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Michigan Association for Health, Physical Education and Recreation, Grand Rapids, MI, November 2, 1967
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The original documents are located in Box D23, folder "Michigan Association for Health,
Physical Education and Recreation, Grand Rapids, MI, November 2, 1967" of the Ford
Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential
Library.
Copyright Notice
The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of
photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. The Council donated to the United
States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.
Works prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties are in the public
domain. The copyrights to materials written by other individuals or organizations are presumed to
remain with them. If you think any of the information displayed in the PDF is subject to a valid
copyright claim, please contact the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
Digitized from Box D23 of the Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
Remarks by Rep. Gerald R. Ford, delivered by telephone Nov. 2, 1967, to delegates
attending the annual convention of the Michigan Association for Health, Physical
Education and Recreation, a department of the Michigan Education Association,
meeting at the Pantlind Hotel, Grand Rapids, Mich.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am sorry I can't be with you this evening. Face
to face is best, isn't it, but I simply was unable to make the trip from Washington
Under the curcumstances
to Grand Rapids to be physically present for your convention. Se I am afraid
Quote on air pollestion
this telephone chat with you will have to do.
N
Betty
As you know, I am the Republican leader in the House of Representatives.
But I would like you to forget that, because I certainly am not going to talk
politics to you. Some of you may know that I played some football at South High
in Grand Rapids and at the University of Michigan and coached at Yale. Now I
am fighting the battle of the expanding wandering waistline.
So I have always had a keen interest in the field which engrosses all of
you--health, physical education and recreation. And my interest goes far beyond
trying to keep myself in shape by swimming a few laps whenever I get a chance,
shooting an occasional game of golf, and skiing during the winter.
much more
I am/concerned about the physical well-being of my children and all of
America's children. You look at them and the world they are growing up in and
it scares you. The world is in ferment, and the problems the kids face today
are a lot bigger than those you and I wrestled with.
We're living in a pretty wild world--the world of the H-bomb, the hippies,
LSD, popular protest, and a technology that is advancing on all fronts.
from head t foot, mide + out
What must children have, to cope with that kind of a world? Well, for one
perhaps
thing, they need love, guidance and discipline--and in even bigger doses than
1
FORD & LIBRARY GERALD
-2-
you and I received. They also need a sense of accomplishment--not only in the
classroom but in the gymnasium and the pool, on the play lot and on the hiking
trail. They need training, not only in the physical sciences and other academic
fields but in how to live--how to keep physically fit, how to throw off tensions
and feelings of hostility through exercise, how to make good use of their leisure
time.
We have to be concerned both with the potential dropout and with the child
who will grow up to live the affluent life. We have to try to meet the needs of
both.
it forces upon our society a complex educational system
That is quite a job--and that makes all of you Very Important People. The
teacher finally is coming to be recognized in American society for the Very
Important Person he or she is. This goes for all teachers in the American school
system from kindergarten on up, from physics teachers to physical education
instructors and recreation directors.
It has been said time and again, but it bears repeating--as the twig is bent
so is the tree inclined. You teachers have hundreds of young lives in your hands,
on a daily basis
and you are helping to mold those lives. The teenagers now in high school will
be the products of the values and culture and schooling they are exposed to
in their formative years.
You can't control what happens in the home, but you certainly can do your
darnedest to teach every one of the young people in your classes to live a
clean life, to practice good personal hygiene, to exercise regularly and to make
good use of their leisure time.
For the poor, you junior and senior high instructors and the school
GERALD FORD LIBRARY
-3-
administration can do much, with the backing of your school boards and trustees.
Your goal should be the lighted schoolhouse if you have not already achieved
it. The school should be a community center, a place that youngsters can come
to in the evening for healthful recreation, a place that gives them an opportunity
to work off steam and keeps them off the streets. Don't worry about well mantained the gym
floors and whether they're nice and shiny. Sure, they should be kept up, but
the important thing is that the gym gets used as much as possible. The more
kids there are who use it, the more successful
physical education and
recreation directors will be--and the healthier the community.
as Where No
physical education and recreation are concerned, there should be
school 12 months a year. Many communities have popular, well-attended summer
recreation programs. This should be true of every community in America, with
inspirational leadership that will attract even the hostile, socially maladjusted
will
youth who particularly needs attention and a feeling of accomplishment.
Willia al My
I am thoroughly convinced that nearly all the young people who go wrong do
so to spite their parents in particular and society in general. They need to
feel loved. And they want to feel important, at least a little bit important.
