"A History of Eisenhower"

by Julie Simonson and Tara Bryant

Projects intended audience and beneficiaries

"A History of Eisenhower" is intended to benefit jr. high students who attend Dwight D. Eisenhower Jr. High School in Taylorsville, Utah. More specifically we target seventh graders because we think that it is important for students to understand why the school they attend is named after a United States President. Most seventh graders have not had a history class that has emphasized Unites States history. Targeting these students gives them the opportunity to learn about the school they attend. Expanding the intended audience to eighth and ninth graders is also an opportunity for older students to learn about Dwight D. Eisenhower if they have not already. To inform students of prominent people in history, such as United States Presidents, gives them information that is useful and interesting. It is important to understand and have a knowledge of why history is important.

Local contact person(s) or agency

Our contact person is Linda Bryant, currently an assistant principal at Dwight D. Eisenhower Jr. High School. We ask Linda about some of the students to try and find out what kind of things about the president the kids didn’t know. To our surprise a great deal of kids didn’t know anything about this president, most knew that he was a president but that is where it ended. This is one of the major reasons we decided to make this handout for the new students coming in. We think it is very important to know about the people who make up our history.

Workload to complete the project, timetable or schedule of project

What we did first to accomplish our goal is find information about Eisenhower. We wanted to find information on him that young students would be interested in. In the history books that I own I found information about his policies and governmental achievements. We did not think that young students would be interested in this aspect of Eisenhower. So we searched different web-sites to find simpler and exciting information about him. I found information on www. ******* that was exactly what we were looking for. The facts were clearly stated, and detailed information followed that we could easily summerize. Fun facts that we found on Eisenhower would be that he played college football, and was a great player. He also would have been an all-American if he would not have gotten injured. The injury forfeited his chances of continuing his college football career. Overall, finding this information took about one to one and a half hours. With this information, we compiled simple facts and brief history and made a pamphlet about Dwight D. Eisenhower. First, we had to type the information and set the font and size of text to correspond with the amount of space that would be available. Next, we cut out the text and placed it on a make shift pamphlet, strategically placing the information where it would fit best. After trial and error, the text was finally taped into place ready to be copied. Making the copy was the final step. Although it took a few tries, we finally got a copy that was worth keeping. The pamphlet took about six hours to complete. We then sent a copy of the pamphlet to Linda Bryant, so she has it on hand to give to the students.

Technology-related resources or applications

We used the internet as our prime source of information. After obtaining the information, we used the WordPerfect program to type, cut and paste information.

Connections to other service learning projects

The simple pamphlet could be turned into a power point presentation to accommodate a larger audience. If we were to give a presentation at the school about Eisenhower, power point would be the most effective. The pamphelt could be easily transformed into a power point presentation because the information is already typed, it would be a process of cutting and pasting the information into the presentation. It would be visually stimulating if pictures were added, and possibly a soundtrack. Creating a power point presentation would take an estimated five hours, depending on the experience of the person putting the presentation together.

Creating a web-site would be another technological related resource that would benefit Dwight D. Eisenhower Jr. High. The jr. high already has a web-site, so there could be a link to our web-site that would give the information that is available in the pamphlet. Creating the web-site might be time consuming, but useful to the students. Also on the web-site could be links to more information about Dwight D. Eisenhower. More in-depth information, such information from books and other encyclopedia web-sites. We could include our email addresses so students could email us with any further questions regarding Eisenhower, or other presidents. The web-site could be expanded to include all the United States Presidents, and short biographies on each one. All the United States Presidents are important. Teachers could implement the web-site into classroom curriculum, letting the students search the site for information on different presidents. The web-site could include educational games that deal with United States Presidents. Interactive learning is growing in popularity because students can see the information, and this aids in learning and retention.

Implementing student to student teaching is also another idea for service learning. As the seventh graders turn into ninth graders, they would teach the new seventh graders about Dwight D. Eisenhower. Then the ninth graders have the opportunity to teach what they have learned about Eisenhower to the seventh graders. This process gives students the opportunity to teach one another.

Anything else relevant to the project

Eisenhower was not just a president there were many things that he accomplished in his life that really got him ready to take the oath of president. First a look at his childhood and the early years of the Army can prove this point. Next a look at all the things he accomplished when he went to war for the United States show his real character. Lastly a look at the major things he was able to do while in the oval office.

