Stevenson for president

“America needs Stevenson for president” is currently what all of history and AP government teacher Benjamin Stevenson’s classes are talking about. Starting as a simple joke on the board, the phrase was soon put on the AP government’s T-shirts.

“One of the students in my AP government class asked if they were going to get shirts for the AP exam. This is the first time I have taught AP, so I guess in the past they have done this for other AP classes,” Stevenson said.

After the class decided they wanted a T-shirt for the AP exam, Stevenson said if they wanted one then they will pick a phrase to place on the shirt. After multiple phrases filled the board, one caught the eyes of students.

“I started throwing some stuff on [the board] for them to choose from and jokingly, I showed them that in 1952, the Democratic presidential candidate was a man by the name of Adlai Stevenson and his running mate was John Sparkman who this school is named after,” Stevenson said.

Seeing the history that connected the phrase back to the school, the class chose an actual campaign pin from 1952. Students have already taken to wearing their AP government T-shirts.

“[The phrase] has a history and background to it and the vice presidential candidate was John Sparkman, so that is cool too,” Stevenson said.