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101 <br /> with true worth and dignity — a time when they will be ma- <br /> ture citizens in a country of which they can be justly proud. <br /> Public Schools are committed to serve all young people <br /> -- the gifted,the average, and the less academically talented. <br /> All are important; each has an inalienable right to do the <br /> best he is capable of doing; and to the extent that anyone <br /> fails to develop his full potential and to use it for worthy pur- <br /> poses the country is weaker and democracy has fallen short <br /> of achieving its high purpose. To design and support an edu- <br /> cational program that will serve them -all — not in the same <br /> way, but in ways adapted to their difference, capabilities and <br /> needs — is a challenge to all people who have responsibility <br /> for planning, supporting, and operating an educational pro- <br /> gram. The strength and future well-being of the country <br /> depend in large measure upon the manner in which people <br /> in every local school district, in every county, in every state, <br /> and in the nation as a whole respond to this challenge. <br /> The schools serve not only individuals as such, but the <br /> totality of society as well — society with its ideals, its values, <br /> its purposes, its commitments, its institutions, its enter- <br /> prises, its governmental processes. These two ends are in no <br /> way contradictory. They are but two dimensions of the same <br /> purpose. In serving the individual, the schools serve society <br /> as a whole, for society is but the totality of individual lives, <br /> purposes,and actions. <br /> When one looks to the circumstances in which the youth <br /> of this generation are maturing, getting an .education or fail- <br /> ing in the attempt, seeking employment, and striving to carve <br /> out places for themselves in the world about them, he sees — <br /> 1. Technological advance that has created new rela- <br /> tionships between people, .education, and work, <br /> with technical skills and knowledge, mental alert- <br /> ness, and creative capacities to endure hard physi- <br /> cal labor. <br /> 2. The specter of unemployment worrying families, <br /> frustrating neighborhoods, and haunting political <br /> leaders. <br /> 3. More young people entering the labor force when <br /> job opportunities in the unskilled and simpler <br /> occupational fields -are markedly decreasing. <br /> 4. Science and mathematics becoming increasingly <br /> important in almost every facet of the total cul- <br />