Blurbs for Presidential Education: Prelude to Power
"Barack Obama's election is a testimonial to the role of family and education in the making of a President. Just as surely, all of Obama's predecessors were the products of their families and educations. We owe a great debt to Barbara J. Olexer, an accomplished author of diverse works, for this well-researched and highly readable account of how early family experiences and formal education combined to create the values and attitudes that enabled Obama's 43 predecessors to reach the Presidency."
Arthur E. Wise, Ph.D.
Immediate Past President,
National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education
“In a fascinating book for young readers and adults alike, Olexer shares intriguing facts about our American Presidents. With a focus on revelations from their childhoods, the author creates an intimate and insightful familiarity for each figure that is seldom provided in other books on the subjects. The readable text should satisfy history buffs and excite others, inspiring all to read more biography. It is both compelling and captivating reading.”
Pauletta B. Bracy, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, School of Library and Information Science
North Carolina Central University
“Thank you for the sample. Please send along 11 more copies so we will have 12. We are opening an inauguration exhibit on January 6th and your books will be perfect.”
Barbara Cellucci
John F. Kennedy Library and Museum
“This remarkable and delightful book deserves to be in every family and school library. It is a great book for parents to read and discuss with their children and it’s a great book for teachers to read and ponder with their classes.
“It is a book hard to put down and one is tempted to read it quickly, yet paradoxically it is a book that cries out for thoughtful reflection by the reader. It is not like fast food. It should, like a fine meal, be savored and enjoyed; not simply devoured.”
David C. Smith, Ph.D.
Dean Emeritus, College of Education
University of Florida
Recommended & Reviewed in “The Mindquest Review of Books,” by Lightword Publishing: “The book ends each narrative with the president’s 25th birthday or highest formal education, including what 8th graders were expected to know (found in the appendix) compared to today’s requirements. The exceptional book belongs in every school, community, and home library.”
“Presidential Education: Prelude to Power is a collection of short histories that contrast the presidential youth over the span of our great nation. We can identify through the rich flavor of the times as to how we as a nation have developed, and what we as a people have lost.
“Barbara Olexer really invokes the human spirit of the men that shaped our nation, giving us insight as to who they really were. The reading of this book provoked profound and memorable dreams.
“I received startling insights that both disillusioned me for some men I had held in high esteem, and raised my respect for others I had held low opinions of….
“As a parent I found this work inspirational.”
Bryan P. Loveness
Milwaukie, Oregon
Educating the Presidents
by Barbara J. Olexer for that purpose.)
In the wake of the recent presidential election, interest in the forty-two men who have held the office runs high. A new book about the presidents has just been released, Presidential Education: Prelude to Power. Written by local author and native Oregonian Barbara J. Olexer, it is an account of the education of each of the boys who grew up to be president, from George Washington through George W. Bush. Knowing that education is comprised of much more than formal schooling, Olexer includes such areas of experience as religious training, military service, sports and hobbies, and parental guidance in each of the forty-two chapters of the book.
All of the presidents were intelligent and interesting boys, says Olexer, and each is unique as to his education. Every one of them wanted a good education but some yearned in vain. It is well known that Abraham Lincoln had very little schooling but it is not so well known that Andrew Johnson had none at all. A number of presidents graduated from Ivy League universities, among them both John Adams and John Quincy Adams, William H. Taft, James Monroe, and Gerald Ford. Several graduated from colleges operated by churches: James Garfield, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan. Ulysses S. Grant and Dwight D. Eisenhower graduated from the Military Academy at West Point and Jimmy Carter graduated from the Naval Academy at Annapolis. Thus far only one, Woodrow Wilson, has received a Ph.D.
Asked for an amusing anecdote, Olexer related how Dwight Eisenhower and his brother Ed, having been sent to take their father’s lunch to him, got so excited by the flooding of Abilene that they forgot all about the lunch. They found a section of broken boardwalk and used it as a raft. They picked up some of their buddies and were having a fine time floating through town and out toward the river. A man on horseback caught them just before the current did, which would have swept them to destruction, and made them go home. As punishment for their irresponsibility, when the flood waters had subsided Ike and Ed had to pump the water out of the cellar, shovel the mud out, and clean everything stored there. It took them most of a week and when they were finished they were asked what they had learned. The reply was immediate and emphatic: “Don’t forget to take Dad his lunch.”
