PART A (1-8)
1. Before doing any research, I predict the three most highly ranked presidents in US history will be Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, and George Washington and the worst might be Bill Clinton, Richard Nixon, and Herbert Hoover.
2. Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Theodore Roosevelt are the presidents that have been consistently identified as among the top four US presidents. Dwight D. Eisenhower and Harry S. Truman are the two presidents that have gone back and forth between the 5th spot while Theodore Roosevelt has been 4th for all three years.
3. While observing the data, I noticed that most of the rankings did not drastically change. Throughout the list, there was not a big drop or rise of ranking with possibly the exception of Ulysses S. Grant who went up in the rankings by 10 spots. Another thing I noticed is that the top ten presidents have been the same for the past three surveys with the exception of Lyndon B. Johnson and Ronald Reagan who were both 11th at one point and then made it into the top ten. The last thing I noticed was that the last 5 presidents on the list have gone down in ranking from the last survey. John Tyler, Warren G. Harding, Franklin Pierce, Andrew Johnson, and James Buchanan have all gotten less popular from when the other survey was conducted.
4. The participants in this survey seem to be well educated people. I say this because the participants vary from historians, to lawyers, to authors, to teachers, to journalists, to students of all very well known academic schools. I think that C-Span included this to show that these numbers were not made up and to also show the variety of the participants because this shows that the results had many educated viewpoints in it and that it was the best data that could have been taken. If they had not included this information, I would've wondered what the background behind this survey was and if the people that took this survey were educated on presidents and such. Like I said before, the participants in this survey seem to be well educated people. They all either come from very credited colleges or they have a profession that, to do well in, they have to be well educated. Having such good quality people makes for a more trustworthy and credible survey and results.
5. There are 10 categories that were used to determine the qualities for which presidents were ranked. These categories are: "Public Persuasion," "Crisis Leadership," "Economic Management," "Moral Authority," "International Relations," "Administrative Skills," "Relations with Congress," "Vision/Setting An Agenda," "Pursued Equal Justice for All," and "Performance Within the Context of His Times."
6. C-Span did not weigh every category the same. The Presidential Ranking Game: Critical Reviewand Some New Discoveries said that "the presidential ranking game has been a fixture of political journalism." They also stated that C-Span not only took into consideration the president's personalities, but also it "additionally reveals the extent to which expert evaluators reward presidents who succeed in taking advantage of the contextual opportunity to reorder an enervated political regime". That said, some categories are more important than others and I do think that C-Span did a good job with their survey overall.
7. If I was conducting this survey I would put "Public Persuasion", "Economic Management", and "Administrative Skills" as my top three categories. I would choose public persuasion because I feel that it is very important for a president to be able to control his people, in the best way. I chose economic management because I feel that being able to use money and such efficiently and for the best causes is a very useful skill to have. And I chose administrative skills because being able to run anything efficiently whether its a business or a country is important during a presidential term.
8. My initial predictions about best and worst presidents were similar but not quite identical to the C-SPAN survey data. My predictions were very similar for the top three presidents, but I was a little bit off when it came to the three worst presidents. I think this happened because of the gap in knowledge. Though I am in high school, presidents are not my strong suit while the participants in the C-Span survey have completed high school and have further expanded their knowledge on this topic.
1. Before doing any research, I predict the three most highly ranked presidents in US history will be Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, and George Washington and the worst might be Bill Clinton, Richard Nixon, and Herbert Hoover.
2. Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Theodore Roosevelt are the presidents that have been consistently identified as among the top four US presidents. Dwight D. Eisenhower and Harry S. Truman are the two presidents that have gone back and forth between the 5th spot while Theodore Roosevelt has been 4th for all three years.
3. While observing the data, I noticed that most of the rankings did not drastically change. Throughout the list, there was not a big drop or rise of ranking with possibly the exception of Ulysses S. Grant who went up in the rankings by 10 spots. Another thing I noticed is that the top ten presidents have been the same for the past three surveys with the exception of Lyndon B. Johnson and Ronald Reagan who were both 11th at one point and then made it into the top ten. The last thing I noticed was that the last 5 presidents on the list have gone down in ranking from the last survey. John Tyler, Warren G. Harding, Franklin Pierce, Andrew Johnson, and James Buchanan have all gotten less popular from when the other survey was conducted.
4. The participants in this survey seem to be well educated people. I say this because the participants vary from historians, to lawyers, to authors, to teachers, to journalists, to students of all very well known academic schools. I think that C-Span included this to show that these numbers were not made up and to also show the variety of the participants because this shows that the results had many educated viewpoints in it and that it was the best data that could have been taken. If they had not included this information, I would've wondered what the background behind this survey was and if the people that took this survey were educated on presidents and such. Like I said before, the participants in this survey seem to be well educated people. They all either come from very credited colleges or they have a profession that, to do well in, they have to be well educated. Having such good quality people makes for a more trustworthy and credible survey and results.
