Is it because, as “America’s DaVinci”, his astonishingly broad resume of accomplishments includes inventions as disparate as bifocals and odometers to careers as dissimilar as Postmaster General and foreign diplomat? Is it because his sense of humor spans the centuries and makes him seem like that funny uncle who makes us laugh? After all, there is a reason for the rumor that the Founding Fathers didn’t want Franklin to write the Declaration of Independence because they were

Before launching into a year of American Literature in my Worldview English classroom, I marinated my students in poetry from The Valley...