Get Involved: Connect with the President
Inform Yourself!!!!
1. Who are America’s presidents? To learn about American presidents past and present,
visit the University of Virginia’s Miller Center (http://millercenter.org/president), which
provides a one-stop reference for American presidents. See photos of each president,
learn how long he served, his religion, home state, and much more. You can also visit the
White House website, (www.whitehouse.gov/about ) which counts down the presidencies
from the first to the most recent. What kinds of trends do you notice?
2. Understand the president’s role as head of the executive branch. Freedom Project
has created a 10-minute video
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQGp4acvBs0&feature=related&safe=active)
that focuses on the powers and limitations of the executive branch. The White House
also has a section on how the modern executive branch is organized. Visit
www.whitehouse.gov/our-government/executive-branch to understand the power of the
modern executive branch. What are the powers are the modern executive branch?
3. Evaluate America’s presidents. Presidents in the United States are ranked by a
multitude of factors. However, there is always disagreement about what should be
considered in the rankings. After considering the many different types of rankings,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_rankings_of_Presidents_of_the_United_States
consider the conservative blog’s argument
(http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/ranking-the-presidents/)
. What do you think should be considered when ranking the “best” and “worst”
presidents? Whom would you list as the five best and five worst presidents?