Bush spoke on FIRST

[Billfred]

I found the speech he gave that day...

Originally Posted by President George Bush...the first

I want to tell you about something, in conclusion here, pretty unusual that I ran into -- I want to say discovered -- a few months ago up in New Hampshire. Dean Kamen is here. He is a very special individual. What I'm talking about, the discovery, was of something known as the Maize Craze competition. I'm not sure exactly how to describe it. Kids have to make a kind of a robot to fetch tennis balls out of a box filled with corn. Some of the best ideas sound pretty strange at first, but let me tell you, this is a terrific idea.

I was enormously impressed, Dean, by how this Maize Craze teams high school students with high-powered engineering teams from major universities and corporations, a great example of the private-public partnership that will lead us to excellence in the next century. I had forgotten what a salesman Dean is, but he just came into my office and he said, ``Now, if these corporations can sponsor Olympic athletes, why isn't it a great idea that they encourage young scientists in the same way?'' And he's absolutely right about that. Maize Craze is part of U.S. FIRST, a national alliance of business, education, and Government working to reverse declining student interest and performance in science and math.

I invited Dean to bring his winners here today, sponsors Xerox and NYPRO, and teams from Wilson Magnet and Clinton High Schools. We're honoring today a spectrum of achievers that goes then from high school to the pinnacle of research. In turn, we need to nurture every step on the educational ladder, for each depends on the soundness of the preceding one.

The full speech is here.