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Happy President's Day!!! When I was younger we didn’t have a day to celebrate all U.S. Presidents.  Instead we split the day in two and recognized Abraham Lincoln and George Washington since their birthdays were both in February…..so, I’m linking to two past articles.  The first involves Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation.  This article originally appeared at History Is Elementary as well as American Presidents Blog in 2008.  You can view it here. This post appeared at History Is Elementary in 2007 and detailed a famous image we have of George Washington at Valley Forge.   I discuss how I used the image in the classroom and how controversy should not be avoided…but embraced to help students discover for themselves those areas that are white or black…but most of the time controversial areas are really just…. gray.

I have to admit that I have had my fair share of overdue library books before.    Stuff happens, right? We don’t mean to steal the book.  We just get a little sidetracked with our busy lives or the book ends up in a place where it is no longer in our line of sight and we forget all about it. We’re human, right? Why on Earth would we think that the same thing couldn’t have happened to President George Washington? (Head on over to American Presidents Blog here for the rest of my story……)

Over the Fourth of July holiday I was fortunate enough to make a stop at Andrew Jackson’s home, Hermitage, in Nashville, Tennessee. Unfortunately, President Jackson was out, but he had left behind all sorts of interesting things for me to look at. I thought I’d post them for a quick little game.   Don’t worry though…the answers are right here. Go on and take a look and then at the bottom of the post you will find my link to more pictures from Jackson’s lovely home. Okay…what’s this? It looks like carved ivory, doesn’t it?    It carried something both men and women used during Jackson’s time.      Yes, this little crab-shaped item has a little box in it that carried snuff.    You could slip it in your pocket.    I can just imagine the conversations it would start when Jackson brought it out during a meeting. Okay….what about this????      Forgive my fat fingers and the not-too-focused image.  ...

I love the beach.   The sand, the sparkling water, the sound and smell of the pounding surf, walking the beach with my head down hoping….hoping…. hoping for the perfect shell find.   The beach at morning……the beach at night…….seafood…..even the sunburn…..I love it all. I miss the beach, and the beach misses me.  Seriously.... I hope we can reunite soon, until then I soothed my longing for the beach by doing a little research regarding Harry Truman’s White House at the beach. Yes!    Even Harry was able to have some beach time! Read my post over at American Presiden ts here !

Did you know….. 32 years today CNN made its debut with a lead story regarding the attempted assassination of civil rights leader Vernon Jordan. New to my blogroll here at History Is Elementary is the blog Text Message , the blog of the textural archives services division of the National Archives. The most recent posting deals with the education program during World War II getting people to save their kitchen fat known as the Fat Salvage Campaign. I wish my hometown of Atlanta would have its own free mobile app like Cleveland. The app, known as Cleveland Historical is free and developed by the Center for Public History and Digital Humanities at Cleveland State University. The app lets you explore the people, places, and monuments that shaped the city’s history per their website's “about” page. Here’s another did you know …..a cold snap in Greenland in the 12th century may help explain why Viking settlers vanished from the islands, scientist said earlier this week in a Reuter...

The White House theme this year for Christmas decorations is “Simple Gifts”…. emphasizing what Mrs. Obama says are the simple things at Christmas time, such as music, children, friends, and family, and gifts made from nature. However, the Obama’s dog, Bo, has his stamp all over Christmas at the White House this year. A larger-than-life version of the Obama family pet, made of 40,000 twisted black and white pipe cleaners, is one of the first things tourists and other guests will see when they stroll through the White House all decked out for the holidays. Bo also features prominently in a 350-pound, white chocolate-covered gingerbread White House. A tiny version of the family dog made from almond paste sits on the edible grounds near of replica of Mrs. Obama’s fruit and vegetable garden. Bo’s signature….of sorts….is even found on the official White House Christmas card seen below: Notice everyone in the Obama family signed the card including Bo. His little paw print is seen along with e...

Puerto Rico is NOT a place you normally think about when you want to discuss violent uprisings, massacres, and plots to assassinate the president of the United States, but the Puerto Rico of the late 1940s and early 1950s was a much different place than it is today. My latest post over at American Presidents  gives you all the details. Click on through……

I’m not happy with Congress these days…..I don’t know many of my fellow Americans that are. My title says it all. They play using my tax dollars as their kick balls and monkey bars. However, before I go off on a rant that would cause my blood pressure to rise I want to go in a different direction with children….in particular “little boys.” The other day I posted a drawing as one of my mystery images for Wordless Wednesday .   I’ve reposted it below: The setting for the drawing is the United States Senate Chambers and the event being portrayed is the impeachment proceedings for President Andrew Johnson. The drawing was included in a book titled The Story of a Great Nation (1886) by   John Gilmary Shea a writer, historian, and editor. You can read my background article here regarding President Johnson’s impeachment over at American Presidents Blog . I included this drawing on my Facebook profile and the page I have there for History Is Elementary . One of my visitors there…..my...

I have this pair of magnets on my fridge. They don’t really belong to me. I confiscated them years ago from a student. He was throwing them up in the air, and as they whizzed past each other they bumped against each other making clicking and zinging noises as they fell back towards his outstretched hands. Over and over he threw them up in the air. The young man throwing them was a very intelligent student. It was possible for him to comprehend every word I said during those few precious minutes of instructional time, BUT there were students around him that weren’t as fortunate. They were being distracted. So was I for that matter. I confiscated them because they were disturbing a lesson….I confiscated them because I was protecting the general welfare of my classroom. I simply grabbed them and kept on going with my lesson without missing a beat. While I continued to talk I took the few steps to the back of them to place them on my desk. To find out what happened to those magnets and how...