Maybe just being able to do five or 10 pushups would help. Anyway, they
desperately need a sense of accomplishment and a feeling of belønging. You in
your profession can help to give it to them.
Work with the kid who is all arms and legs or who is spindly and weak.
It's really more important to help him than the natural athlete who simply needs
improvement.
FORD VIBRARA
-4-
This probably points up a need for more physical education instructors and
health and recreation specialists. Junior and senior high schools may well
need to expand their staffs in this direction. I think it makes just as much
sense to reduce the pupil-to-teacher ratio in gym and swimming classes as in
the New Math classroom.
I think all of this is important. In fact, it is vital if we are to help
make today's children competent to deal with their world.
You are experts in your field. And we are depending on you, just as we
livers.
look to other experts to repair our television sets and our Winneyer
We have to tune in to this new world of the teenager. If their parents are
sometimes inadequate in guiding them, then an even larger burden falls on you.
We need your help. We need you to help teach the creative use of leisure
time. to those of our young people who will be living the affluent life as adults.
If our children don't learn this now, they will probably encounter more friction
in their married lives as a result of it. as spare time increases,
so too does the problem of living compatibly with your spouse.
As the wife of a retiring congressman said: "I married my man for better
or for worse, but not for lunch."
In sports, we should bring up our children to participate and not just
watch. That means we should give more attention to the carryover sports like
tennis, golf, swimming and biking instead of putting all the emphasis on football,
basketball and baseball.
GERALD FORD LIBRARY
-5-
The desire to do things is almost universal among young people, and so we
have that going for us.
We parents need your help--and you need ours.
I want you to know that your horizons are expanding as far as the Congress
is concerned.
You may be acquainted with the fact that many members of the House are
determined to liberalize federal aid to schools by expanding state and local
options for use of the money and loosening federal controls.
This is an objective I have strongly supported. It has been carried out in
a number of instances in the 90th Congress.
Let me cite a piece of legislation which has been enacted into law and
directly affects you.
Under existing federal aid programs, teacher training institutes operated
by colleges and universities with federal funds are available only for certain
categories of educational personnel. But under the Education Professions
Development Act enacted this year and due to become effective next July 1,
the offerings of such institutes may be broadened to train or retrain teachers
in any subject generally taught in the schools eligible for support. This would
include health and physical education, as well as such subjects as English, the
social and physical sciences, foreign languages and the arts.
I would add a word of caution, however, the U.S. Office of Education has no
intention of substituting institutes for physical education instructors for
other teacher training institutes now authorized. This probably means that
-6-
whether institutes are offered to you people depend upon the extent to
those in your will field
which funds are available for the overall program in fiscal 1969.
To me, this points up a need for a clear-cut setting of national
priorities.
Let's determine just what is important to America and what programs best
the
serve the needs of American people.
My own view is that physical fitness and an ample supply of highly
qualified people in the fields of health, physical education and recreation are
matters of great importance to our Nation.
That is why I cannot understand, for instance, why the Department of Health,
Education and Welfare spends research dollars to study the behavior of people
at cocktail parties but allocates hardly a dime to physical fitness research.
I say our federal research program needs a thoroughgoing reappraisal and
subsequent redirection.
The United States of America should be pre-eminent in its physical fitness
program. The rate of rejections of our young men for military service is
truly shocking, for instance.
For contrast, take a look at Capt. Bill Carpenter, Army's famous Lonely
End. Here is an American who possesses the kind of qualities built into a
em the playing fieldy the courage to call for fire on his own position in
Vietnam when that position was overrun by the enemy. Why? think
certain qualities were builtints Liver on the playing field
Let's build strong men and women in America- physically fit men and women--
for it is only on that basis that our country can truly move ahead. To allow
FORD
-7-
a generally low level of physical fitness to continue in this country is to
indulge in a shocking waste of human resources. This, indeed, makes for an
empty society. Merely to create a President's Council on Physical Fitness and
then do little or nothing to advance the cause is simply to pay lip service to an
ideal.
Ifeel personally myself allied with Teddy Roosevelt, who not only preached but lived
the strenuous life. For instance, I never walk when I can run. I agree
wholeheartedly with those medical men who say, "Run for your life."
Teddy Roosevelt declared: "I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble
ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life."
