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Well the USA "celebrated" Presidents' Day last week but I can't help but wonder -- what exactly is this holiday? When I was young we celebrated Presidents Washington and Lincoln's birthdays but that evolved into the generic "Presidents' Day" set on the same Monday each year thus creating a three day weekend dominated by sales at furniture stores.

For my niece Presidents' Day was a day off from school -- which reminds me that I need to ask her if she was given any presidential history homework by her school. Instead of yet another day off from school I would have preferred that my niece and her classmates spend Presidents' Day sitting in school studying the Office of US President from a political, economic, historical , and cultural context. Don't you agree that having such a "dedicated day of study" (DDS) would yield better results for civil society? What were our teachers doing on Presidents' Day? As a taxpayer I would like a better return on my "investment" in our school system via a series of DDS's. Just imagine a series of DDS's over the school year and summer vacation -- Memorial Day (does anyone even remember what this is for today? I do.) , Fourth of July, Labor Day (the teachers' union should have an interest in this idea), etc.

No I am not suggesting students need to sit in a classroom on the 4th of July but given the prevalence of Internet access why not develop some online courses that students are expected to do during the summer vacation so we minimize the "drop off" in learning teachers always notice in students happening by the time school resumes in the fall.

I did notice a few newspapers devoting some space to Presidents' Day including a Presidents' Day poll compiled by Gallup which showed how Americans ranked the "greatest president" of all. The results were as follows:

1. Abraham Lincoln -- 18%
2. Ronald Reagan - 16%
3. John Kennedy - 14%
4. Bill Clinton - 13%
5. Franklin D. Roosevelt - 9%

Such a list would be a good starting point for students to study the Office of President in greater depth to see if they agree with the polling results.

More homework please,

Todd