President Biden surprises a class at a Washington, D.C. public school. pic.twitter.com/ddOlOHILvZ
— The Recount (@therecount) August 28, 2023
“Oh, my God, it’s really you!” shouted a student at Eliot-Hine Middle School in Washington, where President Biden stopped by to mark the new school year. There was so much squealing and excitement that one staffer marveled, “This is like the Beatles.” https://t.co/CFWDVXq7P5
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) August 29, 2023
Somewhere, Peter Baker is shaking his head sadly. These kids aren’t savvy enough to understand that Biden is ‘too old’ and ‘too Democrat’ to be worth covering!… [unpaywalled gift link]
… Biden, accompanied by first lady Jill Biden, first visited the lunchroom — where a big banner touted the school’s valued traits of “excellence, responsibility, integrity and communications.” Then they dropped by an eighth-grade math class at the 300-student campus.
In the classroom, decorated with colorful posters that displayed math symbols and the order of operations, one student proclaimed loudly, “Joe Biden!” The president hugged one excited child and talked about whether she could someday become president.
“The hardest thing is to come back after three months of not doing any work, not doing any homework,” Biden told the students. Their teacher, Heather Thomas, explained that the class would spend the day reviewing concepts from last school year to see what everyone remembered…
Eliot-Hine was chosen for the visit, in part, because it broke trends last year when its students scored higher on a standardized test known as the PARCC exam than they did before the pandemic. Elsewhere in the city, most students saw incremental gains from 2022 — when scores plunged after virtual learning — but have not yet fully recovered to match the scores from 2019.
Children there also outperformed their peers across the city on the reading exam, officials said. City leaders pointed to the school’s participation in high-impact tutoring programs — consistent and small-group instruction — and training for math teachers…
Despite recent successes, the president’s query about the most challenging subject in school was met with a unanimous “math.” English — the subject that Jill Biden teaches at Northern Virginia Community College — received much more enthusiasm.
The first lady will resume teaching Sept. 5, she told the classroom of eighth-graders. “I’ve been working on my lesson plans and what I’m going to do the first day, so I’m excited,” said Jill Biden, who is the first woman in her role to maintain a full-time job outside the White House. “What you probably don’t know about teachers is that no matter how long you’ve been teaching, the night before you can barely sleep because you’re so excited.”…
Something Positive Open Thread: Schoolhouse Joe Rocks!Post + Comments (171)