TR was constantly concerned that America was going soft, so much so that
he warned:
"If we seek merely swollen, slothful ease and ignoble peace, if we shrink
from the hard contests where men must win at the hazard of their lives and at
the risk of all they hold dear, then bolder and stronger peoples will pass us
by, and will win for themselves the domination of the world."
This is why I say the United States must be preeminent in the world in
physical fitness. And this is why we must inspire our youth to believe that
they are capable of any task if only they will gird themselves for the struggle
and declare in their hearts, "I will and I can." Thank you.
####
GERALD FORD VIBRARY
Remarks by Rep. Gerald R. Ford, delivered by telephone Nov. 2, 1967, to delegates
attending the annual convention of the Michigan Association for Health, Physical
Education and Recreation, a department of the Michigan Education Association,
meeting at the Pantlind Notel, Grand Rapids, Mich.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am sorry I can't be with you this evening. Face
to face is best, isn't it, but I simply was unable to make the trip from Washington
to Grand Rapids to be physically present for your convention. So I am afraid
this telephone chat with you will have to do.
As you know, I am the Republican leader in the House of Representatives.
But I would like you to forget that, because I certainly am not going to talk
polities to you. Some of you may know that I played some football at South High
in Grand Rapids and at the University of Michigan and coached at Yale. Now I
am fighting the battle of the wandering wistline.
So I have always had a keen interest in the field which engrosses all of
you--health, physical education and recreation. And my interest goes far beyond
trying to keep myself in shape by swimming a few laps whenever I get a chance,
shooting an occasional game of golf, and skiing during the winter.
much more much more
I - concerned about the physical well-being of my children and all of
America's children. You look at them and the world they are growing up in and
it scares you. The world is in ferment, and the problems the kids face today
are a lot bigger than those you and I wrestled with.
We're living in a pretty wild world--the world of the N-bomb, the hippies,
LSD, popular protest, and a technology that is advancing on all fronts.
What must children have, to cope with that kind of a world? Well, for one
thing, they need love, guidance and discipline--and in even bigger doses than
last line this dispage
For the year, you junior and senior high instructors andthe school)
you and I received. They also need a sense of accomplishment--not only in the
classroom but in the gymnasium and the pool, on the play lot and on the hiking
trail. They need training, not only in the physical sciences and other seademic
fields but in how to live--how to keep physically fit, how to throw off tensions
and feelings of hostility through exercise, how to make good use of their leisure
time.
We have to be concerned both with the potential dropout and with the child
who will grow up to live the affluent life. We have to try to meet the needs of
both.
That is quite a job--and that makes all of you Very Important People. The
teacher finally is goming to be recognized in American seciety for the Very
Important Person he or she is. This goes for all teachers in the American school
system from for kindergarten on up, for physics teachers to physical education
instructors and recreation directors.
It has been said time and again, but it bears repeaténg--as the twig is bent
so is the tree inclined. You teachers have hundreds of young lives in your hands,
and you are helping to mold those lives. The teenagers now in high school will
be the products of the values and culture and schooling they are expused to
in their formative years.
You can't control what happens in the home, but you certainly can do your
darnedest to teach every one of the young people in your classes to live a
clean life, to practice good personal hygisme, to exercise regularly and to make
good use of their leisure time.
GERALD'S LIBRARY
Was the - and bish and the school
-3-
administration can do much, with the backing of your school boards and trustees.
Your goal should be the lighted schoolhouse if you have not already achieved
it. The school should be a community center, a place that youngsters can come
to in the evening for healthful recreation, a place that gives them an opportunity
to work off steam and keeps them off the streets. Don't worry about the gym
floors and whether they're nice and shiny. Sure, they should be kept up, but
the important thing is that the gym gets used as much as possible. The more
kids there are who use it, the more successful your physical education and
recreation directors will be--and the healthier the community.
Where physical education and recreation are concerned, there should be
school 12 months a year. Many communities have popular, well-attended summer
recreation programs. This should be true of every community in America, with
inspirational leadership that will attract even the hostile, socially maladjusted
youth who particularly needs attention and a feeling of accomplishment.
I am thoroughly convinced that nearly all the young people who go wrong do
so to spite their parents in particular and society in ghneral. They need to
feel loved. And they want to feel important, at least a little bit important.
Maybe just being able to do five or 10 pushups would help. Anyway, they
desperately need a sense of sccomplishment and a feeling of belonging. You in
your profession can help to give it to them.
Work with the kid who is all arms and legs or who is spindly and week.