When she was asked which president is her favorite, Olexer replied that Harry Truman takes top honors in her book. Truman, she says, was a practical man. He met problems head on, analyzed them, studied possible solutions, chose the one he thought would work best and promptly implemented it. He was courageous and had great integrity. He was also a fine husband and father. He had a wonderful sense of humor.
George Washington also ranks high with Olexer. He doesn't’t seem to have had much sense of humor, she says, but he was a man of integrity who always did his duty as he saw it. He is the only president who didn't’t want the office. He feared that the presidency would tarnish his reputation as a soldier. He considered it his duty to serve, however, and stuck it out for two terms. Then he asserted his right to pursue happiness in his own way and retired to his beloved Mount Vernon.
Olexer got the idea for the book when she worked at an educational organization in Washington, D.C. Many firms now require that all their employees, including receptionists, hold college degrees. One day it occurred to her that some of our presidents would not be eligible to apply for a position as receptionist. From there she wondered just how the presidents were educated, or not, and commenced to research the question. The research and writing took five years, during most of which time she held a full-time job.
Retired now, Olexer has returned to Oregon, where her sons and grandchildren live. She was born in Klamath Falls and has also lived in Ashland, Wetmore (a logging camp in the Blue Mountains), and Malin. She now lives in Milwaukie and says she is ecstatic to be home again. She has written more than twenty books and screenplays and does not hold a college degree. Her website can be found at www.joyouspub.com.
By
Medford Mail Tribune, November 27, 2008
One never went to school at all, while several others received little more than an elementary-school education.
And only one earned his doctorate.
The education of the 43 presidents of the United States is the focus of Southern Oregon native Barbara Olexer's latest book, "Presidential Education: Prelude to Power."
"I wrote this book because it occurred to me one day that a number of our presidents would not meet minimum requirements to seek a job as a receptionist in these days when many firms require a college degree," said Olexer, 66, who now lives in Milwaukie, a Portland suburb.
"I became interested in exactly how these men had been educated," said the former Ashland resident, who was born in Klamath Falls. "The Founding Fathers did not lay down any educational requirements for the president, nor did they describe the ideal candidate. There is no qualifying exam."
The author of more than 20 books and screenplays, including the nonfiction book, "The Enslavement of the American Indian in Colonial Times," Olexer examined the education of presidents from George Washington to George W. Bush. She hopes to add the education of Barrack Obama, soon to become the 44th president, when the book is updated in a new edition.
After researching the presidents' formal education, she also looked at other educational influences such as parental guidance, travel and military service.
She writes that Andrew Johnson, the president who took office after Lincoln's assassination, never went to school while both Lincoln and Jackson had scant formal education. Woodrow Wilson was the only president with a doctorate, which he earned in political science at Johns Hopkins University in 1886.
"I could not find the correlation," she said, between being a good president and being well-educated. "Some of our greatest presidents — Washington and Lincoln — didn't have degrees.
"Washington rates right up there. He was an extraordinary man and a very good president."
Her personal favorite was Harry Truman, whose formal education included studies at the Kansas City Law School (now the University of Missouri, Kansas City School of Law).
"He was so direct, so up front," said Olexer, who finished the book this past summer after five years of work.
"It was a lot of work, but I enjoyed the research," she said. "These are very interesting guys."
Andrew Johnson may get short shrift in the history books, but she believes he wasn't as bad as his impeachment would indicate.
"Johnson never spent a day in school, but he was a better president than he is given credit for," she said. "They impeached him because he wasn't a hardliner on punishing the South. But he was trying to honor Lincoln's legacy of healing the nation."
In the book, she noted Lincoln's father objected to his reading and studying. He felt it was a waste of time and an indication of one's laziness, she indicated.
A fourth-generation Oregonian whose ancestors followed the Oregon Trail, Olexer has lived throughout Oregon, from Ashland to a logging camp known as Wetmore in Wheeler County. She is retired from the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education in Washington, D.C.
Her education? She is a 1960 graduate of Tulelake High School in far northern California.
"I love to write," she said of her interest in writing books.
Although the official publication of the books is Presidents Day, February 16, 2009, the book now is available for $24.95 through Joyous Publishing and Amazon.com.
For more information, check out www.joyouspub.com.
Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at pfattig@mailtribune.com.