Eisenhower was born on October 14, 1890, in Denison, Texas, to Davis and Ida Stover Eisenhower. Something interesting was that Dwight was one of six boys in the Eisenhower family, each of the six sons achieved success, despite the being raised on no more income than 100$ a month from his fathers work at the creamery. One thing that the Eisenhower’s encouraged their boys, was the importance of being independent as well as self-reliant. In looking at an older Dwight he carried this message from his parents all the way through the rest of his life. Dwight was not the stand out person in the classroom, that he was on the football field. Dwight had a love of football and a craving for the athletic competition that came along with it. After graduating from high school Dwight decided to go into the U.S. Navel Academy, not just for the free education, but also the opportunity to play football once again. After finding out he was to old to go to that school he later went to the Military Academy at West Point. After graduating from college 61^st in a class of 164 Eisenhower would meet the love of his life, Mamie Geneva Doud, and married her on July 1, 1916.

The military career of Dwight is a great indication as to the kind of president he would later become. In 1917 he was promoted to captain. He wanted to go to France to lead men into battle, but the Army could not let go one of their most outstanding instructors and trainers of men. Because of the lack of action that he would see he lost a taste for the Army until he meet Gen. Fox Conner, who taught him all about the rules of war. This struck the fire back in his soul, with the idea that a worldwide war was just around the corner. After years of being stuck behind a desk George Marshall, the Army chief of staff, decided in March of 1942 to make Dwight a major general and head of the Operations Division. In June he added another star and sent Dwight to London to take command of the U.S. forces in the European Theater of Operations. Dwight now had the position of action that he was looking for his who career, and he thrived and excelled at this appointment. Dwight was one of the few generals to ever command major navel forces; he directed the world’s greatest air force; he is the only man ever to command successfully an integrated, multinational alliance of ground, sea, and air forces. He led the assault on the french coast at Normandy, on June 6, 1944. Dwight was also the first man to ever command a large, peacetime multinational force. Therefor proving that he had so much more to offer to the Army then his brilliance in book work, his credentials in the field can hold up for their selves. His genius is said to lay in the getting people of diverse background to work together toward a common objective, but he was equally skillful as a strategist and administrator.

When Dwight became NATO commander, representatives of both the major political parties started to query him about the election in 1952, but the Democrats would back off when he declared to be Republican, because he believed that Democratic policies were promoting centralized government at the expense of individual liberty. After Eisenhower won the party delegation he would quickly ask Richard M. Nixon to be his running mate for the presidential election. He easily defeated his opponent with a margin of 442 votes to 89 in the electoral college. Eisenhower brought to the presidency both the assets and limitations of a military background, a talent for administrative efficiency qualified by a deficient background in national problems outside the sphere of foreign relations. Eisenhower was a strong believed that most of the major problems in the country would be better solved at the local level instead of the national, therefor he did not bother himself with trying to tackle major problems. This made some people come to the conclusion that he was not a president of action, but one of words. Eisenhower took three years to balance the budget, and his victory was illusory because mounting expenditures for foreign aid and defense soon produced a new deficit. The Supreme Court would come to Eisenhower with another problem in May 1954 by declaring segregation in public schools unconstitutional. Eisenhower would be reelected in the 1956 campaign, winning 457 of the electoral votes while his opponent would win only 73. During his second term Eisenhower was faced with more complications following the segregated school decision. He was forced to act when an angry mob obstructed token integration of a high school in Little Rock, Ark, in 1957. Eisenhower had to dispatch military units to Little Rock and took care of the problem by using their bayonets. This has to be the one action that most Americans remember Eisenhower for, as the images were shown on television, as well as today in documentary films about the era.

Soon after Eisenhower retired from the political path of life he would have a serious heart attack in August 1965 ending even any active part he would think of taking in politics. He died on March 28, 1969, and was buried at Abilene, Kans.

Eisenhower was president at a time when the nation was in a state of turmoil with the civil rights movement right around the corner. He had to make some big decisions, maybe not about war or anything like that, but about the future of this nation, living in peace with one another. If he didn’t take action that day in Little Rock who knows what the nation would be like today. A great military leader as well as a great president could be some of the things to be said about the man, Dwight D. Eisenhower.