Can You Name All the Presidents in Order? These Kids Can

Quick: Can you correctly name all the U.S. presidents by last name in order? Backwards? And with major distractions?

Andrew, Bryan, Marcia, William and Jay showed us that they can do it, under pressure and timed too on Monday, because it simply seemed an appropriate way to honor the U.S. leaders from Washington to Obama on Presidents Day.

Don’t think for a minute it was easy. Although for a couple of the kids that was all it took. And their methods were a tad unusual. Five-year-old William recited the names while jumping on a trampoline.

Bryan stepped up, seemingly determined. “With the distractions, that was my poker face,” said the 14-year-old student at Learning Rx on Morris Turnpike in Short Hills. “To tell you the truth, I was panicking.”

Theses students know their presidents, but they’re not genius kids. In fact, they’ll tell you they struggle in school and have a hard time staying focused.

They learned the presidents as part of cognitive skills training at , a locally-owned brain training center that helps people grow smarter, faster, more efficient brains, said Tiffany Smookler, the assistant director of Learning Rx of Short Hills.

The training center has a new site in Livingston on Northfield Road, where 11-year-old Andrew attends classes. “I can recite all 44 presidents in 17 seconds,” he said. He did just that to win a medal.

Learning the presidents was a visualization game for these students, not a history lesson. Andrew said he learned to recite them by studying drawings and making connections. It may seem funny, but President William McKinley, for example, was a Big Mac with a king’s crown.

It’s just one type of exercise that Andrew said he is working on to be better focused in school. He enjoys science and building and engineering. He plays the alto saxophone and some of his favorite exercises to improve his processing speed and memory make use of rhythm and beats.

This type of training has already changed the lives of thousands of people, and not just kids who struggle in school, Smookler said. “Our soldiers are using it to overcome traumatic brain injuries, seniors use it to slow age-related mental decline, and college prospects train their brains to get better opportunities.”

LearningRx graduates see average gains of more than four academic years across nine cognitive learning areas, Smookler said. Many no longer need medication like Ritalin for ADHD. Some shake labels like “learning disabled.” Others are able to “cure” their dyslexia. All are able to learn easier and have more self-esteem and confidence.   

“Compared to all that, being able to recite the presidents seems inconsequential, but for the kids and their parents, it’s a symbolic show of how far they’ve come,” Smookler said.