Bidens visit DC students on first day of school
President Biden and first lady Jill Biden greeted Washington, D.C. middle schoolers on their first day of school on Monday.
The president went to Eliot-Hine Middle School in northeast D.C. and met with seventh and eighth graders.
“This is like the Beatles,” one staff member at the school said when the Bidens arrived.
They first met with seventh graders during their lunch. The Bidens stood at the bottom of a stairwell and shook hands with students as they flooded down on their way to the lunch room.
The Bidens then spoke in front of an eighth grade math class. The president walked around the classroom and greeted individual students at their desks, hugging one student and talking to another about becoming president someday.
“Joe Biden!” one student said when he entered the classroom.
Biden told the students that he thought “the hardest thing is to come back after three months of not doing anything and no homework” and getting thrown back in classwork.
He asked the students, “What’s your hardest subject?” and they replied, “math.”
“I married a teacher,” Biden said. The first lady told the students that her first day back teaching at Northern Virginia Community College is next Tuesday and that she is working on her lesson plans.
The first lady also told the students that if they are struggling with math, “you know you can go to your teacher” and if they are “struggling at home,” “you can trust your teachers.”
The first lady will participate in more back-to-school events this week, along with Education Sec. Miguel Cardona, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Monday.
“The administration remains committed to supporting schools and the communities they serve,” Jean-Pierre said.
Cardona last week announced a "Back to School Bus Tour" set to begin next week in Kansas.