Happy President’s Day! While we all enjoy a short break from the regular routine, we won’t be sharing the usual Monday Mix-ins today, but we do have a few supplemental links we’ve highlighted in the past that you can explore with your kids. This holiday presents a wonderful opportunity to discuss our character trait this month as well: the humility of the two presidents, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, who are usually the focus of this holiday.
- First, let’s look at a longstanding, time-honored tradition: the annual Senate reading of George Washington’s 1796 Farewell Address. Each year since 1896, the United States Senate has recognized George Washington’s birthday (February 22) by selecting one senator to read aloud the address during a legislative session. Parties alternate each year, and it usually takes around 45 minutes to read. After each year’s reading of this memorable, patriotic message, the designated senator signs his or her name and leaves a note in a black, leather-bound book. These entries range from brief remarks to more elaborate personal stories and comments. Many of these entries, along with a list of every senator who has read the address, can be found here at the United State Senate website.
- This was last year’s address, read by Democratic Senator, Gary Peters: (If you or your student would like to read along, here is a pdf of the full text)
- If you’d like to see a couple of the actual pages of the manuscript, you can find it here.
- There are modern versions of Washington’s speech, which of course lose much of the beautiful (though difficult) language, but are easier to understand – here’s one if you would like an easier version of his message for your kids or family to discuss.
- Here is a fun article with two short stories about George Washington that you could read to your kids to discuss humility.
- And here is an interesting article from Psychology Today that you could summarize and discuss around the dinner table, about how President Lincoln’s humility made him a great leader.
- Lastly, we leave you with “One Last Time” from the Broadway hit musical Hamilton, about Washington’s farewell, which includes excerpts from the actual address:
For more on President’s Day, we have an extensive resource packet for our currently enrolled families. Make sure to look for it under holiday resources on your parent portal page.
SLO Classical Academy is not affiliated with any of the above-mentioned websites, businesses or organizations.
