WATERFORD, Pa. (AP) – Jill Biden sees a learning moment in the depths of the coronavirus pandemic.
The first lady sat in a social circle in the library at Fort LeBoeuf Middle School in Pennsylvania and listened and took notes while parents expressed their relief that the school was reopening and that their children were back in the classroom.
One mother talked about the ‘bumpy spots’ of online learning and said that the reopening was “so for the T” that she did not worry about her son and daughter. Another mother said the district includes parents’ input and that she is comfortable having her children in a ‘safe environment’.
Biden, himself a teacher, praised the small circle of parents, teachers and administrators for working together to reopen Fort LeBoeuf. And she repeated a message she delivered earlier in the day when she visited the Benjamin Franklin Elementary School in Meriden, Connecticut.
‘We’ve been through a lot of hard, hard times, but I think the only good thing about educators that I love – and that includes the cafeteria workers, the bus drivers, the teachers and everyone involved – is that we all learned from this. “Biden said about the pandemic and its emotional, social and human toll.
“We are all going to use everything we have learned and it is going to turn into an opportunity to make things better for students as we move forward,” she said.
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The first lady is apparently planning to give every aspect of her new job an opportunity, as far as it is concerned, especially everything related to her triple passions for education, the fight against cancer and the support of military families.
A few days after she became first lady, Biden told spouses of governors during a virtual meeting in the White House that her new platform ‘is one I will never let go of. ‘
She has long focused on education and has been studying for more than three decades at a high school, a psychiatric hospital and community colleges. She’s still teaching, virtually from the White House, and is looking forward to the day when she can return to the classroom.
Healing her and President Joe Biden can also motivate her.
The couple lost their son Beau to brain cancer in 2015 at age 46. Her parents died of cancer, and one of her sisters underwent a stem cell transplant. Doctors also gave the dreaded breast cancer diagnosis to four of her girlfriends within a period of one year in the 1990s.
The Bidens also plead for service members and their families, an appreciation stemming from serving Beau Biden in the Delaware Army National Guard, including a deployment to Iraq. Jill Biden plans to revive a military family support program she led with former first lady Michelle Obama when Biden’s husband was President Barack Obama’s vice president.
Jill Biden quickly set her agenda as first lady by highlighting all three of her long-running issues in her early weeks.
She was engaged in virtual meetings, taught her community college English class, did official travel, did activities in the Washington area, and settled the family’s dogs in the White House. Even the light blue scrunchie she wore in her hair went viral.
Biden, known for surprises and practical jokes, also plans to inject a bit of liveliness into things as her husband faces troubling crises: she woke him up to show giant hearts that she showed up on the White House lawn on Valentine’s Day.
“She started fast, and I think a very good one,” said Myra Gutin, author of “The President’s Partner: The First Lady in the Twentieth Century.”
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Despite the pandemic, the first lady also has a strong travel schedule.
Her first official outing was to a nonprofit community health center in Washington to highlight services for cancer patients. From there, she made a detour to deliver chocolate cookies in person to the troops of the National Guard. stationed at the American Capitol.
She recently traveled to Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond to visit his Massey Cancer Center, where researchers study the socio-economic and cultural factors that contribute to the difference in cancer outcomes.
The first lady made remarks on Monday during the State Department’s International Women of Courage Awards Virtual Awards before boarding a plane to visit U.S. military installations in Washington and California on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Biden also met virtually with the leaders of teacher unions, the spouses of defense officials and governors, military children and their teachers and cancer researchers among others. She sent advance remarks to several conferences and recorded an advertisement with Champ and Major, the family of German shepherds, urging people to wear face masks.
Tammy Vigil, author of ‘Melania & Michelle: First Ladies in a New Era’, says Biden’s experience as the husband of a longtime US senator and vice president was an asset that helped her quickly put together a staff . She also did not need time to figure out the issues she wanted to focus on.
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There are apparently no incognito worship services for Jill Biden.
Unlike some recent first ladies who tried to hide their identities on unofficial outings in the Washington area, as Michelle Obama once did on a shopping trip to Target, Jill Biden goes out like she does.
Stephen Bota said he knew a VIP visit was in the offing when U.S. Secret Service agents arrived at his DuPont Circle newspaper unannounced at the end of January, but they left him to to guess who it would be. Hours later, Jill Biden walks through the door.
“I was kind of, ‘Oh my God, this is the first lady,'” Bota, a Kenyan immigrant who owns The Newsroom, recalled in an interview. He and his employees – just his wife and sister-in-law – appear in a photo with the first lady now on display in the store.
“I told her we were so grateful she came to see us,” Bota said.
Biden also bought coffee at Brewer’s Cafe in Richmond and treats at The Sweet Lobby on Capitol Hill, both in black ownership. The president, in turn, stopped his highway one Sunday after church for son Hunter Biden to pick up a bagel order.
“She looks more inviting,” Vigil said, noting that everyone can relate to running assignments.
With the purchases, the Bidens appear to be encouraging support for small businesses, which generate the most jobs in the US but are struggling to survive the pandemic.
It seems that they also indicate that they will participate in city life.
Former President Donald Trump is only going to his hotel near the White House or his golf club in northern Virginia. For dinner in a city with a strong restaurant scene, he chose to eat exclusively in the hotel restaurant. His wife, Melania Trump, has kept any outings in the Washington area under the radar in an unofficial capacity.
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After Jill Biden released a photo of herself at The Sweet Lobby’s counter, the boutique bakery was not the only thing that became an instant hit.
The powder blue scrunchie that stops the president’s hair has gone viral.
Biden said she had no idea until the daughter called Ashley to tell her.
“I said, ‘What scrunchie?’ “I did not know what she was talking about,” the president’s wife told talk show host Kelly Clarkson during an interview in the White House. “I still do not understand.”