This morning I was in a Northern Virginia grocery store and while waiting in line struck up a conversation with a little girl and her mother. The girl looked as if she might be in first or second grade.
“Did you enjoy all the time off from the snow?” I asked the little girl.
“Yes,” she nodded.
“And now you have today off, too.” I said.
“It’s Presidents Day,” chimed in her mother.
I then asked the little girl if she knew who the first president was.
Without hesitation, she said, “Obama.”
“No, honey,” I said, “It was George Washington.” The little girl looked puzzled and then her mother said, “You learn something new every day.”
That could be interpreted as the mother instructing her daughter, or maybe the mother didn’t know the name of the first president either.
To my eyes, this mother appeared committed to public education, but even these schools should be teaching about our first president, shouldn’t they?
Cal Thomas is America’s most widely syndicated newspaper columnist and a Fox News contributor.
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