5. There are 10 categories that were used to determine the qualities for which presidents were ranked. These categories are: "Public Persuasion," "Crisis Leadership," "Economic Management," "Moral Authority," "International Relations," "Administrative Skills," "Relations with Congress," "Vision/Setting An Agenda," "Pursued Equal Justice for All," and "Performance Within the Context of His Times."
6. C-Span did not weigh every category the same. The Presidential Ranking Game: Critical Reviewand Some New Discoveries said that "the presidential ranking game has been a fixture of political journalism." They also stated that C-Span not only took into consideration the president's personalities, but also it "additionally reveals the extent to which expert evaluators reward presidents who succeed in taking advantage of the contextual opportunity to reorder an enervated political regime". That said, some categories are more important than others and I do think that C-Span did a good job with their survey overall.
7. If I was conducting this survey I would put "Public Persuasion", "Economic Management", and "Administrative Skills" as my top three categories. I would choose public persuasion because I feel that it is very important for a president to be able to control his people, in the best way. I chose economic management because I feel that being able to use money and such efficiently and for the best causes is a very useful skill to have. And I chose administrative skills because being able to run anything efficiently whether its a business or a country is important during a presidential term.
8. My initial predictions about best and worst presidents were similar but not quite identical to the C-SPAN survey data. My predictions were very similar for the top three presidents, but I was a little bit off when it came to the three worst presidents. I think this happened because of the gap in knowledge. Though I am in high school, presidents are not my strong suit while the participants in the C-Span survey have completed high school and have further expanded their knowledge on this topic.
PART B (9-10)
"On March 16 we celebrate the anniversary of James Madison's birthday. Madison, traditionally viewed as the Father of the United States Constitution, is also seen by many as a defender of open government. He once wrote, "[a] popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps, both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives."1
In a similar vein, he asserted that "the advancement and diffusion of knowledge" is "the only Guardian of true liberty."
"On March 16 we celebrate the anniversary of James Madison's birthday. Madison, traditionally viewed as the Father of the United States Constitution, is also seen by many as a defender of open government. He once wrote, "[a] popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps, both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives."1
In a similar vein, he asserted that "the advancement and diffusion of knowledge" is "the only Guardian of true liberty."
9. The anniversary of James Madison's birthday falls on March 16th. James Madison, who you might know as "the Father of the Unites States Constitution", preserves the open government. During his time he stated that if a government is run by misinformed people, it will end in disaster. He said that people that are educated and put together will always rule over the ones that are not and that the ones that urge to rule over others, have to be prepared with what adversity that will bring them. Along with that, he stated that he believed that the only way to a stronger and advanced community is through educating the people. James Madison is saying that to get to a community of unity and strength, we have to educate the people so that everyone can have knowledge and make the best decisions to avoid disaster.
10. Both Madison and AHA bring up very good arguments and points abut history. Madison talks about how knowledge is essential if you want to have a well rounded community. He talks about how without knowledge, the ignorance of people would get the best of them and they would make less than desirable decisions that would eventually lead to disaster. AHA talks about how how the knowledge of history is what will advance us as people and make us and our country better. AHA says that having knowledge about historical events will give us the push in the right direction to make the right decisions.
Both the view of Madison and AHA are very compatible with each other. Both of them talk about how knowledge is the key role in what betters a community and what leads it to success. There are a few slight differences, however. While Madison talks about how general knowledge will help us, AHA specifies and says that the knowledge about our country's history is what will help us. Knowing our history will, in turn, give us the understanding of what has happened and the mistakes that we have made. Both are great views on how knowledge advances a community.
PART C (11-15)
11. I have grown a lot this past year. Prior to this year, I had never used Blogger and using is has taught me many things. I have learned how to correctly research, annotate, paraphrase, and hyperlink. I didn't know how precise and how accurate you had to be when doing any of these things until this year but I am very glad that I learned it. Through this year, I have observed that my writing and vocabulary has improved. My ability to understand my research and evaluate it has improved from the beginning of the year as well. Now I know what plagiarizing is and how to correctly avoid it. There are many things I have learned this year, not only in a historical context but in a writing and research context that I did not know before.
12. The five parts that I was most proud of from the film-history project were: the movie I chose, the invitation, the menu, the exhibit, and guest list. I was proud of the movie I chose because it showed what it was like to be a soldier suffering from PTSD. My brother is in the Navy and he suffers from a mild case of it so I liked that I could somewhat see what he was going through. I was proud of the invitation because I liked the template I used and I liked the games, activities, and theme for the party that I came up with. I was proud of the menu because I thought that some of the food I picked was funny and also that it had a deeper meaning than just what it was, and I also picked a food that was served in a scene in the movie. I was proud of the exhibit because I was able to find a lot of really cool artifacts from that war and that were used in the movie to have at my party. And finally, I was proud of my guest list because I included both the people from the movie and their actors so that they could bond over the movie, and I invited the woman who won the medal herself so that everyone could meet her and ask her anything they wanted about herself and so that she could talk with them too.
