Dr./First Lady Jill Biden is a union worker. Imagine showing up to class and watching your professor arrive in the presidential motorcade and a “phalanx” of Secret Service agents in hand. When she was Second Lady and President Joe Biden was the vice president, many of her students did not put together that she was that Dr. Biden.
She is also a trailblazer as the very first woman to hold down a full-time job. And that is aside from her White House duties as the First Lady.
Host of CBS’ Sunday Morning Jane Pauley described her as a combination of “grace and grit.” One educational leader said according to The Independent, that by returning to in-person teaching:
‘[She is] shattering the norms of what first ladies do.’
Tuesday morning she was descending from the Marine One helicopter with President Biden to view all the damage wrought by Hurricane Ida in New Jersey and New York. A couple of weeks ago, she was at the Olympics in Japan. representing America.
This week Dr. Biden, 70, heads back to her regular gig, teaching at the Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) after teaching classes remotely for over a year since the start of the pandemic:
‘Teaching isn’t just what I do. It’s who I am.’
President Joe Biden told teachers attending the NEA’s annual meeting about Dr. Biden learning the ins and outs of teaching online:
‘It gave me an appreciation firsthand that I thought I had, but I wouldn’t have had had I not seen it. And then going out and teaching – she was working four or five hours a day, getting ready to teach, putting her lesson plans together… a different way.’
Dr. Biden will teach the English Composition Readiness II course for students who need extra writing help. NOVA’s Dean of Liberal Arts, Jimmie McClellan, told the Washington Post that Dr. Biden has been teaching some version of her course since she began teaching there in 2009:
‘All 18 slots in her morning section of College Composition I, which teaches students how to write academic essays, are filled already. Her courses will be combined with English Composition Readiness II for students who need a little extra writing help.’
‘There are some things you just can’t replace, and I can’t wait to get back in the classroom.’
President of the National Education Association (NEA), Becky Pringle, told the AP:
‘She sees it up close and personally and now, in the position as first lady, not only does she give voice to that from a place of understanding, she has an opportunity to create a platform and to have influence.’
‘It shatters the norms of what first ladies do.’
In Virginia, all teachers will wear a mask in the classroom even though they are vaccinated against the coronavirus. But Dr. Biden tries to keep politics out of the classroom. Previously:
‘Secret Service agents accompanied her for security, but she had them dress casuallyand tote backpacks in an attempt to blend into the campus environment.’
A year after she started dating the president and then-senator, she started teaching in 1976. Since then, she has accumulated two master’s degrees and a doctorate in education leadership. How appropriate.
Featured image is a screenshot via YouTube.
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