Gore's School Daze
Vice President Al Gore is reliving those dear old school days.
For the second time this week, he descended on a public school to spend the day observing, meeting, talking, teaching and shaking hands.
Thursday's venue was the Marie G. Davis Middle School in Charlotte, North Carolina. It's a magnet school with 734 students - "a very successful school in an urban environment," said school counselor Janani Lakshmanan. Persistent, pouring rain scotched a few of the Vice President's events, but didn't dampen enthusiasm for the visit.
The students are "either very excited, or else very nonchalant - you know, 'It's not a big deal,'" said Melinda Caouette, a teacher. "It's very educational for the kids, and for myself." She said this before the press corps tramped mud in and out of schoolrooms, exchanging bemused stares with the children and waiting for Gore to congratulate the kids on their work.
"I know it's hard to get you to focus on this," sighed Janine Chidwick, the 8th grade art teacher, as she implored her class to concentrate on their self-portraits and color values. Gore resisted the cheap chance to talk about values and wandered from table to table instead.
In chemistry class, Gore saw students building models out of marshmallows and toothpicks. "I've told the class how smart you are," announced the teacher, Cindy Graves, to Gore and all. "Are you ready to help them?" The vice president gave her a guarded "Yes," and tried to help the kids construct models of water and carbon dioxide molecules out of processed sugar.
This year's battle for the presidency is being fought in America's classrooms. Since both Gore and Texas governor George W. Bush want to be "the education president," they're tripping over themselves to prove their good faith with lots of visits. Bush usually confines himself to a quick classroom drop-by and an assembly speech, but Gore believes in total immersion.
For example, the vice president spent Wednesday night at the home of Laurel Warfield, a 6th grade teacher at the Charlotte school. When Ms. Warfield heard who was coming, "I was really in shock," but concluded she was "honored and excited by the opportunity."
Gore slept in her high school son's bedroom. Did the Warfields make any special preparations for their guest?
"Well, there was the picture of that crazy (basketball star Dennis) Rodman we covered up," Ms. Warfield admitted.
The vice president bounced out of a van and met the school principal just past 7:00 a.m. Thursday morning. The rest of the day was a constant string of meetings and classroom invasions. Gore articulated a bit of policy during the day, telling one attentive group that Bush's policy of vouchers would be a "formula for disaster."
But the school visits are mostly about good pictures (the school band playing Swing Swing Swing as the kids stood and screamed when ore walked into the gym) - and up close and personal chats. Gore listens and says he learns from these school days. Like Hillary Clinton, he's a master at looking interested in the minutiae of running a (insert name of institution here).
The vice president did a bit of teaching as well. Sandy Simpson's history class is studying the Vietnam War, and Gore pitched in.
"It was definitely a policy mistake," said Gore, who served in Vietnam, albeit as an Army journalist.
He said he volunteered anyway because "it was the right thing to do. And if I didn't go, somebody else would have to go in my place." Without mentioning the obvious example of his boss, Gore talked about those who were able to "get out" of the draft and said that while he disagreed with the war, he never regretted having gone there.
The history class was really the only opportunity for students to ask Gore questions - and pretty good ones, too. Earlier, at lunch, a student confidently steered Gore over to a table. And after some giggling and squirming, the group around him fell silent, never taking their eyes off him as he talked with each kid in turn. Other students enviously waited for a chance to see him.
Some students were less impressed. Jonathan Brooks resented the television cameras rolling while he tried to eat lunch. Rodney Hunter confessed he didn't know what the Vice President looked like until today. But Omar Polk knew Gore was running for President, "and he assists Bill Clinton."
Polk himself hopes to be president some day, for a reason that could have come right out of Gore's mouth: "I believe I could change the world in some way."