Some time back, I was able to offer a summer readings course in the history of the First Ladies of the United States. This course was so much fun to teach, and the students seem to enjoy it as well. Last year, the course was revised for a full semester and approved by the faculty as a permanent course in the catalog. YAY! Several of our graduating History and Humanities majors were unable to take the original readings course, and asked if the course could be taught this Spring term. We rearranged my teaching schedule a bit in order to place this on the Spring schedule. I am so excited!
We will have so much more time to spend on each of the ladies.
Sadly, we have lost Mrs. Ford since the course was first taught. And, Jackie Kennedy has been under a bit more scrutiny with at least two new books (although their contents is really old news). Years ago when I taught the joint enrollment students in TN, one of the young ladies started to do her research for the required term paper. She had chosen Mrs. Kennedy as her subject. I told her she could not use the Kitty Kelley book, and that she must generally try to avoid some of the more salacious material out there about "Jackie." Within a short period of time, this very nice young lady did exactly as I knew she would--she asked to change her topic. Even within the confines of scholarly treatments of Mrs. Kennedy, finding something positive about her beyond her decorating skills and trendsetting styles proved difficult. I am surprised that everyone is so surprised by the new books "revealing" her less-than-generous attitudes toward everyone.
Having said that, Mrs. Kennedy was like all of us--she had her likes, dislikes and personal opionions which had nothing to do with our perception of her. All of the First Ladies have probably committed this unforgivable sin--not living up to our images of them!
Hopefully, we can find something positive about each of them in this 16-week overview.
2 comments:
The course sounds like a good one, and for young people, an inoculation of common sense for analyzing gossipy reports of well-known personalities.
Now that my comments are up and running again--thanks for your comment here. The best part of this class is the realization of really how LITTLE their roles have changed. Being First Lady is still an impossibly difficult role, subject to gossip, unkindness and constant invasions of privacy. Abigail Adams said of her husband, "when he is cut, I bleed." That really sums it up!
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