Happy Birthday George Who????

A poll taken at the 10th oldest college in the United States and the first chartered after our independence recently commissioned a poll. The results were compiled from the responses of 800 adults from across America.

Asked who was the greatest president, 20 percent of those polled chose Lincoln. Reagan was picked by 15 percent, Franklin D. Roosevelt by 12 percent, John F. Kennedy by 11 percent, Bill Clinton by 10 percent and George W. Bush by 8 percent. Washington was picked by 6 percent. (see article here).

So, George Washington, the Father of our Country and generally recognized by virtually every historian for over 200 years as the-one-without-whom-we-would-never-have-become-the-nation-we-are-today ranks only 7th, below the likes of Bill Clinton, JFK and George W.

What have we become when most of those polled acknowledged that they really knew very little about George Washington and had not been taught anything about him since elementary school?

The poll is all the more disturbing when you discover that it was taken at the request of Washington College, which is, according to their website,

. . . a private, independent college of liberal arts and sciences located in historic Chestertown on Maryland’s Eastern Shore—was founded in 1782 and is the only institution of higher learning that the first president (who himself never attended college) patronized during his lifetime. Washington donated 50 Guineas to the newly founded school, gave his consent for it to be named in his honor, served on its Board of Visitors and Governors, and received an honorary degree in 1789.

Happy Birthday, George! And thank you!