Every four years, voters go to the polls to elect the next president of the United States. We find ourselves listening to campaign advertisements, news reports on the candidates and their activities and watching debates between the candidates. Bring the campaign to life with primary sources from the Library of Congress.
In anticipation of Constitution Day, our "Sources and Strategies" article in the September 2016 issue of Social Education, the journal of the National Council for the Social Studies, suggested provoking student interest in civic responsibility with an 18th century diary entry. The featured entry was that of James McHenry, written on September 18, 1787.
However, the now-ubiquitous Miranda warning only came into being fifty years ago, when the Supreme Court ruled that the rights of a criminal suspect, Ernesto Miranda, had been violated because he had not been informed of his Constitutional protections against self-incrimination.
The Library of Congress is home to millions of historical primary sources, including documents related to the work of Congress. Teachers can explore Congress.gov, the official website for U.S. federal legislative information, and consider how federal legislation can launch science learning.
It is difficult to miss talk of the upcoming presidential election. Speeches, debates, and soundbites fill television screens, newspapers, and websites. But unless you attend a live event for a presidential nominee, you may not hear his or her campaign song, typically a familiar, popular song selected to shape how voters perceive the candidate. Campaign songs from long ago, original scores or popular songs with rewritten lyrics, did the same.
As we prepare to celebrate Abraham Lincoln's birthday on February 12th and George Washington's birthday on the 15th we thought it might be helpful to remind our readers of some of the resources we have on the presidents of the United States.