Overview:
On July 21, 2024, President Joe Biden announced he would not seek a second term and would instead endorse Kamala Harris.
I’ve been a teacher since Bill Clinton. In my first year, when kids didn’t speak up during a presentation I’d say, “Let’s use the same voice a president would use to give a speech.” Later, after the September 11th attacks, I’d tell my class how some things must be taken seriously, just like President Bush must do at this time. As Obama began his presidency, I often told students to consider the work ethic required for someone to become a president. Or I’d ask them after a squabble, “Our class is like a mini-society of people. Could President Obama behave this way and get his work done?” In all of those years, I never once had a student stop me, challenge me, or debate. The old “act like a president” trick worked every single time.
In 2017, I stopped my class after a particularly difficult lesson and I asked them, as I had many times prior, if folks like presidents could behave this way.
One student chittered and told me, “Mr. Courtney. I think this is pretty good for a president’s behavior from what I see lately.”
Looking around the room that day, I saw heads nod from whiteboard to whiteboard. I knew something about the way a president was meant to role model behavior for my students wasn’t the same. And to be honest, since that day, I haven’t felt the need to compare a president’s behavior to the expected behavior of my students-until today.
Politics aside, what President Joe Biden did Sunday, stepping aside in an election he clearly didn’t want to leave was exemplary. Doing so in order to give someone else a chance to win, is the type of thing I’ve been waiting to see from a president for a long, long time. It’s the type of example I want my students to emulate and have always wanted to emulate.
While his political rival, Donald J. Trump, the next morning called Joe “the worst president in the history of our country” and “Crooked Joe,” President Biden simply endorsed Kamala Harris in his stead and asked for people to support the campaign. While his political rival mocked President Biden about not “leaving his basement,” our President of the United States of America gave the reasons why he wanted our Vice President to fight in his place.
And that’s the first time in a long time I’ve seen the type of patriotism and leadership that students of the United States of America should emulate.
So thank you, Joe. I can only hope that whoever is selected as our next president will behave in a way that students in my class will say is presidential again.
