Get the feedMaking an impact, getting a B
Friday, Jul 03rd 2009
Did you know that our current flag is the result of a seventeen year old kid’s design? This is the perfect weekend to teach your kids a wonderful, but little known story about the American flag. According to, “The History of Things”:
In 1912 an executive order from President Taft had fixed dimensions of the flag and decided that the stars were to be arranged in 6 rows of 8 columns with each star positioned so that one point always faced the top edge of the flag, but President Taft’s arrangement wouldn’t have allowed the inclusion of Alaska and Hawaii under the original rule set out from 1818 that each state should be represented by a single star in the canton. In the event the Army Institute of Heraldry, who are the keepers of the design and arbiters of its use decided on the current layout of 9 rows of 6 and 5 alternating columns.
An amusing story from the time was that a young man of 17 from Lancaster, Ohio took part in redesigning the US flag as a school project. Robert Heft painstakingly removed the 48 stars from an existing flag then made 100 new stars which he ironed onto the flag front and reverse in a pattern identical to the one eventually chosen. His teacher Stanley Pratt awarded Heft a B grade for the project, unfortunately Heft was no seamstress, but under discussion an agreement was reached that if Congress chose Heft’s design his grade would be upgraded. Before the high school year was out Alaska and Hawaii had joined the Union and President Eisenhower announced the new flag design. To Stanley Pratt’s credit he kept his word and Robert Heft was awarded an A.
(Plus, it is a little gratifying to know that teachers sometimes get it wrong.)
Have a great Fourth of July weekend!
Nancy French
Nancy French is an author, commentator, and mother. Her next book, about the year her husband spent in Iraq is due out July 4, 2011. Connect with her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/NancyAndersonFrench and follow her on Twitter at https://twitter.com/nancyafrench.
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