Thank you, Marian:
I am honored to receive this award from you, Marian, in the company of such distinguished citizens! I am especially happy to be here today with you, but also with people who support and value “Head Start”.
Back in 1965, when we started many brand-new program designed to eradicate poverty, half of the nation’s poor people were children! So, we, the leaders of the “War Against Poverty,” decided to create programs designed specifically to help the poorest children of poverty, those with parents and those without parents, children alone, helpless, and often hopeless!
Fortunately, my wife, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, gave me a copy of a study which had been conducted by Dr. Susan Gray of Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. Dr. Gray had discovered and found that children with mental retardation benefitted from “early intervention”.
Immediately, I thought, if children with mental retardation benefitted from “early intervention,” why wouldn’t children in poverty also benefit from “early intervention”?
So, I created a task force, headed by Doctor Robert E. Cooke, Chief of Pediatrics, at Johns Hopkins University in February of 1965, he and his panel, proposed recommendations for the primary goal of the new “Head Start” program: --
They recommended a comprehensive program to enhance the social competence of children in a program, which would concentrate on health, education, and social services for children. And they emphasized the desirability of parent participation in this new program.
This comprehensive approach is what has made our “Head Start” program such a nation-wide success. We must never let that creation be destroyed! Sure, we can always improve on what we started, but the basic components which make “Head Start” unique should not be abandoned, reduced in size, or limited in any other way!
On a personal note I should add that 37 years ago, none of us who participated in this creation would have thought that “Head Start” would still be going strong today, with over 20 million participants, and thousands and thousands of new enrollees every year! SO-O-O-O!
I congratulate the “Head Start” teachers, the “Head Start” parents, the “Head Start” students, and everyone one of you for supporting “Head Start”! You have helped to make our totally unique creation an increasing success every year over the last 37 years!
But, there still are, in our country, and in many other nations, countless children who are helpless, poor, disadvantaged, and desperately in need of assistance. They need “Head Start”!!
Let’s never forget, therefore, that the challenge in the 21st century is to bring “Head Start” to each and every child who needs it in our own country, and then, to countries around the entire world!! SO-O-O, -- Let’s get going!!
Let us lead the way!! To millions of young men and women who need “Head Start” now!!
