Bill Clinton: “She has seen many of the changes that all of us have witnessed in America. Worthington has evolved from a mostly white…”

“She has seen many of the changes that all of us have witnessed in America. Worthington has evolved from a mostly white and rural middle class community into one that is more economically and ethnically diverse. It is a community that has seen a shift in jobs from primarily agricultural jobs to factory jobs and other supporting jobs. Her greatest achievement has been her ability to help her students understand the complex relationships that exist in our changing world. And I might say that that may be the toughest thing we all have to do. We have to figure out how to meet the challenges tomorrow while preserving our basic values. We have to understand that for every complicated problem there is normally a simple, appealing answer that is wrong. That does not mean that our values can't be simple, straightforward, and unbending, but it does mean we have to understand these kind of complex relationships that she has done such a marvelous job of explaining to her students. She is the embodiment of the all-American teacher, a hard-working, dedicated, caring person, always working to do better. Her approach to teaching, they tell me, is just as fresh and enthusiastic today as it was 30 years ago. I think anyone who can do that and avoid burnout and, instead, keep burning on deserves an award for that, if nothing else. And she's done it while raising these three fine children of her own, one of whom has followed in her footsteps as a teacher. Mary Beth likes to say, good teaching changes lives. She has changed countless lives in 30 years of teaching, and I am proud that she is here as a symbol of all the good that America's teachers do every day all across America. [At this point, Ms. Blegen, National Teacher of the Year, made brief remarks.]”