Observing Presidents Day

Teaching About Presidents Day

 What message are we sending to our students? To celebrate Presidents Day we are giving student two days off from school and holding giant sales at the local mall. I don think that President’s Washington or Lincoln would want be remembered in that way. How are teachers addressing this holiday in class and how should they?  Instead of honoring just two presidents and their birthdays, we now honor all of them.  What activities can we use to demonstrate the power and responsibilities of the office of the President of the United States?  The job of President of the United States is a daunting task and the American people have taken great pains to elect the right man for the job (Someday soon we may have a woman president). How can teachers transmit the importance of the Presidency and introduce students to the men who have shaped American history and policy?

A Look at Presidential Libraries

Classrooms of Democracy.

The archives of 13 American Presidents are housed in their Presidential Libraries. Spread out across the United  States, each library tells the story of  a president in a truly special way. The Dwight Eisenhower Library in Abilene, Kansas, pays tribute to Ike as a great general. The FDR Library in Hyde Park, New York, tells the story of our longest serving president and the first president with a physical handicap. The Jimmy Carter Library in Atlanta, Georgia proudly displays his Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to broker peace in the Middle East. My personal favorite is the Harry Truman Library in Independence, Missouri. Truman ascended the presidency during World War II upon FDRs death.  It was ultimately his responsibly to authorize the use of the first atomic bomb against Japan.

Teachers can direct students to the sites of each library and take a virtual tour. Finding all of the libraries on a map of the US is great geography lesson. Of course, if you happen to live near enough to one for an in person field trip, so much the better.

Here are web links to several of the President Libraries and museums.

http://www.archives.gov/presidential-libraries/ 

http://www.jimmycarterlibrary.gov/

http://www.nixonlibrary.gov/

http://www.lbjlibrary.org/

http://www.jfklibrary.org/

http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/

http://www.reaganlibrary.com/

http://www.trumanlibrary.org/

http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/

Take a look at the Democracy Project web site They excellent lesson plans for an assignment entitled “ The Perfect President. This site contains objectives, materials list, as well as assessments.

( http//www.pbskids.org/democracy/parentseducactors/perfectpresident.html

Suggested Readings (there is no shortage of books about the Presidents and the Presidency)

Presidents- Every Question Answered by Carter Smith (C.2004  Hylas Publishing)

Woodrow Wilson – Princeton to the Presidency by W.Barksdale Maynard (c.2008 Yale University Press)

Dutch- A Memoir of Ronald Reagan by Edmund Morris ( c.1999 Random House)

Presidential Courage by Michael Beschloss (c.2007 Simon and Schuster )

Richard Milhous Nixon- The Rise of an American Politician  By Roger Morris ( c.1990 Henry Holt and Co.)

America’s Presidents – A Museum in a book  by Chuck Wills ( c.2007 Rutledge Hill Press)

note. This book has reproductions of presidential artifacts suitable for classroom use.