on the nat-
ural sciences, mathematics and engineering in our educational system.
But for those who might say that here we are merely imitating our
enemies, the Committee makes it clear that the acceleration of instruc-
tion in these subjects does not mean a reduction of the effort in other
fields. It speaks of a "proper balance" in our "educational offerings, "
with the strong suggestion we have been tarrying in the scientific areas.
The question is asked: "How can a democratic society be successful if
its citizens are unable to comprehend the proposals that are made by
its specialists?" And then the report states affirmatively that if the
citizen in this modern world is ignorant of science he either must guess
what to do or believe what he is told.

The great men who laid the foundation of this nation knew well that
a society of men and women who do what they are told is not, and could
never be, a democracy.

This report to the President, as you know, goes on with a broad variety
of recommendations. It proposes a modification of curricula to provide
a greater challenge to the intellectual capacity of students, with an alter-
ation of programs to fit the needs of gifted students. It advocates higher
salaries for the teaching profession, along with a better understanding
and a higher recognition of the position the teacher occupies in the
community. It urges a doubling of our national investment in educa-
tion—from $15 billion to $30 billion a year....

The point I would make of it here today, however, is that it shifts the

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