Rice - Remarks at Makmurian Islamic School

Remarks at Makmurian Islamic School

Secretary Condoleezza Rice
Jakarta, Indonesia
March 14, 2006

Secretary Rice meets students at the Makmuriah Islamic School. State Department photo. Well, thank you very much for letting me visit your school. This is wonderful. I love being with the children and watching what education is doing here. The wonderful thing about education is that it opens your mind to all kinds of possibilities. You can learn to read, and when you read different worlds can be your world. You don't just live in Indonesia; you can live in Europe or you can live in Asia or you can live anywhere in the world because you're reading about another part of the world.

And you will decide what you are going to do in life because you'll learn what you're good at and what you're interested in. When I was a little girl, I wanted to be a musician. I liked mathematics in school. I wasn't very good at science and that was a problem because my mother taught science. But at one point of my life, I learned that what I really loved was learning about other cultures and other languages and people far, far away.

And so it's really exciting for me to be here in Indonesia. I'm very glad that the United States and Indonesia have joined in this partnership for this wonderful school. It is a part of an initiative that President Bush announced when he was in Indonesia two years ago. And today we are announcing $8.5 million for a program to bring Sesame Street to the schools of Indonesia.

Secretary Rice announces a U.S. - Indonesia partnership to develop an Indonesian version of Sesame Street. Following her announcement at Makmuriah Islamic School, she took some questions from the children Now, for almost 40 years, Sesame Street, Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy -- Miss Piggy, right -- and who? Elmo? Come over here, Elmo. Come on, Elmo. Come on. And Elmo have been teaching children to read and to think and to explore different worlds. And so we're happy that we can bring Sesame Street to these kids and to other kids around the country. And I'll bet you'll find that you'll start creating some other characters, maybe some characters that would live here in Indonesia. So I'll look forward to coming back and to see what you created.

I want to thank the teachers especially. Teaching is a wonderful and noble profession. Both my mother and father were teachers and I have great admiration for what you do. You're so important to society, so important to the future of the world. Thank you for teaching. Thanks for having me here.

2006/T8-3

Released on March 14, 2006

ENDS

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