Lesson Idea: Presidential Promises

Part of American history is teaching about the people who led it. When a President is elected, they give an inaugural speech, where they promise the country what they're going to do to help fix whatever mess the US is in that week. Most if not all of these speeches end up reflecting the main goals each President tries to achieve in their time in office; history has to determine whether or not they were successful. As a bit of an easier lesson, have the students analyze these "Presidential Promises" and prove if the President was mostly right or wrong. Even though it's near impossible to figure the level of someone's success, it can be a way for your students to learn more about the American government and how it's leaders have set out to do things in both the country's and their own interest. I recommend you have them do this project in a PowerPoint or Prezi presentation.

First, assign the students a President (there are 44 to choose from, so this shouldn't be too hard). For our example, let's use Lyndon B. Johnson, the US' 36th President, who served from 1963-1968. After you've given out the Presidents, tell the students they must analyze their backgrounds (birth, death, experience in politics, etc.) and their inaugural speeches (if they served two terms they could use either one; LBJ only had one) and locate at least 5 promises the President made to the country. Then, after transcribing the examples as quotes, the students must prove whether the President was successful in their promises or if they failed in them. Depending on how they tally up, they then must finish with a statement if the President was successful for the US, or if they were a failure, and why.

Using our example, let's say Billy used this quote from LBJ's Inaugural Address in 1965: "In a land of great wealth, families must not live in hopeless poverty. In a land rich in harvest, children just must not go hungry. In a land of healing miracles, neighbors must not suffer and die untended. In a great land of learning and scholars, young people must be taught to read and write.”

Billy should then explain what the quote means in layman's terms, which would look like this: Johnson made clear his position on the welfare and education of the American people, and is promising that he is going to change it for the better.

Then, on a new slide titled "Was It Kept?", Billy should give his reasoning on whether Johnson kept it or not using valid information and actions involving LBJ (Johnson did keep this promise, and prime examples of it are Social Security, welfare, and food stamps coming into affect under his term).

Some important guidelines for this project: No one should have all kept promises or all broken promises. Yes, Presidents weren't perfect, but give them some credit; they got where they are because a majority of the country wanted them there (except for a few). But don't treat them like saints; not even Lincoln had a perfect track record. Also, make sure your students have at least 10 sources cited or don't accept the project. Remember, they didn't all come up with it on their own!

Can you measure a man's worth by his words? For this project, it's a requirement! Get out their and teach your kids about the history of American politics, or you'll just be a "lame duck'!

These puns get worse each week, I swear.

-Pharaoh Noh-Tyep