Presidents and civics

The portraits on a classroom wall made the office look continuous, even in years when the country was not. Coins and bills repeated the lesson until a face and a denomination were the same man without anyone having to say so.

This quiz is civics for people who already live here. It is not a citizenship exam and it is not a campaign. The questions ask how the office works, how the chambers of Congress differ in their design, what kind of list the Bill of Rights is, and which historical presidents became shorthand for a long crisis or a large public project. The stories are already long in the past. You will not be quizzed on a current election. Those answers go stale, and they start arguments a trivia sitting does not need.

A few questions are here because symbols and numbering are easy to tangle, and pleasant to have straight. The notes stay with the office itself: how a branch is supposed to work, what a requirement actually says, and which custom is older than the clause people think it comes from.

The White House stands in Washington, D.C., and the district is not inside any state. Inauguration day was once March 4. Since the 20th Amendment took effect, it has been January 20, which shortened the long wait between election and the start of the term. The president's Cabinet is a tradition of advisors. The Constitution never uses that word for them. Customs and clauses are both part of the job, and this page tries to keep them distinct.

The tone is meant to be fair to more than one party and more than one region. Structure first, then the symbols, then a few lives that illustrate the office. If you would rather walk the timeline, American history is the paired set. Around the states is the map that goes with both.