Franklin Pierce, our nation’s 14th President, worked briefly as a country schoolteacher before he went into the field of politics.

While researching political figures who have also been educators, I’ve been surprised to learn how many residents of the White House fit the category. One of our former presidents who also worked as a teacher was Franklin Pierce, our 14th President. He served in the office from 1853 to 1857.

Franklin was born in Hillsborough, New Hampshire. As a youngster, he was never known for his scholastic abilities or for his diligence as a student. He was much more social than he was academic. After his graduation from high school, Franklin enrolled at Bowdoin College in Maine. There he was a popular fellow who, frankly, completed the least amount of work necessary to squeak by in his courses. He spent his time and energy socializing and pursuing outdoor activities such as hunting and fishing. In fact, at one point, his academic standing in his class was dead last.

One winter break, Franklin accepted a position as a country schoolteacher, even though he was only a teenager himself. He taught 50 students in a one-room schoolhouse, for which he was paid $12 a month. According to an account published later by one of his students, “Two or three of the older boys thought they would try the mettle of the young New Hampshire collegian, but it took only one or two old-fashioned floggings to cure them of all delusive ideas.” When the father of one of these students, greatly dissatisfied with Franklin’s classroom management strategies, angrily stormed the classroom to complain. The future politician met the disgruntled parent with an amiable smile, heartily shook his hand, offered him a chair, and expressed how pleased he was to see him. The parent was so impressed with Franklin’s friendly demeanor that he forgot the purpose of his visit and actually became fast friends with the neophyte teacher.

Franklin’s experiences in the classroom led to a turning point in his academic life. He became more serious about his studies and steadily improved his grades. By the time he graduated from Bowdoin College in 1824, he had risen from the last in his class to third from the top.

To learn more about Franklin Pierce as a student and a teacher, see the book From Classroom to White House: The Presidents and First Ladies as Students and Teachers by James McMurtry Longo, available from amazon.

Former First Lady Abigail Fillmore: She was not only the wife of President Millard Fillmore, before she married him, she was his teacher!

Many of the Presidents and First Ladies in America’s past were former school educators. One of them was Abigail Fillmore, who actually taught the school her future husband, Millard Fillmore, attended.

Millard was 19 years old and largely illiterate when he decided he needed more education. He enrolled in a school in a nearby town in the state of New York. The 22-year-old teacher was Abigail Powers. Millard, the oldest student in her class, quickly fell in love with his teacher, but he was too poor and too shy to do anything about it. Seven years after he became her student, she became his wife.

When Abigail became Millard’s teacher, she had already established herself in her career. She had been teaching for six years. In 1814, she accepted a position as a part-time school teacher at the Sempronius Village School. In 1817, she became a full-time teacher, and in 1819 she took on another teaching job and began to teach at the private New Hope Academy. She was then asked to open up a private school in Broome County, she opened the school. In 1825, she returned to Sempronius to teach in her original position.

When Millard was elected president in 1850, Abigall became the nation’s First Lady. In fact, because she did not follow local custom and quit her job after her marriage, she was the first First Lady who came to her new position as a woman with a prior career.

As First Lady, Abigail Fillmore created a White House library for future residents of the People’s House. With her husband, she supported education and championed hospitalization for the mentally handicapped rather than imprisonment and punishment.

To rad more about this amazing First Lady, click on this link to History.com.

Joe Biden with the future First Lady and educator, Dr. Jill Biden, on Nov. 7, 2020, when the President-Elect reminded the nation of the importance of teachers.

As our country struggles to process the results of the November 3 election, both politically and emotionally, it appears that the Joe Biden has been elected to our nation’s highest office. On November 7, he delivered remarks to his supporters, and to the nation, in his home town of Wilmington, Delaware, for the first time as President-Elect. In his speech, Biden recognized the importance of his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, to his life and to his campaign, and gave teachers throughout the country a reason to celebrate.

“I would not be here without the love and tireless support of Jill, Hunter, Ashley, all of our grandchildren and their spouses, and all our family. They are my heart. Jill’s a mom — a military mom — and an educator,” Biden declared. “She has dedicated her life to education, but teaching isn’t just what she does — it’s who she is,” he continued. “For America’s educators, this is a great day: You’re going to have one of your own in the White House, and Jill is going to make a great First Lady,” he asserted.

Dr. Biden earned her Bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Delaware in 1975. She earned two Master’s degrees, one in English from West Chester University in Pennsylvania and one in Education from Villanova University in Pennsylvania. She completed the requirements for her PhD in Education from the University of Delaware.

After earning her degrees, Dr. Biden accepted a position teaching English and reading in high school. She taught for three years at Claymont High School in Delaware, and then at Brandywine High School in Wilmington, Delaware (1991-1993). For five years she taught adolescents with emotional disabilities at Rockford Center  Psychiatric Hospital. From 1993 to 2008, she taught English and writing at Delaware Technical & Community College. Since 2009, she has worked as a professor of English at Northern Virginia community College.

When her husband was elected to serve as the Vice President under the Obama Administration, Dr. Biden continued to teach full time. She is believed to be the only Second Lady in history to hold down a full-time job while serving as Second Lady.

This indefatigable educator has declared she will continue to teach, even as she serves as First Lady. I don’t think anyone expects this of her, but those of us who are teachers understand. Once a teacher, always a teacher.

To read the full text of Biden’s remarks, click on this link: Biden Speech.