To mark America’s 250th anniversary, Retro Report created a new hourlong documentary video for PBS, “In Pursuit: Lessons Of American Leadership.” The film, which premiered Oct. 27, examines how presidents and first ladies have navigated war, political division, social change and moments of national uncertainty. (The special is available to stream on Retro Report’s website.)
Retro Report created three additional short docs and related classroom resources to teach about first ladies: Eleanor Roosevelt: From First Lady to Human Rights Leader; The Fight to Save the White House from Demolition (Bess Truman); and This First Lady Wanted Her Husband To Be President More Than He Did (Nellie Taft).
Clayton Sweeney, a member of Retro Report’s Council of Educators, wrote two of the lessons. In this article, he shares how teachers can incorporate these resources.
Lesson Plan: Bess Truman and the Preservation of the White House
Most students think of the White House as a symbol, not a building with sagging floors and a budget. When Retro Report’s video shows the Trumans moving across the street to live at Blair House because engineers feared the floors at the White House might collapse, students meet a question every community faces: When public property is failing, who decides what will be saved and who will pay?
This lesson makes separation of powers feel concrete. Students begin by acting as school board members and voting on their own aging high school. Then they place four real White House decisions, including Truman’s balcony, Carter’s solar panels and the modern security fence, on a continuum between legislative control and independent executive power. There’s no single right answer, so students must defend their placement with evidence, which is the habit at the heart of civic reasoning.
Students already have opinions about what their own schools and neighborhoods deserve. This lesson shows that the same tensions over cost, history, safety and authority have shaped the most famous house in America, and that someday they will be the ones making the decisions.
Lesson Plan: First Ladies: The Power of an Undefined Role
When I first watched this film, I was struck by a simple question: How does someone with no constitutional power shape national policy? That question is at the heart of this lesson.
Students begin by looking for the role of the president’s spouse in the Constitution. From that empty spot on the chart, they investigate how women like Eleanor Roosevelt and Michelle Obama turned an unofficial position into a platform for historic preservation, conservation, mental health reform, health care, global health and children’s nutrition. Working in small groups, students research one first lady’s background, strategies and influence, then build a museum-style exhibition panel to teach their classmates.
My hope is that this lesson shows that influence doesn’t come only from elections and titles. It also comes from persuasion, coalition building and personal conviction. A gallery walk activity poses a more challenging question: Does informal power by unelected figures strengthen or undermine democratic accountability?
These stories show that personal experience can drive public change. When students see how a first lady’s background shaped her cause, they start asking what their own experiences might lead them to care about, and act on.
Visit Retro Report’s America 250 page today for resources that explore the people, ideas and events that shaped the nation’s founding.
