President Lyndon B. Johnson, our nation’s 36th president, was a teacher for English-language learners in Texas before he went to Washington, DC. Photo credit: LBJ Presidential Library

The role of Lyndon B. Johnson as our nation’s 36th president is well-known, but did you know that he used to be a school teacher? Before he launched his career in politics and went to Washington, DC, LBJ taught English language learners at a junior high school in Texas.

In 1928, LBJ needed a way to pay for his education at Southwest Texas State College. To do this, he accepted a position as a teacher at Welhausen School in Cotulla, Texas, a town on the US southern border. There he taught English as a second language to Spanish-speaking junior high school students.

Despite the language barrier between himself and his students, the future president proved to be an enthusiastic and inspirational teacher, organizing speech and debate tournaments and other activities to help the youngsters learn English. “I shall never forget the faces of the boys and the girls in that little Welhausen Mexican School,” Johnson once remarked. “I remember even yet the pain of realizing and knowing then that college was closed to practically every one of those children because they were too poor. And I think it was then that I made up my mind that this nation could never rest while the door to knowledge remained closed to any American,” he said.

When LBJ became president in 1963, he didn’t forget his days as an educator. While in office, he passed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in 1965. The legislation granted federal aid to students in elementary grades to achieve his goal of ensuring that every child received a quality education.

To read LBJ’s own words about his teaching experiences, follow this link to “LBJ the Teacher” on Humanities Texas.

Pat Nixon: The high school business teacher from Whittier, California, who became our nation’s 37th First Lady. She served from 1969 to 1974. Photo credit: Richard Nixon Foundation

Many well-known political personalities were once schoolteachers. One of these is Pat Nixon, who served as our nation’s First Lady from 1969 to 1974. She was employed during the 1930s as a business teacher at Whittier Union High School in Whittier, California. In fact, Pat was working as an educator when she met her future husband, a young and ambitious city attorney named Richard Nixon.

Pat Ryan Nixon was born into a family of farmers on March 16, 1912, in Ely, Nevada. She grew up in a rural community now known Cerritos, California. Her mother died of cancer in 1924, when Pat was only 12 years old. After her mother’s death, the young girl kept house for her father and two older brothers, William, Jr., and Thomas. It was a big responsibility for such a young girl.

In spite of her challenges, Pat graduated from Excelsior High School in 1929, and then worked her way through college working a variety of odd jobs. These jobs included retail sales, pharmacy manager, typist, and telephone operator. After her high school graduation, she first attended Fullerton Junior College in Fullerton, California, and then transferred to the University of Southern California, where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Merchandising, cum laude, in 1937.

In her first year of teaching, Pat Nixon earned only $180 a month, a princely sum considering the poverty in which she grew up. A pretty and popular teacher, the former Miss Ryan instructed courses in typing, bookkeeping, business principles, and stenography. On her performance evaluations, her supervisors wrote that she had a “splendid attitude toward young people,” they praised her ability to get “good results from them.” She was highly respected for her careful balance of friendliness, high expectations, and strict classsroom discipline. Her students remembered her fondly, writes daughter Julie Nixon Eisenhower in a detailed and personal biography published in 1986. The book is called Pat Nixon: the Untold Story, and is available on amazon.com.

In the political arena, Pat served her country as the wife of the Vice President from 1953 to 1961, and then as First Lady during her husband’s presidency, which spanned the years of 1969 to 1974. Her major platform as First Lady was to promote volunteerism. Through this platform, she encouraged Americans to address social problems at the local level through volunteering at civic organizations, hospitals, and rehabilitation centers. Like the First Lady, many teachers are known for emphasizing the importance of citizenship.

Pat Nixon passed away on June 22, 1993, in Park Ridge, New Jersey. She was 81 years old. She is interred next to her husband at the Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California.

Many First Ladies have supported education and even worked as teachers before they went to the White House. One of these was First Lady Lucy Hayes, who taught deaf and speech-impaired orphans. Photo credit: The White House Historical Association

Many of our nation’s presidential wives supported education and even worked as teachers before their husbands were elected to the highest office of the land. One of these was Lucy Hayes, wife of President Rutherford B. Hayes, our country’s 19th President. After serving in the US House of Representatives and as the Governor of Ohio, Hayes served as President from 1877 to 1881.

Lucy Webb was born on August 28, 1831, in Chilicothe, Ohio, the daughter of Dr. James Webb and Maria Cook.

As First Lady, Lucy Hayes was widely considered the role model of a modern educated woman. In fact, she was the first First Lady to have earned a college degree, having graduated from Cincinnati Wesleyan Female College in 1850

When her husband served as the Governor of Ohio, Lucy worked as a teacher of hearing and speech-impaired orphans. She often accompanied her husband on his visits to prisons, correctional institutions for boys and girls, hospitals for the mentally ill, and facilities for the deaf and mute. She was also part of a group that established a home for the orphans of soldiers.

As First Lady, she regularly visited schools in all corners of the young democracy. She made a special effort to include visits to schools dedicated to the education of African American men and women, Native Americans, and impoverished white students. Lucy supported her husband’s commitment to public education, and served as president of the Women’s Home Missionary Society, an organization dedicated to educating and improving the living conditions of the poor.

To read more about First Lady Lucy Hayes, see the  book From Classroom to White House: The Presidents  and First Ladies as Students and Teachers by James McMurtry Longo, available on amazon.

Former First Lady Lou Hoover, was a  third grade teacher and supporter of public schools. Photo credit: National First Ladies Library

Many of America’s presidential wives have had experience as public school teachers. One of these is Lou Henry Hoover, the wife of President Herbert Hoover, the 31st leader of our nation.

Lou Henry was born in Waterloo, Iowa, but spent much of her childhood moving from state to state. In addition to Iowa, she lived in Texas, Kansas, and California. After she graduated from high school, Lou Henry enrolled at the Los Angeles Normal School, now known as the University of California, Los Angeles. Later she transferred to San Jose Normal School, now known as San Jose State University. She earned her teaching credential in 1893. She also earned a degree in geology from Stanford University in California.

Herbert Hoover met Lou Henry while they were both attending Stanford University. Before enrolling there, she had been employed as a third grade teacher, and she had originally planned a long career in education. Her plans changed, however, when she decided to marry and travel abroad with her husband.

After he was elected president in 1928, President Hoover and the First Lady, who were both avid readers, were dismayed to discover that the White House Library established by First Lady Abigail Fillmore had disintegrated due to neglect. Reconstructing the White House library became one of the projects of their administration.

In August, 1929, Lou and the president discovered a community of impoverished Appalachian families near their summer retreat that was unable to provide a school for their children. The couple decided to establish, in secret, a school for the local mountain children, as well as a small residence for the teacher they hired to instruct them. The teacher was Christine Vest, a graduate of Berea College. The school was opened on Feb. 24, 1930, and came to be known as “The President’s Mountain School.” Lou visited the school frequently, picnicking with the children and chatting with their parents.

Lou was exceedingly proud of her efforts to help the underprivileged gain an education. “We believe that the democratic influence of a good public school in a good community gives a much better training than the unavoidable exclusiveness of even the best private schools,” the First Lady once expressed.

In addition to supporting the community school, Lou became a lifelong supporter of the Girl Scouts and their programs for outdoor camping and education. She was also instrumental in the era’s movement to expand opportunities for women in athletic activities.

To learn more about this amazing First Lady, see her biography at the National First Ladies Library.