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TEACHERS IN THE WHITE HOUSE

© John S. Cooper

Education is a major issue in the current election campaign. Many of our past presidents had first-hand experience in the education field. Some were teachers, and others were college presidents.

The first President to be a teacher was John Adams. After his graduation from Harvard, he became the master of the grammar school in Worcester, Massachusetts. Soft-spoken and introverted, Adams did not enjoy teaching. He described his students, ranging in age from five to fifteen, as “little runtlings, just capable of lisping A, B, C, and troubling the master.” For Adams, his classroom became a “school of affliction.” He studied for the law in the evenings, and after two years, left teaching to become a lawyer.

Thomas Jefferson, after he left the White House, founded the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. In addition, he designed the buildings and campus and established the curriculum. He also served as the first Regent (what we would call a president today). To this day, students there refer to the University of Virginia as “Mr. Jefferson’s University.” The Rotunda and the Serpentine Walls are famous examples of Mr. Jefferson’s architectural designs.

James Madison and James Monroe not only followed Jefferson as President, each followed him as Regent of the University of Virginia. Madison became Regent upon Jefferson’s death, and Monroe served for five years after Madison retired. In the years they were in charge, the University of Virginia continued to grow and became one of the leading schools in the nation.

Andrew Jackson taught school for less than a year in 1783. He taught near Waxhaw, South Carolina, where he was raised. He left teaching when he moved to Salisbury, North Carolina to study law. Like Adams, he did not enjoy teaching.

Millard Fillmore taught school while he studied law. He quit teaching when he became a lawyer. Fillmore’s wife also taught school, and continued to teach after they were married, which was unusual for a woman to do then. After a successful career in the New York legislature and the U.S. House of Representatives, Fillmore lost his bid to become governor of New York in the election of 1844. He then became the first chancellor of the University of Buffalo. He served for only one year, leaving the University of Buffalo when he was elected comptroller of New York.

Probably the President with the most involvement in teaching was James A. Garfield. After an illness forced him to quit his job driving a team of horses pulling barges on the Ohio Canal, he enrolled in the Geauga Academy. After his first term there, he supported himself teaching in the local district school. He then attended Western Reserve Eclectic Institute, which later became Hiram College. After three years there, he studied for two years at Williams College. The president of Williams College, Mark Hopkins, had a great influence on Garfield. Garfield later described his idea of the perfect college as “a simple bench, Mark Hopkins on one end and I on the other. . . .” After he graduated from Williams in 1856, he returned to Hiram College as a professor of ancient languages and literature. (It is said that Garfield could write one sentence in ancient Greek with one hand and another sentence in Latin with the other hand, simultaneously.) The next year, he was chosen president of Hiram College. Garfield was about to board a train at Union Station in Washington headed for his 25th reunion at Williams College when Charles J. Guiteau shot him.