It's really more important to help him than the natural athlete who simply needs
BRARY
improvement.
1
This probably points up a need for more physical education instructors and
health and recreation specialists. Junior and senior high schools may well
need to expand their staffs in this direction. I think it makes just as much
sense to reduce the pupil-to-teacher ratio in gym and swimming classes as in
the New Math classroom.
I think all of this is important. In fact, it is vital if we are to help
make today's children competent to deal with their world.
You are experts in your field. And we are depending on you, just as we
look to other experts to repair our television sets and our lives.
We have to tune in to this new world of the teenager. If their parents are
sometimes inadequate in guiding them, then an even larger burden falls on you.
We need your help. We need you to help teach the creative use of leisure
time to those of our poung people who will be living the affluent life as adults.
If our children don't learn this now, they will probably encounter more friction
in their married lives as a result of it. We know that as spare time increases,
so too does the problem of living compatibly with your spouse.
As the wife of a retiring congressmen said: "I married my man for better
or for worse, but not for lunch."
In sports, we should bring up our children to participate and not just
watch. That means we should give more attention to the carryover sports like
tennis, golf, swimming and biking instead of putting all the emphasis on football,
basketball and baseball.
-5-
The desire to do things is almost universal among young people, and so we
have that going for us.
We parents need your help--and you need ours.
I want you to know that your horizons are expanding as far as the Congress
is concerned.
You may be acquainted with the fact that many members of the House are
determined to liberalise fedesal aid to schools by expanding state and local
options for use of the money and loosening federal controls.
This is an objective I have strongly supported. It has been carried out in
a number of instances in the 90th Congress.
Let me cite a piece of legislation which has been enneted into law and
directly affects you.
er
Under existing federal aid programs, teaching taaining institutes operated
by colleges and universities with federal funds are available only for certain
categorêes of educational personnel. But under the Education Professions
Development Act enacted this year and due to become effective next July 1,
the offerings of such institutes may be broadened to train or retrain teachers
in any subject generally taught in the schools eligible for support. This would
include health and physical education, as well as such subjects as English, the
social and physical sciences, foreign languages and the arts.
I would add a word of caution, however, the U.S. Office of Education has no
FORD
intention of substituting institutes for physical education instructors for
LIBRARY
other teacher training institutes now authorized. This probably means that
+6-
whether institutes are offered to you people will depend upon the extent to
which funds are available for the overall program in fiscal 1969.
To me, this points up a need for a clear-cut setting of national
priorities.
Let's determine just what is important to America and what programs best
serve the needs of American people.
My own view is that physical fitness and an ample supply of highly
qualified prople in the fields of health, physical education and recreation are
matters of great importance to our Nation.
That is why I cannet understand, for instance, why the Department of Health,
Education and Welfare spends research dollars to study the behavior of people
at cocktail parties but allocates hardly a dime to physical fitness research.
I say our federal research program needs a thoroughgoing reappraisal and
subsequent redirection.
The United States of America should be pre-eminent in its physical fitness
program. The rate of rejections of our young men for military service is
truly shocking, for instance.
For contrast, take a look at Capt. Bill Carpenter, Army's famous Lonely
End. Here is an American who possesses the kind of qualities built into a man
on the playing field, the courage to call for fire on his own position in
Vietnam when that position was overrun by the enemy.
Let's build strong men and women in America--physically fit men and vomen--
for it is only on that basis that our country ten truly move ahead. To allow
-7-
a generally low level of physical fitness to continue in this country is to
indulge in a shocking waste of human resources. This, indeed, makes for an
empty society. Marely to create a President's Council on Physical Fitness and
then do little or nothing to advance the cause is simply to pay lip service to an
ideal.
I feel myself allied with Toddy Roosevelt, who not only preached but lived
the strenuous life. For instance, I never walk when I can run. I agree
wholeheartddly with those medical men who say, "Bun for your life."
Toddy Roosevelt declared: "I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble
ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life."
TR was constantly concerned that America was going soft, so much so that
he warned:
"If we seek merely swollen, slothful ease and ignoble peace, if we shrink
from the hard contests where men must win at the hazard of their lives and at
the risk of all they hold dear, then bolder and stronger peoples will pass us
by, and will win for themselves the domination of the world."
This is why I say the United States must be preeminent in the world in
physical fitness. And this is why we must inspire our youth to believe that
they are capable of any task if only they will gird themselves for the struggle
and declare in their hearts, "I will and I can." Thank you.
....