13. I find Rainey's Blog on the movie Jackie to be excellent work. I think this because she includes everything that she learned about the movie in her in-class write from details about the Kennedy's that everyone knew to little things that she observed from the movie. Her annotates sources blog was very neat and the links seemed to work and I knew what I was going to before I clicked on it because she did them correctly. Her menu was well thought out and informed me on some things I did not know about the Kennedy's and what food they liked. Her exhibit had a lot of interesting artifacts about the Kennedy's life that and would be really cool to have in person at her party. And her invitation looked very formal and the guess list was put together and thought out. She did a very good job.
14. Quote:
15.
Jackie Robinson - jackierobinson.com
I chose an image of Jackie Robinson because I think what he did in history was awesome. In 1947, he broke the racial barrier in baseball and became the first African American MBL Player. Not only did he do this, but he also got inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.
Abraham Lincoln - thewhitehouse.gov
I chose a picture of President Abraham Lincoln because I have a lot of respect for what he did. In 1861, he became the United State's 16th president. Later, in 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation. This said that all of the people that were held as slaved shall be freed. Though he was later assassinated in 1865, he sparked the start of a movement.
National Memorial for Peace and Justice - eji.com
I chose a picture of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice because it really moved me when we went there on our field trip. As I was walking around I could feel exactly what the architects were trying to make me feel: claustrophobic. I felt enclosed with everything as I was walking down and as I walked into the square, I felt like everything surrounded me and that there was nothing I could do about it. This made me really think about the lynchings in out history. And as I read the stories as to why people were lynched on the walls, I was frustrated as to why we did these things to other humans I think that everyone should visit monuments and memorials to deepen their knowledge on our history, not forget and hide it.
12. The five parts that I was most proud of from the film-history project were: the movie I chose, the invitation, the menu, the exhibit, and guest list. I was proud of the movie I chose because it showed what it was like to be a soldier suffering from PTSD. My brother is in the Navy and he suffers from a mild case of it so I liked that I could somewhat see what he was going through. I was proud of the invitation because I liked the template I used and I liked the games, activities, and theme for the party that I came up with. I was proud of the menu because I thought that some of the food I picked was funny and also that it had a deeper meaning than just what it was, and I also picked a food that was served in a scene in the movie. I was proud of the exhibit because I was able to find a lot of really cool artifacts from that war and that were used in the movie to have at my party. And finally, I was proud of my guest list because I included both the people from the movie and their actors so that they could bond over the movie, and I invited the woman who won the medal herself so that everyone could meet her and ask her anything they wanted about herself and so that she could talk with them too.
13. I find Rainey's Blog on the movie Jackie to be excellent work. I think this because she includes everything that she learned about the movie in her in-class write from details about the Kennedy's that everyone knew to little things that she observed from the movie. Her annotates sources blog was very neat and the links seemed to work and I knew what I was going to before I clicked on it because she did them correctly. Her menu was well thought out and informed me on some things I did not know about the Kennedy's and what food they liked. Her exhibit had a lot of interesting artifacts about the Kennedy's life that and would be really cool to have in person at her party. And her invitation looked very formal and the guess list was put together and thought out. She did a very good job.
14. Quote:
“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.” - Abraham Lincoln
This quote is important to me because I believe that it is true. It shines a light on a very controversial topic and I believe that Lincoln’s view is very accurate and I appreciate his point of view. Many times in history and in our world today, people are always saying how if they were given the power, they would essentially be perfect and change everything for the better to make everyone happy. That, however, is not the case. Sometimes these people do their best to do what they said they would and other times it’s quite the opposite. There have been countless stories in the past where people use their power either for good or for bad but, as Lincoln said, if you really want to test someone’s character, give them power. Whether they wisely use it or take it for granted, you will find out their true character, no matter how much adversity they can withstand.
15.
Jackie Robinson - jackierobinson.com
I chose an image of Jackie Robinson because I think what he did in history was awesome. In 1947, he broke the racial barrier in baseball and became the first African American MBL Player. Not only did he do this, but he also got inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.
Abraham Lincoln - thewhitehouse.gov
I chose a picture of President Abraham Lincoln because I have a lot of respect for what he did. In 1861, he became the United State's 16th president. Later, in 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation. This said that all of the people that were held as slaved shall be freed. Though he was later assassinated in 1865, he sparked the start of a movement.
National Memorial for Peace and Justice - eji.com
I chose a picture of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice because it really moved me when we went there on our field trip. As I was walking around I could feel exactly what the architects were trying to make me feel: claustrophobic. I felt enclosed with everything as I was walking down and as I walked into the square, I felt like everything surrounded me and that there was nothing I could do about it. This made me really think about the lynchings in out history. And as I read the stories as to why people were lynched on the walls, I was frustrated as to why we did these things to other humans I think that everyone should visit monuments and memorials to deepen their knowledge on our history, not forget and hide it.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(webp)/shrimp-590098613-59ad3329c41244001053b976.jpg)
