Honoring Our Presidents - The Good, the Bad, and the Forgotten

As a citizen, I'm compelled to comment on yet another holiday. I'm still in disbelief I actually blogged about Valentine's Day.

Today is Presidents Day and to most Americans this means banks and government offices are closed. No mail delivery today. That's about it. At least it's one less day for banks and the government to make a total mess of our lives.

There's no birthday cake for George Washington with 277 candles nor Abe Lincoln with 200 (that I know of) and someone in charge needs to make cake a priority on Presidents Day (Hillary, will you fit this in before your inaugural Asia trip?) We all know birthday cake calories don't count and with a cake large enough to hold a combined 477 candles, we could eat a lot of guiltless cake. Who needs another parade or red, white, and blue bunting?

I suppose the purpose of Presidents Day is to allow schools to focus on educating our children about presidents and government. (Oh, and to promote patriotism.) I hope our future generation is learning something stimulating about presidential history and that it involves information not on a standardized test. When will we figure out that our kids need creative ways of learning without concentrating solely on which circle to fill in with a #2 pencil?

I'm not suggesting that the assassinations of Lincoln and JFK or Washington's siege of Boston be reenacted in the classroom. Although most kids see much worse on TV and video games. We certainly don't want Monica Lewinsky to be portrayed in any manner or George W.'s spelling to be showcased.

I've been out of public school for longer than I care to mention. Today, I had to think back on what I learned about Presidents Day. Most of it had to due with memorization. So I put my memory to the test and beginning with Washington I made it to president #7. For some reason I hit a mental block after Andrew Jackson. I fared a little better starting with Obama and working in reverse. I actually made it to Warren G. Harding or 16 back. At least I remembered the 11 presidents in office during my lifetime. I admit to almost forgetting Ford.

Why is it so difficult to recall all the guys in the middle? I remembered Lincoln, Johnson, Buchanan, Teddy Roosevelt, Polk, and Taylor, and except for Lincoln at #16, I don't know their numbers. I also remembered Grover Cleveland because once we visited an historic house in Nashville where a special bath had been designed to accommodate his large size. Also, the Baby Ruth candy bar was named after Cleveland's daughter. Considering my love of sugar, this wasn't hard to remember along with the snack cakes named for Dolley Madison.

The in-between president names remind of those one would find in an elite country club registry - Harrison, Tyler, Pierce, Hayes, Arthur, McKinley, Van Buren. Maybe this is why I've blocked them from my memory.

During this exercise in futility, I actually remembered an excellent learning experience. I was one of several 7th and 8th grade Speech students presenting an after-school program highlighting excerpts from famous FDR speeches. We were dressed in red, white, and blue. I wore a white cotton dress with navy blue trim that Mom sewed just for the occasion. Each student stood on a designated "X" on the dark stage in the school auditorium and when a beam from a red, white or blue spotlight blinded us one by one, we were cued to give our our speech.

I remember arriving and my teacher advising one of the student speakers had strep throat (instead of failing to memorize FDR) and I was to take his part in addition to mine. No pressure! I remember my bit was an excerpt from the famous inaugural speech "...the only thing we have to fear is fear itself..."

This 1933 speech speaks eerily to the current state of the union. In that life is cyclical, does this mean Coolidge and Hoover preceding FDR were as lame as George W.? Most likely.


CitizenB