Ask students today to brainstorm a few adjectives to describe politicians and the words honest, trustworthy, and true will rarely come up. Descriptors that are provided over and over are crook, shady, and liar. I have to wonder….is it the politician who is dishonest or does the dishonesty stem from such a convoluted and corrupt system that has been allowed to flourish? In 1975, following President Nixon’s resignation from the White House, Americans were longing for a simpler time….a time when they felt they had a more honest relationship with the man inhabiting the White House. Follow this link over to American Presidents for my post 1975: Nostalgic for Give ‘em Hell, Harry . If I still haven’t gotten your attention then follow the link to discover what the band Chicago and Harry Truman have in common

Haiti…it’s been a week and one day since the devastating earthquake and every day we hear more and more heartbreaking stories tempered with a triumph here and there. As I write this post one major news outlet reports 200,000 dead and 1.5 million homeless….and now a second earthquake. Heartbreaking…. Haiti has had such a sad and terrible history considering certain accolades. Haiti was the first independent nation in Latin America. The island-nation is the first black-led country in the world from post-colonial times, and Haiti has the distinction of being the only nation that gained independence as part of a successful slave rebellion. Yet…..falling victim to such a horrific natural disaster isn’t the only time Haiti has fallen prey to hard times. Times have always been hard for Haiti. The list is long, but to be brief I have to mention exploitation at the hands of the Spanish, the process of being racked with infectious diseases brought by the so-called civilized Europeans and the vir...

As my regular readers know I contribute articles to American Presidents Blog and for that reason I became interested in researching and writing about the yearly White House Christmas card that have been sent out by each president since the 1950s when it became an official practice of each administration. So, last month I once again began my search for the first card of the Obama administration. It’s been difficult to say the least, and I’ve found a little art mystery as well that has really challenged my research abilities. First off….even several days into December the only image I could find was the a picture of the inside of the card showing the sentiment and signatures. I’ve posted it below. Of course, I’m a traditional kind of girl, so in keeping with tradition here at History Is Elementary you will have to follow me over to American Presidents to discover more about this past season’s card and the art mystery I discovered within the White House walls. It truly astounds me tha...

When I was high school there was this girl a couple of years older than me who wore pink every chance she got. We were required to wear school uniforms, but had the choice of adding jewelry and scarves in order to feed the need to be unique and different. I threw my identity out for others to see by using an antique men’s collar bar to pin various handkerchiefs to the lapel of my “required” navy blazer. I alternated between a handkerchief my mother had brought back from a trip to the Caribbean and one that belonged to my great grandmother I had found languishing in a drawer at my grandfather’s. But this acquaintance of mine absolutely adored pink…..she accessorized with all things pink that she could get away with and constantly announced to anyone, much like Shelby Eatenton in the movie Steel Magnolias , that “pink was her signature color.” Unfortunately my friend and even the character of Shelby Eatenton can’t exactly corner the market on credit regarding the signature pink line bec...

Well, I’m waiting….I know they have been placed in the mail but haven’t seen an image of this year’s White House Christmas card…..yet. I know I won’t be getting one from the Obamas, but many people will be finding a card from the White House in their mailbox this week. For the last three years I’ve mentioned the card here at History is Elementary and published an image at American Presidents . While we are waiting for this year’s card to arrive here are some links to past postings regarding the White House Christmas card: 2008…. here and here 2007… here and here 2006… here and here I hope to be able to post the image of the 2009 card in the next few days. Stay tuned!

Halloween night Mr. EHT and I received a phone call that every parent dreads…one from a stranger identifying himself as an EMT. My mind worked furiously to comprehend what he was saying, but all I wanted to say was, “Surely sir, you have the wrong number.” He just kept rattling off information ---he was with my daughter, there had been an accident, he and his wife ( a nurse) had been driving by, he assured me they would stay by Dear Daughter’s side until she was in the ambulance. Ambulance?????? I finally got the words out…..”Is she….is she ok?” The voice on the other end of the phone said, “Yes, she’s complaining (hmmmm…….complaining….that’s good, I thought) of back and neck pain, and they have her on a backboard to stabilize her until they can see what is causing her pain. After arriving at the hospital, Mr. EHT and I discovered barring any findings from the x-rays, Dear Daughter was just very scared and hurting from the slam of the airbag deploying and the strain against the seatbel...

One of the things that continually have the bees in my bonnet buzzing is the issue of clothing and students. No, this is NOT the post where I opine about the serious lack of clothing in American classrooms nor is it the post where I profess to be astounded concerning the large amount of cleavage I see at the local high school. I’m not even going to write about how most school hallways resemble a plumber’s convention due to the amount of rear ends that wink at me. My point this time is the emphasis children place on particular brands of clothing – Abercrombie, Pacific Sun, American Eagle, Hollister…. Now, I’m not just picking on students. I’m guilty of liking certain brands of clothing as well – Ralph Lauren, Talbots, Liz Claiborne , and Jones New York to name a few. However, the difference is while I like certain brands of clothing I don’t alienate folks if they don’t wear the same thing as I do….I don’t call them names…..I don’t belittle them publically. Wear what you personally ...