Washington, Clinton, Obama … and truth ~ By Pat Boone

By Pat Boone Posted: June 20, 2009 1:00 am Eastern © 2009 I doubt it's ever taught in school today – seems the NEA has different ideas about what our kids need to know. But most adults over 40 surely are familiar with the story told of young George Washington, who'd been given a small hatchet for his birthday. So, eager to try it out, the boy looked for something on which he could use his new hatchet. And he found it – a little cherry tree. When his father found that a perfectly good cherry tree had been destroyed, he asked George if he knew what had happened. "Father, I cannot tell a lie," said the future first president of the United States of America, "I did it." An insignificant story, perhaps, just a little morality tale for kids. No one today can verify whether it actually happened or not. I, for one, believe it did, mainly because of its apparent insignificance. If there weren't in fact a basis for the story, who would make it up? Surely a fableist would conjure up something more dramatic than a little boy cutting down a cherry tree with his new hatchet. But what makes it significant is that it underscores, from a very early age, the character of the man who became our first president – and a role model for all who would follow him into that office. Throughout his distinguished military career, his political leadership and his virtually unanimously elected two terms as president of the United States, his honesty was never questioned. In fact, his admiring friend Thomas Jefferson wrote about George Washington: "His integrity was the most pure, his justice the most inflexible I have ever known. He was, in every sense of the word, a wise, a good, and a great man." Is it any wonder, then, that for nearly 200 years, parents and teachers have pointed to the man we call "the father of our country" as an example for our kids to emulate? That, too, makes the story of the apple tree meaningful and important; children from their earliest years can understand the moral and learn a valuable lesson. [CONTINUE READING]

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