President Eisenhower, who was not always the best student, once wrote, "One cannot always read a man's future in the record of his younger days." Indeed, this review of the classroom experiences of presidents and first ladies from George and Martha Washington to Barack and Michelle Obama reveals that few made model students. Teachers reported that John F. Kennedy could "seldom locate his possessions," found George H.W. Bush "somewhat eccentric," and dubbed a sixth-grade Bill Clinton "a motormouth." In addition to chronicling the school days of these historic figures, this volume also relates their teaching experiences, the educational issues they addressed during their White House years, and intricacies of education at their time in history, providing an informative overview of American schooling over time.

In a remarkably fresh and historically grounded reinterpretation of the American Constitution, William Nelson argues that the fourteenth amendment was written to affirm the general public's long-standing rhetorical commitment to the principles of equality and individual rights on the one hand, and to the principle of local self-rule on the other.