Geller's speech moved from cosmic wonder to earthly urgency in its final passage. She noted that 'in this, the richest country in the world, one third of our children will spend at least a year in poverty before the age of 16.' This statistic was 'far from typical of other industrialized nations,' and it represented not just a social failure but a scientific one: 'With this unconscionable choice of priorities we are wasting our greatest resource for the future of all creative disciplines.' She returned to the Phi Beta Kappa founders to close: a hundred years ago, members had debated 'Whether a wise State hath any Interest nearer at Heart than the Education of the Youth.' For Geller, there was 'no debate.' The children's natural curiosity — 'they just want to know' — was the same drive that powered every scientific breakthrough. Protecting it was not charity but survival: 'It is easier and less expensive in the long run to prevent a loss of imagination than to try to restore that loss.'