Bill Clinton: “Thank you very much for that testimonial. [Laughter] He was great, wasn't he? You know, I was just sitting here trying…”

“Thank you very much for that testimonial. [Laughter] He was great, wasn't he? You know, I was just sitting here trying to-- one of the things that I have to concentrate on all the time is how to explain things in simple, fairly quick terms, because usually I don't get to communicate with all of you like this. Usually I get 8 or 9 seconds through them. So if someone were to ask me, say in a sentence what does all this amount to, you just sort of said it. Let me just--because I think it's important--for 50 years, more or less, after World War II, for most of that time, there was a clear distinction between the school and the workplace. And within schooling there was a clear distinction between academic programs and vocational programs. What this is really about is erasing those distinctions, merging the school and the workplace, and merging the academic and the vocational. For one thing, we have no choice, because a lot of these vo-tech programs require now--a vocational program--a high level of technical sophistication, and they are academic in the best sense. And for another we now know that there are a lot of people who learn by doing, not because they have a lower IQ, but because that's the way their minds work. And there are a lot of people who just learn by doing better than they learn by reading, hearing, and speaking. And I couldn't help but be moved by what Josh said here when he was describing his own experience, that through a series of work experiences he came to think of going to college. It used to be always the other way around. No telling how many people we deprived of the opportunity to develop themselves because we had this artificial barrier between school and work and an artificial barrier between what was academic and what was vocational. And really that's what this school-to-work program is designed to give every State a chance to set up this kind of network to get rid of those barriers. And you said it very well, sir, and I thank you. [A teacher advocated more in the way of communication between the companies and schools and advocated tailoring the curriculum to advance those goals in the classroom.]”